Continuing on, I've recently coded and implemented a big change to the way equipment works:
- Equipment cannot be changed during battle
- Equipment that casts a spell can only be used in this way while equipped
- Spells cast from enchanted equipment (or items!) do not benefit from the user's Intelligence
This has a big impact on the way enchanted equipment is used - instead of anybody being able to use anything anytime, you have to be able to equip the piece and give up the appropriate equipment slot for it, so making use of a Healing Helm means a Knight or Ninja is going to miss out on a Ribbon. Preventing midbattle equipment swaps goes hand in hand with this design and eliminates the temptation to micromanage your weapons and armor each turn for the precisely optimal setup at that moment. Instead, equipment decisions must be committed to before battle begins, and using enchanted equipment becomes a more serious choice. In lieu of a more extreme reworking of how the inventory works, I like this system.
And since I still feel like writing, some thoughts on stat design - namely, the primary statistics Strength, Stamina, Agility, Intelligence and Luck. My philosophy with FF1 is that each stat should serve either one specific purpose or a few smaller ones; characters already have their levels classes, equipment and spell choices to set each other apart and define their power levels. With that in mind, here's how I'm thinking the primary stats should operate:
StrengthInfluences physical attack power:- Unarmed Master: ATK = STR + LVL/2
- Unarmed other classes: ATK = STR/2 + LVL/2
- Armed characters: Adds STR/2 to Attack
Strength does one thing and one thing only, which is just fine by me. It might be nice if Strength points above a given cutoff had a greater effect on your Attack (eg if you have more than 50 Strength, you add [STR-25] to Attack). A more radical alternative would be to make Strength influence a character's number of strikes instead of attack power, but I'm fine with the system I have.
StaminaAdds STA/4 to maximum HP on level-upDetermines Master defense, Monk unarmored defenseAlso pretty simple; the way it works for the Master is that his Defense is equal to STA/2, regardless of any equipped armor - he just ignores their defense values. Still, I don't like how Stamina only has a marginal, out-of-combat use for other classes. One idea I have to make Stamina more valuable generally is to allow it to mitigate a character's chance of being inflicted with a status ailment from a monster's physical attack, where:
Current: M = RES
Proposed: M = STA + RES/4This makes the Master uniquely resistant to status attacks while still leaving him vulnerable to the effects of spells.
AgilityAdds to EvadeLeader's Agility slightly influences chance of an Ambush/Normal/Preemptive Strike random battleInfluences turn order:Priority = random number from (AGL/4..AGL+10); units with higher priority go earlier in a turn
This turn order formula is, btw, an edit of the vanilla formula of rand(AGL..AGL+50).Vanilla Dawn of Souls makes Agility do even more things than this, but I'm still wondering if Agility is involved in too many formulas; I might like to make Evade based solely on your class (possibly with a level component) and equipment weight. What do you all think?
IntelligenceIncreases power of damage and healing spells (rough formula is Damage = X + (INT*Y)/4 before defensive modifiers)Increases accuracy of indirect spells like Slow and HoldI'm continually indecisive over whether to make INT continue to directly affect spell damage, or to use an NES-like formula where damaging spells have an accuracy roll and deal double damage on a 'hit'. Otherwise Intelligence is right where I like it.
LuckInfluences success rate of Flee commandAdds a little bonus damage to damage spellsTarget's Luck influences amount of HP restored by healing magicLeader's Luck slightly influences chance of an Ambush/Normal/Preemptive Strike random battleCannot be modified by equipmentLuck does a lot of little things, but apart from maybe removing its bonus to attack spell damage I think that's acceptable. The main thing is the chance to run away; everything else is just a bonus. Dawn of Souls normally makes your chance to run based on Agility, Intelligence and Luck, but I think it's much more sensible to base it just on Luck; Agility already helps you out by letting a character try running earlier on in a round anyway.
