sierralee
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October 13 Update
🕑 Added 2024-10-13 17:00:08 +0000 UTCOkay, TLS update coming out Friday. Everything has passed basic testing, the pieces are in place, sex scene written, etc. There are still some fiddly details I want to ask people about, but because those are more technical I'll put them at the bottom.
I might have been able to squeeze this in a week earlier, but the combat was not fully baked last Friday. And the final optional dungeon does have quite a bit: no trash mobs, just bosses, each with its own challenge. I know not everyone plays the game for combat, but this update is a final gift for those who do.
Actually, I should probably try to reduce hype a bit. The final optional dungeon requires only an endgame save with many quests done, but saves are not guaranteed to be able to get the last harem member. I have tried to make the game more accessible in various ways, but this has always been planned as the big reward for optimizers. Just set your expectations properly depending on the type of player you are.
In a strange way, this is another farewell. I made the majority of the characters' skills almost ten years ago, and they've been a presence throughout testing so much combat. This is meant to be a final chance for people to play around with all those, because the battles in the epilogue and postgame will be more about story than real challenge.
Spending more time than usual on combat testing, but still worried about balance. It's pretty easy to create a boss that is overtuned, but if you err in the opposite direction, people will just blow through your fun mechanics with brute force. =/ Even though some balance tweaks will no doubt be necessary, I think I'm creating a good mix: normal bosses, puzzle bosses, gimmick bosses, etc. Please look forward to them!
Technical Details
RPG Maker knowing folks, I have some mechanical problems I haven't found a solution for. Would be great if someone happens to know a workaround.
1) Is there a way to make a battle event occur multiple times? The "turn" span parameter famously just doesn't do what it claims to. In some cases you can copy multiple pages of events, but in this case because the triggering condition isn't changed until later, the game would burn through them all at once.
2) Is there a way to get an enemy not to target characters with certain status effects? For one boss I've gotten around this with a hack using the custom AI script, but for another boss I don't want to use this because it would muck up its actual AI.
3) Is there a way to neutralize damage from Certain Hit skills? PDR and MDR do not affect this damage rate. The idea is that a boss is supposed to be invincible during certain turns. I mostly got around this, but it's still inconvenient.
Comments
Miwi Aensland
I'm relieved to hear this!
Sierra Lee
Correct.
Miwi Aensland
Oh so the Complete Game will remain free once its released in its full version then?
Sierra Lee
I'd like to be helpful, but I'm not entirely sure which game you're talking about? TLS is free and will always remain free.
Duncan Lutz
I WANT it to be "Tower magic bullshit" that somehow resurrects Zelica... But I'll be surprised if it's not Ulrissa. Like with the mystery of who Ivala's captor was, it would be unfulfilling to introduce someone completely new this late in the story... we're literally at the finish line. And as far as named female characters that could be added as a Harem member at this point.... the pickings are slim. It's just too late to introduce someone out of left field. They'll need to have been setup and established in the narrative with some prior relation to Simon. Pretty sure the Final Dungeon is on Renthnor, though, and Zelica was a Goddess from that continent... So I'm holding out hope Plot Bullshit/Tower Shenanigans/Whatever just make it happen: "Somehow, Zelica returned!" Just... let me huff that copium a bit longer.
Miwi Aensland
I don't have the money to be a patron for the game when it releases but do you know where you can get it when it releases fully? I know DLSite doesn't allow Debit Cards so I can't use that.
AnythingAtAll
Oh man, right, I need to put in my guesses for the final harem member before it's over. I'll go: the original holder of the first divine shard, the goddess of wind, or the wife of the incubus king that owns the set we've been collecting. Stole the last one from someone in the server lol. Looking forward to the update and finally getting answers to this mystery!
Gusios
Congrats on reaching the finish line!
Dubsington
Note to self: When all else fails and I can't damage the boss, try using moves with Certain Hit
AnythingAtAll
Oh, I see. I was going to say Noblesse Oblige did something that seemed similar to what you meant, but it seems Forte already answered.
Sierra Lee
Got them, thanks!
Lord Forte
Happy to hear. ^^
Sierra Lee
Thanks much! I haven't had time to retest the whole fights, but I believe with that all the technical issues are settled. ^-^
Grim8P
Here are the skills I'm aware of doing untyped elemental damage and what type of Hit Type they have: Ginasta: - Neutral Strike (Physical Attack) Lilith: - Boring McBoring (Physical Attack) - Lustful Disruption (Physical Attack) - Kiss of Chaos (Certain Hit) (MP Drain though) - Chaotic Vigor (Certain Hit) - Bloodwine (Magical Attack) - Sexpocalypse (Certain Hit) (After 69 turns of warmup) Riala: - Anti-Tyrant Essence (Certain Hit) Varia: - Destined Blood (Certain Hit)
Lord Forte
Continuing from the other chain: Yeah, I tested with two states, one that did tgr * 0, one that did tgr * 0.1. Over a pretty big sample of standard attacks, only the character with the tgr * 0.1 was attacked.
Lord Forte
Ahh excellent, glad to help! It -is- pretty odd that it needs that to work.
Sierra Lee
1) It does seem to work if you set turn numbers, thank you! Without that setting, an event with the Turn span doesn't play more than once, so I'd always thought it was broken. 2/3) Hopefully these are good now too.
Lord Forte
I am pretty sure they won't ever be targeted unless there are no other targets available. It's what I use for Sindarion's stealth and even before I buffed tank threat, he never got attacked. I'll run some tests to be sure though. Damn enter. XD
Sierra Lee
Does a TGR of zero mean that the character won't ever be targeted, or just a low chance? This boss's gimmick won't work if it targets the same character twice. Untyped would work for future projects, yeah. But if TLS doesn't currently have a skill that's both None element and Certain Hit, then everything's fine.
Grim8P
Ah if RPGM VX Ace uses Hit Type to determine if PDR or MDR apply, that would make sense. If you add an Untyped elemental damage type and give the boss immunity to all elemental damage types via a state for the duration of the state, that should work?
Lord Forte
Er, I took a screenshot of the wrong page. This is the one that takes effect on multiple turns: https://imgur.com/oxCN4Nq
Lord Forte
Regarding the questions at the bottom: 1. Hm, I'm not sure I know what you mean about turn span not working. Have you tried setting it along the lines of this one? I know this works in Noblesse for a fight that cycles between two events on even an odd turns: https://imgur.com/GdCPFu5 2. I replied in another comment. I could also do this with a Lunatic Target scope if you wanted. 3. I could do this with a lunatic effect if you wanted. Probably a lunatic object would work, but at worst we'd just have to add Lunatic Damage.
Lord Forte
TGR is multiplicative I believe, so just add a tgr * 0 feature.
Argo The Ratfolk
Glad to hear another update from you! While I'm in the camp of focusing on story far more than combat, I appreciate you and your efforts to try to satisfy everyone and their tastes. I still have no clue who the last harem member might be (my inner Yarra is hoping for a lamia for the sake of race/species representation xD) I'm very much looking forward to that at least! ^~^
Sierra Lee
One battle, but I want something to happen every time the player does a certain thing. The way RPG Maker works, it would happen once and never again.
AnythingAtAll
I'm unclear on what you mean with the first problem. Do you mean consecutive battles in one combat encounter?
Sierra Lee
>My only thought here involves juggling switch states. At the end of the turn, if X is ON, turn it OFF, if it is OFF, do Y thing? That sort of thing. Yeah, that might be the only option. I'd have to connect an enemy technique to a common event, but it could be done. >Would cloning the state and including TGR -1000% for the boss specific version work? I hadn't thought of that, but does TGR take negative values? I don't think it does. >Do you mean skills with no elemental damage type? Certain Hit should just guarantee that a hit lands unless I'm missing something. Try it for yourself: a skill with Certain Hit will completely ignore PDR and MDR percentages, as if it's a different damage type. This can be gotten around via elemental resistance, so unless there is a Certain Hit skill with no element, it won't be a problem, it's just a strange quirk.
Sierra Lee
Glad to hear! If you've liked it this far, I think you'll like the final dungeon. Lots of fun stuff, trying to include something for everyone. ^-^
Grim8P
> 1) Is there a way to make a battle event occur multiple times? The "turn" span parameter famously just doesn't do what it claims to. In some cases you can copy multiple pages of events, but in this case because the triggering condition isn't changed until later, the game would burn through them all at once. My only thought here involves juggling switch states. At the end of the turn, if X is ON, turn it OFF, if it is OFF, do Y thing? That sort of thing. 2) Is there a way to get an enemy not to target characters with certain status effects? For one boss I've gotten around this with a hack using the custom AI script, but for another boss I don't want to use this because it would muck up its actual AI. Would cloning the state and including TGR -1000% for the boss specific version work? 3) Is there a way to neutralize damage from Certain Hit skills? PDR and MDR do not affect this damage rate. The idea is that a boss is supposed to be invincible during certain turns. I mostly got around this, but it's still inconvenient. Do you mean skills with no elemental damage type? Certain Hit should just guarantee that a hit lands unless I'm missing something. There are only a few skills with no elemental damage type. You could add a new "Untyped" (or similar) elemental damage type just for those and then you can give the boss a state that makes them immune to that damage type?
An_Insane_Rogue_AI
I'm really excited for this one, when you first put up the roadmap this was definitely the update I was most excited about and I always really liked this games combat- it easily has my favorite RPG maker game combat system
