Beta Tester Suggestions

[ZeaLitY]

We need a way to keep track of and decide upon suggestions privately; this thread will get the job done. I, Chrono'99, and JP will vote on each suggestion.

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• Lord J Esq - 5. I would recommend the "Tyrano Lair" music in lieu of the
  "Underground Sewer" for the meeting with the Porreans. (Note: tackle this after Lord J completes the playthrough in case he feels Tyrano Lair would be overused)
• Lord J Esq - 7. Perhaps a little more drama prior to the breaking of the Time Egg? (Note: hold off, I'll ask if he has a good suggestion in mind)
• Lord J Esq - 8. The Crimson Echoes title screen, in what looks like a Zealish hall, is a bit understated. I expected some kind of event to happen, but it's just an empty room. The music doesn't fit with that. (Maybe we have the Frozen Flame show up? Or would that be too early? Ideas?) JP:  No on frozen flame, i'll wait for suggestions - C99: Too early for the FF. Maybe the NPCs turn the light off (blue overlay command) and just walk off or something. The music could be whatever is played in Zeal at Night. I don't think this part should be overstated since the story hasn't begun at that point.
• Lord J Esq - 19. The brief Ocean Palace music when Dalton shows up at the end of the dungeon probably isn't necessary. C99: Dunno...Either way might be fine.
• Lord J Esq - 28. It feels as though something more should have happened during the night, be it with the party, or out in the forest, or back at the Porrean camp. JP:  YES, we have all the bandit talk and nothing happens.  Maybe the Guardian soldier marle talks to got kidnapped and you can rescue him from the forest? - C99: To be honest, I never knew what was the point of these bandit talks. It feels superfluous in that chapter and a sidequest might distract from the Sorin/Porre buildup. It feels superfluous in the whole game actually...unless Zeality had something in mind that I don't catch?
• Lord J Esq - 37. That is one ghetto-looking mall, by the way. No good tilesets? JP:  It'd be up to a mapper to do it, but i'm not opposed -  C99: I could try to do it but I'm on the more important polishing stuff first.
• 63. The "Corridors of Time" music may seem like an obvious choice for Zeal at night, but it really doesn't fit with the mood. I have a couple of alternative suggestions. I would recommend the Radical Dreamers song, "The Girl Who Stole the Stars." Alternatively, you could use the RD song "Under the Moonlight" provided that you silence the flowing water sound. VOTES - I say, do a "Zeal at night" remix for Corridors of Time, and try to implement "Under the Moonlight" for Zeal Palace. We'll leave Under the Moonlight in consideration for other places since it'll be in the ROM. Wait till we get music - We'll do music last.
• 80. Lucca's speed stat is miserable. No...Marle's is miserable. Lucca's is obscene. When the fastest characters can get two turns in for every one of hers, the combat becomes imbalanced. Lucca's usefulness is constrained primarily to Double Techs and to attacks against fire-weak enemies. - VOTE YES - Just bump it up 1. I noticed this in 2305 but didn't comment. Is this the same as CT? I'm not sure how stats are handled in the rom, like I can change it initially but i dont know if at level up it adds to it or just overwrites it - Dunno. I can't comment on battle issues because the last time I actually played through the game in a linear way was like November or something.
• 85. One thing I really enjoyed about Chrono Trigger was its humorous etudes prior to combat. My favorite is in the cathedral dungeon near the beginning of the game, when the monster (I think it's a Hench) says: "I'll give you this; you know what you're doing," even though the party threw out the stairs completely by accident. Crimson Echoes has a couple of these, and I highly encourage you to write more of them. (Note: going to ask him after he finishes the game) Wait - Wait and ask J Esq, but YES in any case. There are a couple in the first half of the game but it seems to drastically decrease in the latter dungeons (which ARE supposed to be darker in mood, but still).
•   Originally Cyber wanted to escape beast forest right away so in one of the later patches I added "instant access" out of beast forest after golem  boss (and only after golem boss).  However now that the difficulty is toned down we should revisit this.  Ugh..i vote.... Make them walk out... but it's close...it can be a pain in the ass to get out especially if you use your items on the boss and are doing a low level game 
• References to {Magus} to Magus.  There's several points about this going both directions.   So when talking about magus in the past tense {Magus} or Magus   {Magus}
  
  

FIXED I can delete these if you want

• Lord J Esq - 27. In the following scene, where the Engineer is talking about "The future is now!" perhaps the music could be "Gato's Theme." Or, for a slightly darker mood, there could be no music until the end of the scene, with "Sealed by a Mysterious Force" playing as he hammers the tank, and no second rendition of "Goodnight" as the scene returns to the adventurers in the shrine. JP:  No on gatos theme I can try out the second to see how it is, second Goodnight is already gone from previous bug - C99: Sealed by a Mysterious Force is a good choice; Sorin stole Chronopolis technologies and these were built by Belthasar like the sealed doors of CT.
• Lord J Esq, maggiekarp - Remove Telepods. - VOTE YES - Ideas? Can it just be blank?  JP:  YES - C99: YES, we can just make the trees fill more of the screen and add one or two benches to fill the void.
• Lord J Esq - 41. The Ocean Palace music doesn't actually fit with the Sunken Palace very well. I might suggest something like "At the Bottom of Night." - VOTE YES - Ocean Palace is more King Zeal's theme, and it has dramatic impact when it first pops up like that JP:  YES -  C99: YES.
• Lord J Esq - 10. What was the Elder of the First Village doing following Magus, andhow was he unafflicted by whatever was wounding or enervating Magus? VOTE YES - Can we just change to an earthbound man?
  JP:  Um...that's fine but does it solve the problem?  I feel like we have quite a bit of dialogue saying that magus had been wondering around for awhile don't we?  Lord J didn't seem to catch that magus was just exhausted
  C99: Yes for earthbound man. We establish with the ferry guy that there are a few adventurers around (he only shows up after that chapter, but still). Or we can just remove the NPC to imply that Magus was rescued but not a mere MINUTE after falling down.
• 49. When Glenn first shows up and his music plays, that music currently stops as soon as you decide on his name. It would have more of an impact if it kept playing through his battle with the Hench and his conversation with Crono's party, up until the party selection screen with the End of Time music. - VOTE YES  YES - YES
• 59. The Mystic Den where the scene with the Vanguard captains occurs is hard to spot. I didn't even notice it the first time, and I ended up on the other side of the continent. A more prominent graphic would help. VOTE MAYBE - Could we just extend forest tiles around the entrance to make it seem more like an entrance? Like a little protrusion of the forest on either side.  YES - I think one vertical "road" tile directly south of the entrance would be best.

• Lord J Esq - 27. In the following scene, where the Engineer is talking about "The future is now!" perhaps the music could be "Gato's Theme." Or, for a slightly darker mood, there could be no music until the end of the scene, with "Sealed by a Mysterious Force" playing as he hammers the tank, and no second rendition of "Goodnight" as the scene returns to the adventurers in the shrine. JP:  No on gatos theme I can try out the second to see how it is, second Goodnight is already gone from previous bug - C99: Sealed by a Mysterious Force is a good choice; Sorin stole Chronopolis technologies and these were built by Belthasar like the sealed doors of CT.
• Lord J Esq, maggiekarp - Remove Telepods. - VOTE YES - Ideas? Can it just be blank?  JP:  YES - C99: YES, we can just make the trees fill more of the screen and add one or two benches to fill the void.
• Lord J Esq - 41. The Ocean Palace music doesn't actually fit with the Sunken Palace very well. I might suggest something like "At the Bottom of Night." - VOTE YES - Ocean Palace is more King Zeal's theme, and it has dramatic impact when it first pops up like that JP:  YES -  C99: YES.
• Lord J Esq - 10. What was the Elder of the First Village doing following Magus, andhow was he unafflicted by whatever was wounding or enervating Magus? VOTE YES - Can we just change to an earthbound man?
  JP:  Um...that's fine but does it solve the problem?  I feel like we have quite a bit of dialogue saying that magus had been wondering around for awhile don't we?  Lord J didn't seem to catch that magus was just exhausted
  C99: Yes for earthbound man. We establish with the ferry guy that there are a few adventurers around (he only shows up after that chapter, but still). Or we can just remove the NPC to imply that Magus was rescued but not a mere MINUTE after falling down.
• 49. When Glenn first shows up and his music plays, that music currently stops as soon as you decide on his name. It would have more of an impact if it kept playing through his battle with the Hench and his conversation with Crono's party, up until the party selection screen with the End of Time music. - VOTE YES  YES - YES
• 59. The Mystic Den where the scene with the Vanguard captains occurs is hard to spot. I didn't even notice it the first time, and I ended up on the other side of the continent. A more prominent graphic would help. VOTE MAYBE - Could we just extend forest tiles around the entrance to make it seem more like an entrance? Like a little protrusion of the forest on either side.  YES - I think one vertical "road" tile directly south of the entrance would be best.
• 70. Be wary of cornering the player into plot advances. When I was in Enhasa, I was careful to explore the city before going into Belthasar's laboratory. If I had done it the other way around, I would have missed the opportunity to explore. - VOTE YES - Just make a decision box for "Use the Time Egg to leave Zeal?" on a sparkly sprite in the lab or something. The player can select No, then come back and pick Yes when he or she is ready. YES - YES

[Agent 12]

Concerning:

80. Lucca's speed stat is miserable. No...Marle's is miserable. Lucca's is obscene. When the fastest characters can get two turns in for every one of hers, the combat becomes imbalanced. Lucca's usefulness is constrained primarily to Double Techs and to attacks against fire-weak enemies.


I just did a little research and realized that the speed stat does not increase with a characters level....i guess it can get boosted by completing side quests?  I honestly never knew this.  SO:

a) The speed stat is the same as in chrono trigger....I never was a lucca user in chrono trigger but i have to admit trying her out in CE she is ridiculously slow.....i wonder why I never noticed this
b) Should we look into "stat boosts" for completing sidequests? 

Should we boost it?  I feel kind of bad boosting it cause the original developers must have made her this slow for a reason right?

Here are initial speed stats:
                C      L      R        A     Mar   F       Mag
Speed   12   6   6   13   8   11   12


Does the encyclopedia have a page talking about the speed stat and how sidequests affect it?  Maybe we should just put more speed tabs?

--JP

[Agent 12]

Bumping this up, for Z and 99...i'd like you guys to comment on if people in 600 should refer to the player as magus hard coded or not.

--JP

[nightmare975]

Bumping this up, for Z and 99...i'd like you guys to comment on if people in 600 should refer to the player as magus hard coded or not.

--JP

From a gameplay standpoint everyone in the game refered to him as whatever you name him in Chrono Trigger, it might be good to just keep it that way, or start calling him Fiendlordugh.

[ZeaLitY]

Yeah, I vote for keeping them {Magus} instead of Magus. A lot more people are probably going to say "what the hell, I thought I changed his name" instead of "why, that's not accurate according to the Japanese version which uses 'Demon King Magus' merely as his title."

[Chrono'99]

By the way, shouldn't we use the DS naming conventions in the game, generally speaking?

[Agent 12]

I think we should probably stick to the names we have now (over DS).  Changing it now is bound to cause bugs (like the 2302 lingering around that FW found).  Plus I think alot of the target audience played CT: orig anyways so they won't be confused.

--JP