Zanea's Tales Talk.

[DragonMasterX]

Hey, everyone. And hi, players of ZT3. I've made this topic in hopes of having an organized way for players or onlookers that want to chat about the game, make requests or just ask questions. I'll also be using this topic as a means to communicate important stuff and take care of any queries that anybody may have.

The only rule this topic has is that it may not be used to RP or SPAM. Be tactful about what you say and don't flame others, okay?

First order of business I'd like to discuss is: Party Leader. As the players might or might not realize, it's been 3 formal (and normal) missions ever since the newest Party Leader (Crimson Fox) has led the team of characters. According to the rules, it is time to run elections once more, keep in mind that you may vote for yourself and vote for the same leader to be re-elected. The choice is yours. It is also important to note that you may not vote a blank or else you won't be able to take part in subsequent missions. Everybody is required to make an input whether they like it or not. Thank you for your understanding, now, let me write down the list of active players:

Crimson Fox
Erethzium
Kyosan
Masquerade
Matt Ishida
Pinkdragon
Sacchi
Shadowknight
Soma Cruz

These all are required to enter votation, and the votes from every active player will determine the new party leader or the re-election otherwise. Make sure you PM your nomination to me, the vote will be secret and you may confide in me, I will not tell anybody who you voted for.

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On a completely unrelated note, I would like to ask the players questions about two game mechanics to see what they think.

1) Movement & Action. It isn't news to anyone that the game functions in a way so every unit, during their turn, may move and act, or just act, as any action makes movement an inability during the same phase.

My question is, and be sure to put a lot of thought into your answer, do you think we should allow free movement even after acting? Keep in mind the following things:

1.1. Players being able to move whether after or before acting means the enemy will be able to do the same. While a useful tactic for you, the same will apply to your opponents, and an enemy that's constantly avoiding to get hit means the battle will drag on for longer than necessary.

1.2. Don't bring logic into this debate. There are two points of view on why characters should and shouldn't be able to move after acting. Don't bring game examples either, I'll just counter them and we'll drag the debate on needlessly.

This said, it will be up to the Players to tell me how they feel about allowing characters (And enemies) to be able to move freely before AND after executing an action (Attacking, using Items or Skills).


2) Deathblows. The system has been revamped and therefore the Deathblows function differently from before. The FP Counter fills every time a character moves AND acts in a turn, and a character gains 2 FP per kill. This can put a very big handicap on newer characters and the party as a whole as it could mean that the FP Counter would inevitably require characters to move around needlessly for some turns and would turn the Deathblows into unpleasant 'extras'.

With this premise in mind, I've designed a new method for FP farming during Missions.

2.1. Characters receive 1 FP for every action they make in a turn (Yes, this counts instances or abilities that allow characters to act more than once if any).

2.2. Characters receive 2 FP for exploiting an enemy weakness (Hitting a target that's weak to an Elemental attribute) but receive 0 FP if they hit an enemy with an Elemental attribute that's either ineffective or absorbed.

2.3. Characters receive 2 FP for reviving a party member (Either with Items or Abilities), characters also receive 2 FP if they hit 3+ enemies with a single action.

2.4. Characters receive 3 FP for dealing the finishing blow on an enemy.

2.5. An FP counter resets to 0 if the character dies in battle.

2.6. FP accumulation does not stack anymore. The highest number of FP gained from a condition will be the FP gain of a character. (i.e.: Killing an enemy and damaging two other critters with a single attack will only yield 3 FP.) Killing more than one enemy in one shot, is an exception, and the amount of enemies destroyed by the character's finishing blow will add more FP in the manner of 3 per every dead enemy. (Killing 3 enemies would yield a total of 9 FP for the character dealing the finishing blow/s).

2.7. A Deathblow's Rng is equal to your Rng stat. Spellcasters are an exception to this, their Deathblow Rng is set at 3.

2.8. A Deathblow's attack strength will be 150% and will deal piercing damage.

2.9. The highest offensive stat (Atk or Int) takes priority with the 150% bonus to the Deathblow.


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That'll be all. Players, please leave your answers for 1) and your comments for 2). Everyone is required to post, as I need input from every available source. Thanks in advance. Also, don't be afraid of using this topic for future chats or side-comments about the game!

[Crimson Fox]

1) I prefer movement as it is right now. While I admit that it's annoying at times to not be able to move after an action, if the enemy is held to that rule as well, then there isn't really an issue. Afterall, they're forced to work by the restriction as well.

2) I have a few questions I'd like to ask about your new Deathblow system.
If I were to hit three enemies with Firaga and managed to kill two of them, would that mean I'd get 8 FP? (+2 for triple hit, +3 for first kill, and +3 for second kill)

Second, you mentioned before that spell casters would be able to use deathblows at range like a spell. Even though our range is technically 1 in the stats, nearly all of our abilities have a range of 3. Will this range still apply to the deathblow for spellcasters?

Other than that, it looks fine. It kind of stinks that it's weaker, but since we'll be able to use them a little faster, it's an understandable trade-off.

[DragonMasterX]

Ammended Deathblows.

[Kurtz]

Yeah, I'm pretty fine with the Movement System as it is. It hasn't caused many problems at all, and is fairly simple to understand. I have no qualms. :P

[Masquerade]

1) Yeah. It would be fine either way. So keeping it the same is cool.

2) I don't see anything wrong with the Deathblows. Everything seems to be in tact. Though weaker, we don't really use them too often, so I think it's all good.

[DragonMasterX]

I forgot that there is another matter I'd like to discuss, which is about EXP. I'm thinking of coming up with a system/ripping an EXP gain system from some game so Leveling Up is less edged towards my opinion and more leaned on the direct performance of a character with each of their individual actions, that is, so everyone can gain instant EXP Points each time they do something in their turn. I need to think about it, but if anybody has any ideas or feelings about this, feel free to chip in.

[Kurtz]

Well, in Final Fantasy Dissidia, EXP is accumulated through all HP damage you do to the enemy, and you get bonuses if you pull off a limit break/EX Burst successfully (In this case, it would be a deathblow) or kill an enemy. It's an idea at least that we could work on! :P

[Crimson Fox]

An interesting idea, but we also have to take into account support skills and healing abilities. Would we work off of a base 10/100 exp. per basic move and add bonuses for special moves like deathblows, hitting multiple targets, and exploiting weaknesses? There's also the way Final Fantasy Tactics works where each move gains or loses 2 exp. per every level the player is lower or higher than their target. Finally, would experience be given all at the end, thus requiring a player to be alive at the end or would their efforts before they died be counted towards their level. (It wouldn't be as much, but they would at least get something for what they did during the battle.)

[DragonMasterX]

No, the intention of this system is to allow characters to gain EXP and instantly level up during the mission (If the milestone has been reached of course). I don't want anything complicated, though; keep in mind the game currently has 10 players, and that's 10 characters I've to keep track of.

I like giving Deathblows an extra purpose, like gathering bonus EXP, though. I like it.

[Kurtz]

Perhaps activating special events as well could give bonus EXP? Since afterall, they are special.

Suppose for healing, maybe they could gain EXP related to half of what they heal? (Maybe even quarter if we're talking about Vitalize), and maybe Support Skills could be judged on how effective they are.

Also, defeating BOSS enemies could wield bonus EXP too. :P

Just an idea or two.