The Actual Patch Preview - WindStrike - 04-02-2016
The reality was, there was a mega patch preview! We just stuck up a slightly different version at first.
Over the next week or so, Orithan and I will be applying some major changes to the game. Yes, I know I said I wouldn’t apply another systems change or another major balance change, but after enduring a number of sessions having to answers mechanics questions about the same things over and over again, it’s clear that some things need to be fixed after all. Below is a list of things we’re changing/axing:
- Passive Skill System:
- Out with the current one and in with a new one, which is actually based off a system we had in place back in ZCURPG with enemies. Current one is kinda restrictive and feels out-of-place, so to speak.
- The new system will provide no caps on the skill limit, and all stacking Passive Skills are going out the window. Instead, all Passive Skills will cost Stat Points. Since this is a bit of a new territory, keep in mind this is gonna take some time to balance, so… don’t be surprised if, right after implementing it, we end up balance patching it every week until re-release.
- Will this make the game more complicated? Possibly, but you choose as many or as few Passive Skills as you want. They’re not even required anymore, you can straight up ignore them. It’s all up to how you want to play. Less of them = a lot simpler to deal with. A lot of them = a serious compromise to your Stats and more things to keep track of, but potentially more versatility and options.
- There will be a new ruling change. You can only switch Passive Skills out at Checkpoints, which are defined by the DM. The DM can choose to set it to the end of every session, every time they hit something like an inn, or maybe something else.
Blessings:
Out the window! All six Affinities will be acquirable as Passive Skills, so if you want, you can totally get away with having all six of them… though, because they’ll now cost Stat Points, that’ll require a serious tradeoff that I don’t recommend doing. It might be more viable later though when everyone’s packing Artifacts.
Base Stat Points:
In order to prevent us from having to modify the entire balance of the game due to the above two changes, we’re just gonna bump your Base Stat Points up from 60 to 75.
Effects:
In actuality, this is mostly a relabel, and initially, this might seem more complicated than our current system. However, it’s just that you’ll be learning more at first and a whole lot less later. So let’s do this!
Stacking Effects:
First off, all Stacking Effects stay exactly as they are. Aka, all the ones that are like “Target gains 3 Courage” and “Target loses 5 Wisdom”. It is still intended you can only only fix these by having the reverse to counter it. I know this was really inconsistent so far, so we’re gonna simultaneously cut down on the number that cause these effects and provide more counters around the place. I know that sounds contradictory, and it’ll be tricky to balance, but it’s crucial we keep this side of it.
Non-Stacking Effects:
The labels of Status Effects, Buffs & Afflictions are out the window. Instead, we now have 6 categories, names that are tentative and might change, but they essentially describe the type of effect they apply. Know what else we got 6 of? Affinities!
Each category corresponds to the primary focus of an affinity. Fire = Attrition, Light = Disables, etc. You’re probably thinking “wait, doesn’t this make things worse?” Not if we limit the effects! Each category, for now, we’re capping at 5 effects each. That means there’s now 30 Non-Stacking Effects in the game. Those approx. 100 Status Effects from before are seriously cut down.
Even better yet, they all fit on one page. This is now the new Reference Page, which is now linked in the IRC chatrooms’ topics. The idea is we cut down the total number to, well… 30 is still arguably a lot, given how much impact they all cause now, but something that, over time, you can remember. And if you don’t, just load up the reference page and it’s a very, very quick look.
This will also cut down the lengths of abilities on the site, the copy+pastas, and status lines.
Alright, that’s cool and all, but why didn’t we just do that w/ Buffs & Afflictions? Why did they actually have to be relabeled and expanded? Well, to prevent the Affinity System from nuking itself. With everything labeled as Buffs or Afflictions, an anti-Affliction move counters… everything.
We like to keep some degree of cycle going, even if it’s not directly written into the rules, so Fire should still have an advantage over Nature, Water over Fire, etc. This way, we can still keep that, cause now those Affliction removal moves are only going to hit one type of a Non-Stacking Effect instead of every bloody Affinity. So Affinities will naturally go back to having more value with this. Speaking of them…
Spells Rewrite Again:
Say goodbye to roughly half the spells, and then various degrees of tweaking to the rest so that they all conform to the limitations of the new Stacking & Non-Stacking Effects.
Also, expect to respec your Affinities and/or Spells, cause uhh… all the spells are shifting around in order to really nail down what each Affinity specializes in, as well as restoring the cycle again. That’s not to say for certain Water will always beat Fire, but it will have an advantage.
Redundancies:
So I’ve always been an avid defender of a lack of redundancy around the place, aka make everything unique, and I still am. However, we’re going to have simultaneously less and more.
Armor will be provided specifically by Innate Skills, Armor, & Robes, and nothing else, so that said, the majority of everything else won’t affect it. I’mma make an exception to Signature Moves, but that’s it. Not even Artifacts, folks.
If you want defense stacking, go to Defense Dice, aka, things are practically unchanged, cause… seriously, everyone did this already anyways.
Various items will have now have access to that new list of effects, so expect to see more repeats in there.
Spells, although we’re gutting close to half of them, some spells across affinities are going to have the same effects, they’ll just be applying ‘em differently.
In general, because there’s a cap of 30 Non-Stacking Effects in the game now, they’re going to show up a lot more and repeat across things by quite a bit.
Signature Moves:
This right here might as well just be renamed to Exception Skills. All the ones with both charge times and high Magic costs will cause effects that are very unlikely to be reversible. If they cause an effect that doesn’t show up in the Effects Reference Page, that means there isn’t a way to remove it. These are supposed to be very powerful for a reason, and if there were a bunch of ways to reverse and remove them, they’d just lose their value.
Charge-Up Moves:
Minimum charge time will be increased from 1 Turn to 2 Turns. Good bye, Leap Attack spam. It was nice knowing you.
Passive Bonuses on Items:
Especially on weapons and shields, these are going down a bunch. They’ll still exist, and especially more so on Artifacts, but just not to the same degree they currently do.
Support Actions:
They can now only target allies.
However, Combat Actions are still capable of hitting both enemies and allies, or else certain effects wouldn’t work. ^_^
Profiles:
Last time I applied a major changelist of changes, I said it’d be the last time you’d have to do a mass replace on your profiles. Although you will have to change your Passive Skills and Spells, fear not on the rest of the stuff, cause we’ll get it for you this time, even if your profile is one of those crazy custom formats. Should you want to completely respec your profile though, that really will be completely on you.
Whoo, that’s a lot of changes there! But ultimately, we’re simplifying the game and providing more depth by gutting stuff no one used anyways and providing a lot more relevancy to everything else. As I finally have the time to do this stuff, patch should be out no later than mid-April.
RE: The Actual Patch Preview - WindStrike - 04-04-2016
And due to restructuring the Spells and purposes of Affinities in our work so far:
- Goodbye Spirit Affinity! It was nice knowing you, but your purpose is no longer valid.
- Hello Arcane Affinity and welcome back! Wait, what's the diference? So, as per Sephiroth's suggestion, we're going to add a bunch of generic spells to the Compendium. They're all Arcane Affinity, BUT we're going to consider it as "basic magic", meaning everyone technically has Arcane by default. It won't be listed in anyone's affinities, so all of those generic spells won't list a REQUIREMENTS line. In the DESCRIPTION, they'll note they're Arcane spells, but it's considered that specifically lore-wise.
- Spirit Affinity will now be considered an ancient, long-lost art, according to the Gerudo, since the Gerudo never attempted to commune with their Guardian, Roc. Consider it a plot point to occur down-the-road.
Incoming relabel:
- All cases of Damage-Over-Time & Magic Loss-Over-Time are getting relabeled to Drain & Magic Drain.
- All cases of Hearts-Over-Time & Magic-Over-Time are getting relabeled to Recovery & Magic Recovery.
- It will still be labeled like this in abilities:
- EFFECT: If it hits, target receives a Drain.
- At the start of each round, target receives 2 Neutral Damage.
So, to list it in your status, it'd look a lot cleaner, and overall it's more consistent.
Old: 7h, 4m | 2 Damage-Over-Time
New: 7h, 4m | 2 Drain
These WILL be listed in the Effects Reference Page, and will note that the opposite will cancel the other out. 2 Drain vs. 3 Recovery = 1 Recovery. 8 Magic Drain (wat) vs. 5 Magic Recovery = 3 Magic Drain.
All other cases of stuff that'd recover or drain over time (aka, Power, Courage, Wisdom, Attack Dice, & Defense Dice) are getting cut from the game.
RE: The Actual Patch Preview - WindStrike - 04-25-2016
Did I say Drain? Nah, we're goin' with Bleed, cause it's way more awesomer. Same for Magic Bleed. Since these will be generally common and listed in the Effects Reference Page, they'll be listed just as:
- EFFECT: If it hits, target Bleeds x2.
- EFFECT: Target gets Magic Recovery x3.
Still looking for a better name than "Recovery" cause that'll get mixed up badly with "Target recovers 4 Hearts". I'd rather not go back to "Healing-Over-Time", cause it's super lengthy and a pain to deal with in-game on the status lines.
Also, regarding re-release date, I'mma take a page from Blizzard given all the stuff I have to do that isn't ZURPG. It's done when it's done.
RE: The Actual Patch Preview - Orithan - 04-26-2016
Recovery -> Regeneration. Regeneration is normally used to imply gradual recovery over time, whereas recovery tends to be more used as a general umbrella term for healing.
RE: The Actual Patch Preview - WindStrike - 04-26-2016
Righto. Twill probably go with Regen then. Thanks!
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