EN/ Weekly News #134

This week we had to deal with a few more disruptions, but don't worry, the work is progressing.

The biggest part of the work has been on one of the cutscenes for Sunny and on a new type of battle for Zack.

It is precisely this second task that leads us to make a major change to the battle system earlier than planned, so that we don't have to do even more work when implementing the new battle type only to modify it when the battle system has changed.

One of the aspects that is not working as we want is the use of the strengths/weaknesses of the skill types.

The current problems are:

• Too much randomness to be able to deal a critical hit to an opponent without having faced them before.
• A lack of information to establish a strategy using critical hits that just pushes to use the skill with the most damage.
• Opponents that are a bit too rigid and follow a logic rather than adapting to the player's choice of skill.

On top of that, knowing that other features that will come later will rely on critical hits, we want their use to be a real choice and a type of strategy rather than just a good/bad surprise when using a skill.

We want to enhance the value of voluntarily putting a critical hit on your opponent and knowing when to avoid getting one, rather than just memorizing how an opponent works after multiple defeats.

So, here are the planned changes:

• The fighter with the most speed plays first, then each fighter plays in turn, not at the same time.
• When a fighter uses certain skills, they go into a "state" depending on the type of skill (neutral, power, speed, energy). This effect can last 1 or more turns depending on the skill and some skills do not change the state.
• When a skill is used, it is no longer compared to the opponent's skill, but to the state the opponent is in to define if there is a critical hit.
• Skills that had effects only for confrontation (High Guard, etc.) will have their effects modified to fit this new functioning.
• Opponents will have their AI revised to make better use of critical hits.

This system makes critical hits much more predictive. You will know what state your opponent is in and will have the choice whether or not to take advantage of this opportunity to inflict heavy damage... as will your opponent who will know your state and will be able to make good use of this information.

This system will therefore not simplify the game because both you AND your opponent will take advantage of it, but it will make it possible to include critical hits in a real strategy rather than treating them as a simple effect that happens sometimes.

The work on the battle modification has already started and requires very few graphical elements, so it should not impact the production time of this version very much. We will certainly need your help to check that the fights are set up correctly when we enter the pre-release testing phase. At that time, we will come back to you to propose a test version to those who are interested.

That's it for the explanations about the battle, it is quite a lot of information and we hope to have been as clear as possible about our intentions. Don't hesitate to give us your feedback and don't worry, we will keep you informed about the evolution of the battle system.

_______________________

That's it for this week. Don't hesitate to join the community on Discord. Have a good end of weekend and most of all take care of yourselves!

-Sunny & Zack