Ah no they are the levels, so Sudden Strike I = 30%, Sudden Strike II = 60%, Sudden Strike III = 90% etc.

In the game will be shown better, like in Loren

That attack is special because while does less damage (less hp) it drains the enemy SP, so if you use it effectively you can prevent a strong character in the front line from using his/her special attacks which in some cases might be a very good thing!

Ah yes, that's what I have been missing.



BTW: Why is there no direct link from the Forum home to the mystery RPG subforum? You want to keep it more mysterious?

I'll add it once I officially announce it, including the title. All I can tell for now is that there will be the word "Wolf" in the name

I have the kind of feel that I'm cheating on this one, since it's basically Myrth skill tree with the change of the Barbed Spike which does shattered effect instead of Slow:

http://i.imgur.com/h8Fyj6H.png" style="max-width:100%">

...but anyway, in this game condition damage will be much more important (will have bigger impact on the gameplay) so I think it should play different enough!

The Barbarian is done as well:

http://i.imgur.com/JXAunFy.png" style="max-width:100%">

I think this one will be quite interesting to play as well, with the Kick/Pull skill that if used correctly can be very strong! ie. see that annoying sniper in the back row? stagger him and the pull him on the front line (and with some luck he'll be paralyzed for 2 turns) and take care of him

Of course like with Loren, I'll have to adjust something while playtesting the game, since I think maybe I overpowered this class a bit (maybe also because I really like this character in general).

Druid is ok but I hope it'll be more powerful then Myrth since she was seriously underpowered compared to the other mages

Myrth was really useful, as none of the other mages were healers. So either use Elenor/Saren, who should be in the frontline, or use potions. That the healer does not get the extra-mean attacks is OK.



In the new "wolf" RPG there are less chars, so the party will have only one or two mages/druids -> the druids present need to be better allrounders than the ones in Loren.



Question regarding the barbarian: Pull may be used to swap enemies' positions. Will Kick be used for swap position as well, or what happens instead if there is an archer behind the kicked enemy?

About the Druid: the condition damage will be very powerful in this game, so beside having good base damage, when a condition damage trigger will hit the enemy hard As for healing yes, even the Ranger has some basic healing. The only one that doesn't have it is the Thief but he/she can always use potions.

Also, because how the game is set (you play one of the two sibling) if you pick Ranger, your brother/sister will be Druid, and so on. I am even thinking if could be more fun to allow the character creation of both siblings, leaving full freedom to the player? so if you wants you could have two Druids or two Rangers. But maybe is a bit too much freedom, not sure

Question regarding the barbarian: Pull may be used to swap enemies' positions. Will Kick be used for swap position as well, or what happens instead if there is an archer behind the kicked enemy?

Yes they swap places. They're similar, except with Kick you push back the front row character, swapping position with the one in the back row. Pull does the opposite, but works only if the character in the back row is staggered (otherwise would be too simple to pull a weak caster in the front and paralyze him/her).

They are skills that don't do damage, and will probably cost lot of SP, but if used in the right moment might be devastating. At least that's the plan!

awwww the barbarian did not gain adrenaline rush =( tis would have been too funny ^^

Well the fury is similar... doing as you said would have made her too powerful I mean after one hit, hop a super buff? too strong

I meant if the barbarian is hit she (at least you spoiler her gender) gets a bonus on damage :D not if she hits a target.



Memo: train my english to better influence Jack

Yes that's what I meant - since she will be ALWAYS be hit at least once in combat, that skill will always trigger, and I think it would overpower her a bit unless you meant that the effect only last one turn. But I don't want to have "passive skills" in this game. At least for now, I might change things later in the game during testing.

http://i.imgur.com/TGXNFTj.png" style="max-width:100%">

the mercenary skilltree also has some interesting skills. Dirty tricks will be another very powerful skill as long as you can keep the SP up (so SP potions and skills will be very important). Leap attack is also very useful against enemy mages hiding in the back row

http://i.imgur.com/p9p4Z3G.png" style="max-width:100%">

Illusionist class done. As expected, lots of buff/debuff/mind tricks and only Paralyze does some direct damage. Now you see that the Druid is quite a powerful offensive caster after all As always all is work-in-progress and might change from now to the final game release.

How should I understand the abilities "Dirty Tricks" and "Study Opponent"? Is it like the char spends x SP when the ability is chosen, and the round ends now. Next round (until it wears off/is dispelled) it gives bonus damage, and costs more SP in case of DT?

Yes exactly. Like in Loren all the skill have a timer, so even if in those the wait is very short, it cannot be "instant". However you'll be able to move again in most cases before some other enemies (depends on their speed).

By the way I'll have the text checked/proofread but if you have better suggestion on how to write the description of the skills more clearly, I'm all ears

There is a catch: I could provide a more clear description, but it would be a wall of text which noone ever would read. In the short version, I do not see how it could be done better.



Right now, in developer documents, you need to know what is what, and the rest of us will just ask if necessary.

I'll add it once I officially announce it, including the title. All I can tell for now is that there will be the word "Wolf" in the name

What's the timeframe of Mystery Wolf's release?

Tsk you don't read CAREFULLY all my blog posts!

This fall COULD begin the beta testing but all depends on the artist/writer (and my own time) as usual. I even have another dating sim in progress but I don't even want to talk about it until is at good point. I know people are curious but don't want to start talking about a game anymore if I'm not sure it will be out reasonably soon (where soon=within the next 10-12 months! ).

Without costs it's pretty hard to do analyses...assumption is that version 1/2/3 all have the same time/SP cost.



As a general note this probably makes almost all of the active abilities scale too well. Even if abilities have scaling costs, it'll be quite difficult to balance to make anything besides (take 1 point) or (max first) to be a relevant choice.



Illusionist:



Slumber - this is a pretty nice debuff, though I would suggest making it scale against duration rather than effect. Something like a 2/3/4 or 3/5/7 would be a pretty nice progression.

Vigor - Seems reasonable, though without knowing cost/pool scaling it's hard to judge if percentage based is the right way to go.

Ghost Form - would keep attack debuff constant (50%?) or more likely have it go down with scaling, unless you are looking for lower levels to be more useful than higher level at times. Something like 300% defense always (or something like 300%/350%/400%) with attack scaling of (75%/50%/33%), making it always a good emergency defense, but more widely usable with higher rank.

Paralyze - Personally, I really hate RNG status effects; I'd say make the paralyze effect 100%, and just scale damage. Scaling damage alone still makes it worthwhile assuming the time cost doesn't go up, since you are effectively getting the bonus for free. I'd suggest making the scaling somewhat bigger, however (50%/100%/150%, perhaps). The actual values would have to balanced depending on how hard it'll be to apply staggered; this should compare favorably to Slumber against non-bosses (since Slumber is usable against bosses, presumably). Overall though this is a pretty weak effect, since it's unclear how often you'll really keep a minion around for 3 turns after it's been a) staggered and b) hit with this.

Haste - Again would scale based on duration rather than effect.



Mercenary:



Rally: Again, I would choose to scale duration for buffs. The Rally bonus is pretty small and should last a fair while - you're giving up an attack to do this, so unless the debuff duration reduction is what you're actually going for, the damage buff should be comparable to your lost attack. May also scale the debuff reduction too; for Rally duration alone seems insufficient since it's dual-effect. Alternatively, increase the types of debuffs with scaling.

Dirty Tricks: This sounds ridiculously overpowered; +150% would mean 2.5x damage, presumably? Something like 30%/40%/50% is probably more than sufficient (depends a bit on duration vs. activation time). It's little unclear why this has a cost per round instead of just a cost, and then a buff; mechanically it feels essentially identical. FWIW, as with most buffs, I would recommend scaling the duration if ability costs/times aren't going to scale.

Study Opponent: Sounds like it's in the same design space as Dirty Tricks. Also unclear if it's multiplicative, or if Study+Dirty (Sturdy?) will really result in 8.75x damage. This is dangerous because this is almost like giving 6 (or maybe 9) ranks of scaling Dirty Tricks. This feels like it should be replaced with something else (maybe a useful-against-boss type active, to go with the mage-removal and minion-removal, like a DoT-applying attack).

Leap Attack: Unclear how easy it'll be to stagger someone in the back row, and if you can stagger someone in the back row, why you really need other sources of hitting that person. Also, still dislike RNG status effects...scaling duration on confuse would probably make more sense (1/2/3). In that case I'm not sure this really needs a damage scaling as well given that you're already getting a bonus from 0% - since you can't attack the back row otherwise. Model might make more sense if it involves leaping over a staggered person in the *front* row (or an empty spot).

Final Blow: Still dislike RNG status effects...I'm not sure why this can't just be an instant kill that improves % health threshold. Should hit, then check threshold (not sure if that's the intended design) so that weaker enemies still are more easily affected. Critting feels rather unnecessary, and has potential to scale too well with all of the damage buffs in this tree already.