Danke. I uhm… most of this is just time, I’ve been doing sprites on and off for like 15 years, there’s probably a more efficient way to learn though.
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It’s been a while.
Some of you may have seen this post that I made.
To keep myself on track, I thought to make a devlog of sorts, talking weekly about changes I’ve made during the week. This first one it’s going to be long, since there’s plenty to cover:
Devlog #1: Statscreen and some balance changes
So, I have decided to make some changes to the statscreen:
Not pictured is the fact that an icon should be displayed right of the character’s name if they have a status effect (and the icon when being rescued left of the character’s name, like in vanilla).
This is still unfinished, since I have to:
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Find a way of conveying when the unit is receiving stat bonuses (likely using arrows like the ones displayed when rescuing to be able tell if it is receiving a buff/debuff at first glance, combined with displaying the actual amount in the R-Text).
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Decide where I’m going to put the marker for when the unit is rescuing.
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Decide how to display when the unit has a talk conversating.
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Fix an issue when pressing select to view growths.
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Decide if there’s any other data from vanilla’s statscreen that I want to include.
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Change the tiles used for the equipment box.
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Fix an issue involving class cards.
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Add some sort of decoration to the background of the right area.
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Finish getting R-Text sorted out.
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Make the “HP” label display growth color too.
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See if I can improve the way skills are displayed (the current layout doesn’t quite convince me).
I’m also considering making the character’s name, class and items use narrowfont for consistency.
Now that the unit’s inventory has been moved to the first page, I’m thinking of using the second page for weapon ranks and gaiden magic spells, and the third for supports. I need to be able to display 8 items both for weapon ranks and magic spells (since Ethel and Iris are a thing) so this means no B/W/L display anymore. As for supports, I have an idea that would theoretically allow for 10 support partners if it works, so I’ll work with that in mind.
You may notice that I have changed the skill icons: now they have 1 pixel less height and width, and a less eye-catching frame. This resulted in the icons’ images getting cropped, but well, hopefully they still look decently. There are still several icons (and skills) that I’ve yet to do, though.
And talking about skills: we’ve officially exceeded the 254 skills that SkillSystem is designed to be able to handle. So, to make things work, I decided to “cheat” a bit, and turned personal skills into functions that check for specific characters. This means that Nihil no longer negates them, so have fun.
Also, there’s several characters/items/skills that have received changes:
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Tharja now has Demoiselle and Heartseeker as level up skills. The first one means her personal skill slot is now free (I don’t know what to give her, but she could use some help) and the second helps her counter her accuracy issues without negating them entirely.
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Talking about characters without personal skills, I’ve decided to let Rune have a Dark weapon rank instead of Shadowgift, so I need to think of one for her too.
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I’ve buffed Crit Boost to grant +20 crit. I thought of going +30 like Binding Blade but then I remembered that Shiraha and Ricardo get access to both Crit Boost and Killing Machine.
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Rallies now have their buffs slightly increased.
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Lenna’s personal skill now grants +40 crit. Combine with Areadbhar (which I have decided to give Killing Machine on top of the defense-negating effect Taylor wanted) for absolute mayhem.
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Ortega now has +1 Str and his Prf has +1 Mt, which hopefully allows him to one-round the soldiers of his joining chapter on hard mode. Additionally, he now has Jet-Stream Attack as personal skill (with his old personal skill, Locktouch, becoming a level up skill now) which allows him to perform a “triangle attack” of sorts with any ally. He also gets Steal+ instead of regular Steal, and both Seal skills got merged into a new one called Melt Armor.
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In Amos case, I buffed Fury’s effect (now grants +3 to all stats, including Mov), and replaced two of his level up skills. Now, instead of Lifetaker and Galeforce, which required him to get kills (which was easier said than done) he gets No Guard from the start and Reckless Fighter at level 5 promoted, both strong skills with strong demerits, which I feel fit Amos personality.
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After promotion, Boulder can now summon literal boulders. They can’t move (though you can shove them) or fight, but they should still be useful.
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Miracle now works like Engage’s Hold Out.
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It was long overdue, but I nerfed Double Lion by giving it recoil like Fury. Of course, this nerf doesn’t affect everybody equally (Morbick has Sol, Zienfall has Ironclad and the Runeaxe and I made Razmataz inmune to this effect).
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Pharmos now gets Armsthrift as personal skill, with Steal+ being now a level up skill.
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I decided that, instead of giving Tulli 4 skills that boost avoid, I would give her a new personal skill called Endangered Species that gives her x1.5 Avoid (if you’re wondering what happened with Blossom, it’s no longer a skill, but she still has doubled growths and halved Exp gains). I also changed her Dance skill for Goddess Dance, allowing her to refresh multiple people at the same time. And a higher level cap. Not everything is a buff, though: she no longer has the +15 Hit from the Burn skills, and Goddess Dance doesn’t grant Exp. Also, on a whim, I recolored her portrait to have a more minty palette.
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As much as I love multi-hit skills like Astra and Nine-Blade Firestorm, I think the GBA engine is a bit too slow for them, so I reworked them into skills that increase the damage dealt by critical hits (Astra criticals deal x5 damage instead of x3, and Nine-Blade Firestorm’s deal x9 damage). Swordmasters now get Astra as class skill, and Xandra gets Outrider as her promoted class’ skill for synergy. I need to remember to rework Darkhon’s weapons and skills, though.
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I changed how Alora’s Prf works: it is now a Smash weapon with double Mt that grants 100% skill activation rate. I probably should raise the level at which Aether is acquired.
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I’ve increased Braddok’s base stats and level, which hopefully will make him easier to train, and buffed Holy Aura to be on par with Sword Saint.
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Yue now has the Saunion instead of a Slim Javelin.
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I saw DAT commenting in a thread about the idea of daggers that use Dex instead of Str, so now Delilah’s dagger uses Dex (which does benefit Delilah). Also, I’ve raised Plague Doctor’s bases.
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I’ve lowered the amount of Exp Amber gains from using staves, since it was crazy previously. I’ve also buffed her personal skill.
There are some other changes and stuff going around, but I think the post is already large enough as it is, so I’ll leave it for another time.
Let’s see how many do I end releasing before the patch is out.
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Huh, well glad to know you’re still working on it. As per the alterations to ortega, I actually like you doubling down on the gundam joke.
The slight boost to his inherent attack isn’t a bad idea, really it’s just fighting colm’s bad bases and con that makes it interesting with replacing him.
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Love how the statscreen looks, can’t wait to hear more of the devlog.
Made Laresta a custom splice, hope it"s good.
Parts used were Velvitkitsune, Melia, and Backer
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And when the world needed him most…
He returned
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Exia gets a Meisterlance. Real smooth.
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That screenshot is from a special map I use to test stuff, so Exia still has a Brave Lance in the actual game, unless you want to change it.
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