Chrono Trigger + demo test (dead)

[Kyronea]

I'm noticing something...It's been too long since I played through the game normally because some of these new monster encounters are extremely tough. The one in Magus' Shrine in the Cathedral almost killed me.

Also...the Mad Bats seem to be immune to physical attacks...was that intentional?

EDIT: Hah...I noticed a typo I made creeped in...Lucca's line "I think can take it!" is supposed to read "I think we can take it." (Only without the italics.)

So far I'm liking how this beta test is turning out.  But I wonder if...I wonder if we could set up a way in the next couple of private betas to get some of the better equipment really early so we can breeze through and test everything for major errors/what have you. We can always just remove the equipment from the characters and put on equipment we'd have at that point in the game to test out monsters and boss fights thoroughly. It'll be annoying having to play the game normally each and every time just to test things out. In public betas we can remove it so the players can't use it.  Say maybe some little hidden NPC somewhere we can touch that lets us open up the sealed chests or takes us to a little room where we can snatch the best equipment in the game and then leave. It's just a thought.

Also, I think we should rework Lucca and Marle's stats just a bit...the hit stat mainly, so we can give them a bit more of an edge physically for the beginning stages of the game, or at least up to the End of Time. I figure in both their cases it would make sense if they were more accurate thus doing more damage, since Marle would have royal training and Lucca...well, we all know how diligant Lucca is. This way they don't feel like such a burden as they do through those stages of the game.

As for Heckran's Cave, you need to tone down those monsters a bit. I walked in there at level 13, the average level for that point in the game, and was creamed everywhere. A bit of a steep difficulty change from the Factory Ruins.

[Zakyrus]

Yeah, I need to do major tweaking on many stats. As for the Cathedral so hard.... that is because Truce Canyon will be a larger area so you'll actually be much higher levels. -- but yeah, the enemy stats will take alot of work. Fortunately they are easy to tweak. As for power weapons? That can be done, I'll make a secret treasure somewhere in the next version...

Oh yeah, Heckran Caves has been tweaked to level 18. -- This will make so much more sense when the areas in bewteen some of these areas are expanded (so you'l fight more battles and that means higher level)

Also, if you want... I can code a debug room or programmers room where you can jump to most points in the story, teleports you you to CHAPTERS (so you don't have to play thru half to the game to get somehwere) I will temporary add a room like this (will be replaced due to low amount of editable areas) However, this room will take a long time to make (so I'll do it after all the Chapter stuff is done (including going back and finishing the parts I missed)

[Kyronea]

Ah, okay. In that case it's fine. I did manage to muddle through Heckran's Cave despite the tweaking thanks to careful strategic gameplay and a bit of running away. Heckran himself was no problem though.

I like the idea of a debug room for bouncing from chapter to chapter...perhaps we can combine it with my idea so that when you bounce to said chapter you aren't annihilated, since we'd probably be jumping from a new game and thus the characters would all be level one. This way, we can access what we want, battle through it without a problem, and test everything fairly. It works for me.

[Zakyrus]

A chapter selector would be easy (but time consuming to implement)... though it wouldn't bring you EXACTLY to the begining of a chapter, what it will do is set the storyline flag to whatever point you wish the game to be. Then it will teleport you close to, or near the begining of that chapter.... So "The Magic Kingdom" warp would send you to Tyrano Lair Ruins Poral (just before going in) because this is the closest point to that chapter.

Oh, yeah. Forgot to mention. Every battle has a weakness or strategy that will kill the monsters very quickly... almost all monsters up to that point now have elemental weakenss.

The bats in the Cathedral were originally going to be "too high" to hit so I made them weak to magic (or Fire Whirl in this case) instead.

[Kyronea]

I noticed that. I've been noticing a lot of elemental weaknesses as I played through. Slash, for instance, decimated the acids and alkalines.

Which reminds me...why did you replace the shadows in the ruins with the acids and alkalines?

[Zakyrus]

I noticed that. I've been noticing a lot of elemental weaknesses as I played through. Slash, for instance, decimated the acids and alkalines.

Which reminds me...why did you replace the shadows in the ruins with the acids and alkalines?

Because they are about the same level (orginally), and I wanted to experiment with the Shadows by making them super strong and seeing if they would make a good enemy later. I can change it back.

[Kyronea]

Ah, okay. It works for me either way. It's not as if the current NPC dialogue anywhere is going to stick, especially since Trann Dome's NPC dialogue will need to be reworked a lot to fit with the stuff that goes on when you enter it.

[Zakyrus]

Definately, Trann Dome was the most simplified dialouge ever. There were no animations as there were no room to really move the PCs for a convo. I'll have to really think this....

Oh yeah. One thing, when you are coding brand new dialouge (don't worry about the rest of it) just brand new cutscenes that wern't there (in this case we'll use Trann Dome intro) please put in stuff like

examples:
*Marle does yelling anim and holds it for 3 seconds*
{Marle}: "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" {null}

or
*Magus does his "cape thing"*
{Magus}: "The Black Wind howls..." {null}

you don't have do add animation specs to all the stuff you've done, just keep this in mind when adding new scenes that aren't there so that reminds me what is best to put there (otherwise I have to comtemplate it and it takes forever) Thanks.

[Kyronea]

Right, of course. I've been sticking to important directions thus far mostly just to give it some direction so the dialogue isn't just out there. I'll go back and add in animation directions for every new cutscene in the storyline. I'll do Trann Dome first since it's the only one currently in the part where the test beta is as far as I remember.

But first, a meal, for I am hungry.

[Zakyrus]

Ok, keep up the good work on dialouge, hopefully If I get up to Magus's Lair by next week, I'll give you that & the next monster rebalance (with a debug room, no chapter warp yet). Yeah, Trann Dome was the first new convo. So was Melchior's but I put it in when you are leaving because it was much easier to do at the time.

...anyways I gotta go to work. I'll be back in about 10 hours.

[Kyronea]

Ok, keep up the good work on dialouge, hopefully If I get up to Magus's Lair by next week, I'll give you that & the next monster rebalance (with a debug room, no chapter warp yet). Yeah, Trann Dome was the first new convo. So was Melchior's but I put it in when you are leaving because it was much easier to do at the time.

...anyways I gotta go to work. I'll be back in about 10 hours.

Good good. Don't worry, by the time you get back later tonight I'll have the animations done for Trann Dome and probably Melchior's house as well, and any others if I can get to them.

EDIT: Also, as a word of caution, I'm occasionally changing a couple lines here and there. Usually it's just a slight word change or two to go along with a better translation of the original Japanese text, but sometimes, like now, there's a big change: it's Princess, not Queen in "The Queen is Gone." In other words, it should read "The Princess is Gone." Thank Kwhazit for that one.

[Zakyrus]

Also, Heckran Cave is suppoesed to be balanced up to level 22. I guess I train my PCs in every every until I gain a few levels then move on to the next area and do the same thing, I was about 19 when I got to Heckran the first time I tested it and I owned through everything. I guess I forgot to warn you about the sharp increase in monster levels.

[Kyronea]

Hmm...well, I worry somewhat about whether that should be done or not, if only because Chrono Trigger has thus far been a game where you don't really need to train as you go through the game...normal fighting through areas ought to do. (And hell...I was avoiding most fights out of habit.) So, maybe we should rebalance the EXP regular monsters give...but then that might defeat the whole point, wouldn't it?

Anyway, I've tossed in animations for the Trann Dome and Melchior's house scene. I'd be able to do more but the problem is I actually don't know the full range of possible animations for all of the various PCs and NPCs...I never fully paid attention to it because I never thought it would be useful knowledge. Shows what I know, eh?

[Zakyrus]

I am going to rebalance the monsters until they are something we can all agree on.
I will probably keep the stats the same (because I like the battles being longer) but I will scale up the EXP.

[Kyronea]

Battles being longer and more challenging are fine, but we want to avoid adding length for the sake of length, as it would become somewhat tedious, and that's something we want to avoid at all costs. At the moment the beta test battles don't fall prey to this...though they definitely come close, though this might be bias thanks to being used to speeding through everything.