new battle layout feedback

[Troyen]

I don't really know what this game is about but every screenshot of the UI makes me think it's too cute to have skeletons as enemies. Surely they could be disgruntled popsicles instead.

What about chibi skeletons? They'd be cute too.

[jack1974]

I've started recoding the battle setup screen to display two rows and also the class bonuses I talked in previous posts. I thought also to add an option

this game will be obviously quite different from SOTW or even Loren, so for non-plot battles you can escape if you want. Of course there'll be a price like losing items/money you robbed, but you'll be safe. Probably not many Nightmare players will use it... unless I disable saves during the missions/robberies, which could be... interesting

[yayswords]

Wait wait, nightmare difficulty? Where do I sign up?

I saw talent trees and was like that's it, pants down. Then I was like, but this game looks so cute so it's probably mostly a VN and nobody will care if I opine on the combat, and the pants went up again. They're still up, but unbuckled.

[jack1974]

Haha no it's a RPG, done very differently from SOTW, more similar to Loren for several aspects (skilltree, grinding, full party heal after each battle, etc). I'm trying a new approach again: I don't want (well, mostly I CAN'T for time/money reasons) to spend as much time as I did with SOTW, but I want to implement a Nightmare difficulty if possible.
It will be mainly done by limiting the SP regen a lot and also no healing except for LIMITED potions, like you can carry only amount X on each mission (where X is a low number like 4-5). And spells/condition will have a much bigger importance.

[yayswords]

Then I have two things to say. The first and most important is that the second row of talents all look like birds, or perhaps witch doctor ritual masks.

Spoiler:

The second is when the fuck is the beta out.

[jack1974]

Haha I never noticed the witch doctor effect
For the beta I'm afraid but I will need a lot more time. I am still evaluating several gameplay things, like the combos or passive effects during the battle setup, etc. Then I also need to integrate everything with the story. I doubt will be before September

[fleetp]

I like the idea of a 'flee from battle option with penalty'.

[jack1974]

today added some of the new enemy sprites (the skeletons in this case). Also already tweaked some skills and stuff. Changed Kira's Strikethrough skill so that ignores armor value for example (since the "hit back row target" doesn't make sense anymore with this new layout).
The battle core mechanics are starting to shape up, and I like it so far

[yayswords]

If there's never going to be more than three party members, maybe you could remove the empty slots and use them for UI elements or just make the party shinier?

[jack1974]

I'm using it to allow some strategy by adding startup bonuses, see this post: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=3624#p32729
Also this way enemies can be 5, for some outnumbered battles