Prologue Demo Update 2

It's been a while, and while progress on the story has halted since implementing the new battle system, I do intend to continue once the upcoming update to the Arena demo is made. I'll have things to say regarding that one when the time comes, but for now let's go over most of the changes made for the Prologue Demo.

Battle Grid System

As brought up in earlier posts, I am going to implement the Battle Grid plugin from VisuStella. Out of all the battle system related plugins they had, this one felt like it would be the most fun to utilize without it being overly complicated. I chose to go with a 3 x 3 format, while keeping the max party limit size to 4; not that I'm at that point. While the plugin allows for manual positioning, there is no option to keep it from popping up 'before' every battle. I want it to be a menu option, while being able to "Move" characters during battle. So until they change that, I'll have to refrain from having a Tactics feature just yet.

Node Targeting

Most artes now require certain target requirements, whether it's the battler being on a certain rank/flank node,  or the target being on one. This should allow for some strategizing since everything can be affected by one's position, and it is possible for artes to do knockback, which can cause Crash damage if they bump into another battler. Of course, this early on, no one in the party has that ability. I am working on a new arte for Aki that can do a knockback, though it will require me to edit existing sprites. I don't think it will be that difficult, but it will be implemented and included in a later update.

Also, Artes that normally have AoE or can hit additional targets will also have their own target requirements. Eruption for example, causes damages to enemies in a diamond radius from the center. Sonic Thrust can still hit an enemy from behind the target, should one exist. There are enemies that take up multiple nodes at once, so even if they aren't exactly behind another, it should still work. This, along with the entire system, is one that will require a lot of finetuning to make sure it works properly and is fun to play.

Arte Adjustments

In addition to what was needed for the Battle Grid, some artes have had their power adjusted. I will make a better effort to actually post any changes to artes in the future.

Updated Status Image

As also mentioned in an earlier post, Aki's status menu image has been updated to better match the art style of the cover art. The others will be updated as I get them, but only after any skit portraits are made and stored for future use.

New Title System

Using the Equip Medal Plugin, I retooled titles to work more like in Graces f, where titles are equippable like gear and they gain experience through battle. Mastery Points are needed to master them, and they improve their overall power. As a result, I also had to rework the way passive skills are given, so instead of them only appearing while having the title equipped, they are just available after earning them. You will still have to 'learn' the skill to equip them, and I'm thinking of changing the costs of those skills depending on how often titles are earned, and what skills/stats you can get.

Also, I temporarily disabled being able to learn the passive stat buffs until more work is done to make them work and balanced. This is due to changing plugins for passive skills to where they are made from States instead of the Skills menu.

Various Fixes

I don't know when this happened, but after a cutscene involving the Turtlez Merchant, Aki would just disappear from existence. I know it would have been during the process of changing commands to turn the player invisible instead of the actor data for Aki. In addition, there was a tile in one of the puzzle rooms that caused an error when stepped on. That one has been taken care of, but if any more exist then I implore you get a screenshot and leave it in the comments. Another fix involves the door to the train station, as it doesn't have an event condition for after choosing not to go to Toto right away.

One bug that I recently discovered was that sometimes both the Sorcerer's Ring would not fire and the quest status overlay would not function correctly upon entering certain maps. I found that it's to do with teleportation events that have a condition that activate as a safety measure for when using the Sorcerer's Ring in motion, while about to step on that warp tile. Most of them have it set to Autorun, but these ones had Parallel. I don't know why that affects it, but switching to the former fixes the problem. I might have found this out sooner, started the process, but didn't finish.

New/Updated Tutorials

I have added new tutorials to include mention of arte targeting and title mastery. Some titles have been updated to reflect menu and feature changes. In the future, I'll add more relating to the Battle Grid itself, and any suggestions that you may have. There are a lot more I could throw in, but if by chance you had any I haven't thought of yet, leave a comment.

Other Minor Changes

Again, I'm gonna try and do better with documenting the changes I make for now on. I'll have a draft setup on here for the next time I do a patch update so you get a better idea of what exactly has changed. One thing, is that for testing purposes, I include a small cheat event that is revealed at the end of the bonus scenario, so that in the future, if you ever need to restart from the beginning, there will be something to boost your party level, get gald, and get AP for skill learning.

Future Plans

On the subject of testing, I may prepare playable demos for the purposes of testing what I currently am working on. This will include save files for certain events, the ability to manually power up, and whatever is necessary. I'll have to really think about how to approach this, as I cannot pay for testers and I have no experience in the art of debugging to know what they should have. Therefore, I will consider this an occasional event, and only if anyone one wishes to volunteer. No one is obligated to do this.

Wrap-Up

If things go well, I'll have the Arena demo updated sometime in the next couple weeks. I will keep version 1 up in case anyone wants to experience the old battle system and compare it to the current one. It will still have any old issues I didn't happen to address before now, and it will serve as more archival material for down the line. Once I have the Arena Demo updated, I will resume story development and provide occasional updates to the existing demos for any new artes, features, and general fixes that come through. I thank you again for your time and patience as I continue this long journey of mine.