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Post by wyvernxk7 on Apr 8, 2009 5:19:49 GMT -8
Anyway, hope y'all like my Posts!
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Post by Bob on Apr 8, 2009 8:34:38 GMT -8
Yeah, that's what I figured you were getting at with mime... I dunno, I'll consider doing it. It actually wouldn't be as hard as I was originally thinking... In fact, it'd probably be pretty dang easy.
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Post by bloodfestbutterfly on Apr 8, 2009 9:26:49 GMT -8
*hugs Wyvern* Thank. You. So very much.
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Post by wyvernxk7 on Apr 8, 2009 10:10:26 GMT -8
For?
(*accepts hug graciously*)
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Post by Bob on Apr 8, 2009 11:38:24 GMT -8
The Arena Tournament Status Update:
The program is almost half done! ...this thing is MUCH bigger than I expected it to be, but I'm nearly done with the magics! The only things on my magicpaths thing that I've yet to program are: Drain, Osmose, Reflect, and all the skills.
Also I noticed I forgot Dispel, so I've programmed that but am deciding where to add it in, magic-category-wise.
I realized that when I earlier planned to make the physical skills paths include limit breaks, it'd be unfair to magical characters (since they likely couldn't get decent magics AND limit break, which would be the hardest skill to reach). So I'm replacing Dualcast (since it'd be hard to program anyway) with limit break. So now you can get limits by being an extreme physical player or an extreme magic player.
So now I'm wondering... Couple things left to program, but does anybody wanna give me some sample player write-ups so I can test things out? Gotta see how balanced things are... I'd greatly appreciate it. So I need you to pick 5 abilities and I'll give you umm... let's say 10 skill points for now. Ask questions if you're confused, but skill points are what you need to "unlock" each node on the magicpath list (http://mallboro.goatpen.org/arena/magicpaths.gif), and you can't unlock an ability without first unlocking ALL previous nodes on all paths leading to that node. So for example, to unlock Green 2, you'd need to first unlock Green 1, Black 1, White 3, White 2, Pray, and White 1. Make sense?
Also, along with the abilities, there are also some freebie skills since they have no chart (so they only require 1 skill point for now). You can also use counter, hp+10%, hp+20%, hp+30%, mp+10%, mp+20%, mp+30%, and first strike. But I'm really trying to get a sense for the magic balance, so limit the "freebie" skills to only two ability slots, okay? (Or less, of course).
So send me a PM of your character with the following stats/abilities filled in (this is an example with Steiner's name. Lieberkuhn, you can still submit a test of Steiner, he and Beatrix have been my testdummy names up to this point is all...):
if (playername == "Steiner"){ playerpower = 20; playerdefense = 20; playeraccuracy = 100; playerevade = 5; playermagic = 20; playermagicdef = 20; playermagicevade = 5; playerspeed = 10; playerhp = 300; playermp = 50; ability1 = "counter"; ability2 = "hp20"; ability3 = "hp30"; ability4 = "white1"; ability5 = "green1"; }
Use the same points for all stats power through speed. Meaning right now, the sum of power, defense, ..., magic evade, and speed is 200. Keep that statement true, but redistribute the points. Right now they're distributed to be what I'd imagine a pretty average fighter would be. For restrictions: no speed above 20 (nor below 5), no evade/magic evade above 40, no accuracy below 80. Those are your restrictions.
And finally: I'm sure this is hard to follow for now, so ask questions if confused, but anyway, it'll help me a ton if I get a few test dummies to put in here. Thanks, guys!
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Post by bloodfestbutterfly on Apr 8, 2009 12:18:31 GMT -8
Posting, you goober, posting! I miss mah employees. How're you settling into Japan?
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Post by Bob on Apr 8, 2009 18:43:03 GMT -8
Oh, if you wanted to provide test fighters for my program, could you also you can rework the HP/MP for your guys? Use a maximum of 150 points for HP and MP, where one point = 3 HP or 1 MP. So for my example, 100 points toward HP (hence the 300 HP) and 50 points toward MP (hence the 50 MP). Sorry, I forgot all about that.
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Post by Bob on Apr 15, 2009 23:14:57 GMT -8
Hey, ya'll. Sorry to bother, but my program is getting close to done and nobody has given me any test data. I wanna try to get the next batch of Arena matches going soon like maybe next week or something, but I still need test samples. I'm guessing I made things too hard to understand, so could you guys tell me exactly what's hard to understand? Maybe it's not hard, but anyway, I could certainly use some test data. I just wanna see if anything I've decided on so far is too unbalanced. Right now, I think I just need to test out stats, so just give me those. No abilities (I'm almost done deciding what abilities I'll use, too... Heck, I'm almost done programming them too!).
If all goes well, I think I could reasonably have our next PvP tournament started next week. So please send me some test data, okay? In the next few days I should have all the cool charts and such drawn up so you guys can further understand how awesome this tournament will be!
EDIT: Oh, also. Wyvern: I've decided not to do Mime. It'd be too easy to exploit it (get enough MP for Flare, then just mime it until death... Already stuff like Holy and Flare are basically instant kills, so I'm just thinkin' that maybe it's a bad idea, at least for now).
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Post by wyvernxk7 on Apr 16, 2009 0:53:08 GMT -8
Well, as you can tell - some days I`m in, some days I`m not... My dad came to visit this week, and it was kinda short-notice, so thus I`ve not been on much this time around... but I will be!
Mime... yeah, that`s understandable...
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Post by Bob on Apr 16, 2009 1:45:24 GMT -8
Just so you all know, I've now finished the physical paths thing. So now you can see how your AP (I figured I'd call it AP because it kinda is) might be distributed. You'll be happy to know the physical one is a LOT more straightforward than the magic one. So my two giant trees of abilities are here: www.mallboro.goatpen.org/arena/magicpaths.gifwww.mallboro.goatpen.org/arena/physicalpaths.gifThose are all the abilities that'll be programmed into this game. I... think it roughly covers the entire Final Fantasy genre as far as common FF spells/abilities goes... I think tomorrow (because I'm downright pooped right now) I'll finish off the charts and explain how our next Arena fight will go. I'm gonna focus on completing the abilities that I think people MIGHT use in our upcoming PvP so that we can actually have the tournament before I finish the program. I'm thinking anywhere from 5-10 AP for our starting tournament. If you know what that means, cool. If not, no worries. I'll tell you like, tomorrow or something. Hope ya'll are pumped for an upcoming PvP! New and improved!
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Post by Bob on Apr 16, 2009 14:25:32 GMT -8
Okay! Explaining how The Arena will work (at least until Fleck comes and decides he hates it and scraps it all):
First what you'll do is assign stats to your characters. This will be the only permanent thing attached to your character, so choose wisely. There will be level-ups, but that's getting ahead of myself.
Once your stats are set, they're done forever. Then you'll get to pick a weapon and an accessory for your character. They'll be listed on The Arena's website eventually (under construction right now). Some weapons will be obviously better than others. You'll get these weapons/accessories by using Gold Pieces (GP). You don't actually PAY for the weapons/accessories though. What you'll do is as your character starts to win fights, you'll win more GP and you use it as a sort of rental/security deposit style. You have to decide what weapon and accessory suits your fighting style and opponent. But this means in one fight you can use say, a Dagger, then the very next fight use a Broadsword or Rod or something. But if you have (for example) 10 GP, you can decide if you want a Broadsword for 5 GP and a Defense Ring for 5 GP (5+5=10), or if you want a Mythril Sword for 10 GP and no accessory. (Note: those costs are made up. I'm not decided on costs just yet).
Next you'll pick five abilities to equip. I've already kinda covered this, but let me say again. You'll have Ability Points (AP). Use these to unlock as many spells as possible by checking the magic/physical ability path trees. Each "node" costs 1 AP to unlock and you need to unlock all paths leading into an ability to unlock that ability. Then once you've used all your AP, decide on 5 that you want to use in your upcoming fight. Much like GP, you can completely revise your abilities for the next fight.
Lastly, the hard part: Gambits. If you've played FF12, you know what these are. If not, then basically you get to program your characters and how you want them to respond in battle (roughly). Since I'll have to code each person's gambits before a fight, it'd be nice to keep them fairly simple. If you do not provide gambits, I'll have a semi-randomed style for the characters as a backup. If you have questions about gambits, just PM me. Here's an example of a small set of gambits:
HP < 30% -> Cura MP > 15 -> Aerora Else Randomly 20% -> Armor Break 20% -> Magic Break 60% -> Attack
I know, I made up an "Else" gambit, but you can do that too. It'd be nice if some aspects of your gambits were random, just so that we don't see the same fight all the time, so just tell me you want stuff randomly picked and what you want the probability for picking that skill to be. You can give me a really rough outline of how you want your character to fight, too. Just like "attack most of the time, cure when needed and try to poison them sometimes" works for a gambit. And as a note: your characters won't know their opponents' HP/MP, so no gambits for like Enemy HP < 10% or anything.
So that about covers it. Hope it's all understandable. Also, during Player vs Player (PvP) Tournaments, we'll have secret equipment, so you send me a PM of what abilities and equipment your character is bringing to the fight. Just to keep people from predicting their opponents too much.
The recap: Pick stats for your character (permanent). Use GP to "buy" a weapon/accessory (per fight). Use AP to "buy" abilities (per fight). Pick 5 abilities (per fight). Write gambits (or don't) (per fight).
Final Thoughts: Yeah, it's complicated. Sorry. But I think having variation will give some interesting fight results. Also with using GP and AP, we can really have some fun specialized tournaments in the future. Like, even if one character has tons more GP or AP than another, we can have a like "10 AP Max" or a "50 GP Max" or "No White Magic" tournament. Fun stuff like that. And we'll play with Gambits as they come. It might end up causing problems, at which point I'll either fix it or make up my own gambits and let randomization make up more of the fight, y'know? Also I'll eventually program in some monsters, which is primarily where your characters will level-up and gain GP/AP in non-tournament times. Okay, I'll stop writing now. Gimme feedback!
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Post by wyvernxk7 on Apr 16, 2009 16:11:49 GMT -8
This afternoon or tomorrow, I'll give you information for Blank and Zorn (he's drunkenly entered the contest). Cha-cha!
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Post by nobodyspecial on Apr 16, 2009 16:55:01 GMT -8
Sounds good n' fun. All of my characters will be entering by the way.
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Post by bloodfestbutterfly on Apr 16, 2009 18:39:46 GMT -8
Ehhh...still not too sure about what I'd be doing, but I'll try sending you some stats tomorrow.
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Post by Fleck on Apr 17, 2009 8:41:36 GMT -8
I hate it! *scraps it all*
All this programming stuff makes my brain bleed, so I'm going to try to be as uninvolved in the process as possible. I have no objections to the idea, and I will gladly contribute to the effort(if I think of anything to contribute), but don't expect me to be very helpful. Like I said, this stuff is confusing to me. So as long as Bob takes the brunt of the work, I won't stop him.
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