I started a second playthrough on the thought that you'll be receiving another Job Card from Jinn, but I'll be sticking with the Ninja this run. I think I have a plan to make short work of Shiva without magic...
The first area was rather easy, no additional grinding so the enemies didn't boost their own stats accordingly.
I bought two FireClaws, 10 Fire Darts, and went on.
So I happened to go to Mt. Ordeals without talking to Palom and Porom to see what would happen and I like that wind-blowing back effect even the blur when you hit the side. Good work! If it were the original FFIV I'm sure it would have been a text box that said "The wind is blowing too strong to proceed."
Finally caught a Chocobo! Well... it's a Chocobo, but now I can report back to the Big Chocobo to see what happens.
Ah? Something about "keeping better company?" Is this for a sidequest, perhaps? And what are the specifics of it? "Company it keeps" seems a bit vague...
Hmm, does the Raven have high Physical Evasion? I noticed that my x4 Multipliers only seemed to be dealing anywhere from 40-80 damage to it? Maybe he just had really high Defense but when the Black Mage used Aim on it, it dealt the appropriate 60-70 damage. Interesting incentive for their inclusion in that fight then by the way. Or is he resistant to Fire? If so, smart move since mostly everything on the mountain is weak to Fire (aside from Spirit/Souls)
Ah, hey. Spirit/Souls drop Fire Darts, neat!
Uh... when Blank reached Level 17 he gained like... 300 HP, was that intended? Also... the Exp to his next level is 90200. I think you may have forgotten to change that from a default setting, or something?
Hmm, just noticed in the 7th Station of Mt. Ordeals there's a random floating tile sprite in the upper right corner of the map.
Also I take it there's no way to get that treasure? Or... would you have to wait to defeat Indra and Shiva to get said treasure? (Which means never activating the boulder falling event in the first place?)
I'll check that out on my White Mage run so don't spoil it for me please, hehe.
I would love to know the ASM you used to display the optional party member.
Oh... Oh, if you go to fight them with just Edge alone it's only Indra (throws the FireClaws away) Welp, that was a waste, I may need to descend the mountains to pick up some more effective weapons.
Creams dealt with, with a Firebomb.
...Fire Darts deal 1 damage to Indra.
Uh... Thunder deals 500-700 damage to the Party, I guess I better get that Coral Ring, eh?
Ah, Gravirty from Lilith, eh? A nice touch. A Dark Spell for a normally dark oriented creature. Bizarrely though outside of Float no enemy has inflicted any status yet.
BUG: Before I forget Bats use Drain on themselves, resulting in... nothing. I think you meant to switch the targeting.
Oh hey! The Coral Ring raises Agility by 3! Very nice! (Lightning-Fast, yeah I see where you were going with that)
Most importantly though it gives Blank that crucial 16 Agility to get him a 4th Attack Multiplier (granted the Stealth Knives could do that as well) It also raises Evasion by 10 and gives more defense than the IronRing a superior item in all respects.
Furio's Level 17 works correctly thankfully.
Ah, the Rings give you Elemental Absorption, yeah Indra's not even going to stand a chance.
Interestingly when you fight him alone he's the one with very high Physical Defense, for this run I'll have to pool my weapons onto just one Ninja. His damage jumps from 15-40 to 100-170.
A Cure1 for beating Indra, haha! Is that a bit of a mistake?
I love this scene or Palom and Porom reprimanding Furio for going against orders and even to accompany him back to Edge.
But... that appears to be the end of the demo. I now have two save files with both paths taken and very different party makeup and set-up. This game has good versatility!
Re:cheating the average party level down... I guess you're right, but bosses' levels never decrease, so the hope is that in the end, the player finds it more advantageous to have a living mercenary on the team. Also, remember that exp take is also affected by the adjustment. But hey, if you find ways to exploit loopholes in the system... Power to you. I for one have abused the hell out of the vanish/x-zone trick in ffvi.
Ah, I had forgotten that you prevent bosses from ever decreasing. I remember now that was one of the hallmarks of the newer version.
The Raven miniboss is a bit of a WIP. Eventually, I will settle on an idea for a readily a available float-cancelling item or spell. As an offensive tool, it will make floating things vulnerable to quake, and as a defensive tool it will protect floating things from air elemental attacks. Whatever I finally decide on for this will be available to the player by this point, and Raven's Quake will sort of be a punishment for using it.
I thought that Float was going to let Aero deal more damage to me (sort of a double combo for what I imagine will be a Blue Magic and Float will be a White Magic)
I keep edging the Ordeals monsters' difficulty down, but I don't want to go too far. The problem you had with your resources being drained by the time you got to the top is exactly the plan. The fight with Shiva and Indra isn't extremely difficult, but is made more so if you are low on reserves. In a way, this kind of mirrors the villains' plot to take down Mysidia.
Believe me they are Perfect where they are, a less than prepared person will face some difficulty, but if they come in with their wits about them they should be able to take advantage of a party's innate abilities to deal with it (Ninja - FireClaw, Black Mage - FlameRod/Fire1, White Mage - White Arrows). So you set it up perfectly!
Shiva is indeed just a recolored dancer, but her palette is custom made. Indra is a modified (Mysidian) Elder, also with a custom palette.
What did you think of that battle? Seems like maybe it was a bit too easy for you?
If the player kills Indra first, the battle with Shiva is supposed to be pretty punishing... Possibly impossible. But I don't want the alternative to be a complete snap, either. I thought it was kind of a fun idea that when you attack Indra, he counters by buffering Shiva, thus making it harder to knock her off. Maybe what I should do is actually make her mostly dormant unless Indra is killed first, and make Indra's attacks hit a bit harder, so she seems like the less imposing of the two until it's too late?
Also, regarding the "storm raging," this only occurs after Shiva is killed, and depending on how long it takes to kill her, the storm can rage harder. Indra's normal AI routine is pretty long and sets a flag at the end. If, when Shiva is killed, that flag is set, the "storm raging" casts twice as many lit-1 spells before lit-2. You'll know you've reached the end of his cycle if he casts White Wind (which also makes things tougher, because unless you're attacking him instead of Shiva, it will restore both of them to full HP).
Indra, because of his magic immunity-ish is very difficult to take down whereas Shiva is obviously weak to Fire, so several Fire2's and she's down. I'm not sure how viable defeating Indra before Shiva really is. I'll try it in my next go around with the White Mage though, then I'll give you my thoughts on it. I did not see him reach the end of his cycle though since he never cast White Wind.
Also, challenging the Eidolons without Palom and Porom leads to an entirely different battle, as well as entirely different scenes. This is the first of what I have been calling "epic choices." Whether you report back to P/P before or after challenging the Eidolons not only impacts how that scene plays out, but also creates ripples, the effects of which will be felt later.
I'm particularly interested in what you think about the difficulty balance. I don't want it to be as hard as Combat Boost on the whole, but I don't want it to be "Easy Type" either. Are there ways you can think of to make the overall challenge more uniform?
I'm really happy with the way the "mysterious figure talking to Indra" scene came out, but I am wary of telling too much with it. I may take out the lightning flash at the end of the scene. What I want is for observant, seasoned FFIV fans to see that it is definitely a member of the Harvey family (but which one?...), but it will play just as well to people who don't notice the character's shape.
Ah, I didn't even noticed the lightning flash revealing anything really. And I like to think I'm rather observant.
The difficulty for the most part is perfect for the point in the game. The four mini-bosses in Agart can be tricky, without knowing how to deal with Jinn he is rather difficult. The normal enemies on the World Map though, aside from the Old Trees seem like fodder, but that may be the intention. Mt. Ordeals is a great step up and shows just what's in store. The Elemental Rings though may make it a bit too easy though as fighting Indra alone with two Coral Rings was a belated conclusion.
I'm a little worried about the prospect of giving this project too much exposure too early on. The going, as you know, is pretty slow. If it's well received, then I feel like there might be a lot of pressure to crank more game out, and I don't want to sacrifice quality.
I was thinking once what you've seen so far is all polished up, I would start a thread in RHDN's personal projects page, being sure to let folks know that progress would be slow and steady. I think Airikita's "Zelda's Eternal Youth" thread is a good role model for the kind of thing I'd want to put out there... Except with an actual playable demo WIP.
And if Mato happens upon it at that point and decides to play it for all the world to see... Well, I think that would be nice.
You make a very good point. I'm sort of regretting releasing Combat Boost in the state I had originally as well, so you're probably right. I would like to see more people play this though and get their opinion.
