sierralee
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April 16 Update
🕑 Added 2023-04-16 16:51:26 +0000 UTCTLS 0.66.0 is out. Basically fine, but a somewhat different release period than usual. Instead of a collection of bugs I need to track down, there's more work related to other aspects of the game. Many thanks to Arachne for continued support on his new gallery filter.
How many more times am I going to find some new image that needs to be changed to match the rebranded visuals? We'll see! I've done so much cropping and resaving pictures to match the appropriate format. -_- But thanks to Lamsey for taking much of this work off my hands.
I'm doing my best to keep working on 0.67.0 content. I should be putting together enemy stats/skills right now, and honestly I'm procrastinating via writing this update. If I can just do that, then run through all the combat testing, I'd be done with another piece of content, but I'm tiiired. And whiny.
Balancing a game involves a lot of factors, but one I didn't consider is a sort of "equipment fatigue". When playing RPGs, I definitely enjoy optimizing equipment, even micromanaging in some games. But when I'm playing my own game, trying to keep up multiple saves, especially when the realities of testing mean I need to go back and redo everything... I get tired of buying/changing equipment over and over again.
So my testing parties are usually running equipment much weaker than optimized saves. In the past I've considered this acceptable: if my test parties can beat a dungeon with subpar equipment, then it isn't over-tuned. But recently I feel like most players have said the combat challenges are trivial, so maybe this has gone too far and I need to upgrade some of these parties.
With a section as broad as the final open world segment, I do want a gentle difficulty curve so that players can tackle quests in many different orders. The early ones being harder and the later ones being easier is an acceptable factor in this, plus it makes the player feel increasingly powerful and prepared for the end. But a few of these dungeons are meant to be late challenges not tackled until the player is well-prepared, so they shouldn't be too easy.
Well, this has been a random selection of my thoughts. Eventually there will be a TLS 0.66.1, but I anticipate a great deal more feedback first. Hopefully I will get back to 0.67.0 work, but we'll see.
Comments
Runcible Technician
Oh I got the rock paper scissors of that part. Unified Strike is something I almost completely forgot about. It was all the times I mismatched the other groups that got me. I had to fish for weaknesses and that took a couple repeats. Also, the sixth party being added to the fourth was tricky tricky.
lostone2
I have some issues with the fights with Simon (level 95, not sublime gear available but great gear otherwise) alone. There seems to be a precise order on these and if you don't follow it properly, in case that this helps.
Runcible Technician
Full confession: I have a stacked endgame party and I've hit game over in Yarra's dungeon twice. I keep screwing up the party composition. Lets take into account that I'm a bad gamer and that at least some of your players are bad gamers as well. I wouldn't tweak it too much. I'd still Dark Souls my way through it, but not everything has to be From Software hard.
Sierra Lee
It isn't a huge problem that needs a change so much as something I've been thinking about lately that might require more work from me. Anyway, I do like my optional challenge objectives, so I'm glad they've worked for you!
ushiroace
Unfortunately I don't see any good solutions to the equipment testing issue... I suppose for some of the less puzzle-y fights you could use a simulation script, but that might be a lot of overhead considering how close you are to the end of the game. That aside, I just wanted to chime in and say I do appreciate the difficulty of some of the optional areas in the game! Or even the optional objectives in some of the required parts (Hilstara's last stand is a great example). The clearly meticulous balancing has always been a great aspect of TLS.
Dubsington
An option I see some games use is to, in the runup to the endgame, give players an opportunity to obtain missed buffs/equipment/xp/whatever. At that point a player on a poor track who gets stuck in the (challenging) endgame has the option of investing items. A couple examples: * One of the Borderlands games has a vending machine that accepts a special (rare) currency and will spit out (random) quest objects that are not in your inventory. * An adult RPG I've played has a "time travel crystal" that lets you hit quests that you never completed Obviously these are not as challenging as obtaining the items "legitimately" would be, which is why it's important that they are only available near the very end of the game, making it unquestionably the less-desirable option.
Sierra Lee
I'm glad that I strike the right balance at least on occasion! I do think some of the previous challenges work well enough, it's just that some new sections may not be tuned appropriately. I haven't decided how I'm going to scale the final boss, actually, which needs it more since some players theoretically might ignore much of the endgame. I'm considering different possibilities.
Sierra Lee
It's a valid point, and one of the reasons I haven't made wild changes on this front is not wanting to swing into the opposite mistake. Obviously the situation you describe isn't one I want, but I also want to avoid players just ignoring all strategy in a section and blowing through it. Threading that needle is difficult.
Sundeigh
It has been a while since I properly played TLS, however, I do seem to remember some of the optional "hey this is hard so good luck," fights being quite challenging and I greatly appreciate it. The tricky thing with turn-based combat like TLS is finding a balance of difficulty without crossing over into frustrating rng such as well as long as turn 1 they don't choose this move or target this party member etc. Something this game does exceptionally well is providing those balanced optional challenges that players like me can beat their heads against. I'll always be in favor of some immense challenges at the end of games like this and I would feel cheated out of seeing how the characters have grown in strength if these challenges didn't exist. Finding out how to balance a "final boss," while also providing these optional challenges is tricky as you don't necessarily want to make the final story boss the end all be all hardest fight in the game since some players would likely struggle. My rambling thoughts always lead to me being the type of player that says optional challenges/content is always good and the harder the better if you don't like that then get gud.
Dubsington
I think you have to bear in mind that the players who are likely to give you feedback are also likely to be the ones that are using the wiki and discord to optimize their playthroughs. I personally don't find the combat challenges particularly easy. I routinely have to consult the wiki or ask for help on the discord, both of which I would prefer not to do as it destroys the immersion. In my current playthrough I made a few small early mistakes (such as not reading the walkthrough, and thus missing the Lustplate) that have made some combats extremely difficult. Replaying the same fight over and over when you know you already have the best lineup for it, but just have to pray to RNGesus and hope that the 9th trip goes better than the 8th, is honestly not particularly fun. Unfortunately, the only remedies I know of for this sort of thing are impractical to implement (difficulty levels, scaling dungeons, etc). I don't really have a suggestion here, just want to mention that making things even harder will discourage some players. But if your biggest patrons are disproportionately of the "we want harder fights" camp, it might be the right business move.
