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Chronicles of Acorn Chapter 1 Alpha Difficulty Patch (Patreon)

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2017-07-01 14:17:13
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Hiya guys! So, we did mention previously we intended the game to be pretty hard. Admittedly, at least with Hard Mode, we went a bit overboard.

I've had reports that the very first boss of the game is too difficult. Well, if you fight it too soon, as in level 1-5 without Sally's full gear found, ya! You're gonna get smoked ^^; 

It's an extremely difficult balancing act believe me. If we make the first boss do less damage, then it wont do ANY to Sally at level 7 with all the gear found and equipped. ^^; trust us, we tried this. So we really aimed to make it hard enough for level 5-7 with full gear to have a good fight still. 

So how do we go about fixing this problem for some players? I have some ideas. The first is I could increase Sally's base HP so her survivability is increased in the beginning, making the first boss easier for folks. The second idea is I could instead make the first boss Blindable, meaning half of his attacks will likely miss which could make it a lot easier for a first boss.

My next idea is to make an easy mode version of bosses, or at least this one to start with. When the battle is about to be initiated, a prompt will appear asking if you would like to fight the [Normal] boss or the [Easy] boss. Which would give players who are struggling a way to get through. 

So based on feedback I'll begin working on the changes for that fight. 


Now, I've been told the encounter rate is pretty high still, so my thoughts on fixing this... The issue here is that the map is fairly small, and if the encounter rate is less, you guys will be able to plow through it and you dont level up much before the boss, which is gonna make it a super hard fight for everybody trying to progress that soon. 

If this really is an issue though, I do have some ways I can try to fix the problem. The first idea, I can lower the encounter rate, and increase the amount of exp each enemy gives, to make up for the lack of encounters. This would give you guys much more time to run around but less battles. More exp would allow you to level up quickly though. 

My second idea is to design the encounters on a "Stay out of the lava" design. Basically there will be obvious tiles that encounters will spawn at, so to explore freely and avoid battles, you'd need only avoid those tiles. This would give players complete freedom of choice about random battle encounters, but there's a reason classic RPGs dont make it a choice. Without being forced, players might avoid fights too much, and lack exp and levels to progress past bosses. 

Let me know which idea sounds good. 


As for Hard Mode, it's flipping hard. xD but only at first. If you manage to make it around the map and obtain the Star gear, you'll have a much more easy time getting through it all. Still, some changes are going to be made to make Hard Mode a bit more forgiving.

The first- I'll be adding a save bucket where Sally spawns in Hard Mode so you guys dont have to keep going through the credits to get to it. 

Next- I'll be cutting the Caterkiller and Spybot enemy HP by a good percentage, as they have far more than necessary. 

Third- I'll be adding a new skill at level 12 that buffs Sally's survivability. Might give her a digital shield to increase her defense or something else that will make Hard mode more fair and less heal intensive. 

Fourth- Crabmeat Star's evasion buff is a bit too high, making it very hard to hit. I wanted it to be hard to hit, but I didn't intend to cause so many misses.

Fifth- In the current build, the Egg Turret Star mini-boss is EXTREMELY hard. Much more than I intended. I mean, if you're into fights where you have to learn the mechanics and execute moves perfectly, then this would be for you. However in it's current state it's only barely beatable. Sallyhot managed to do it, but yeah it shouldn't have been as hard as that. Honestly, I do want bosses this hard in the future, but I just think it's too soon to go this extreme ^^; SO, I'll be fixing the fight up. Cause honestly, it's only that hard since Guard is broken in this particular fight. And since Sally can't guard, she takes a whopping 75% of her health, and the turn before that she takes an inevitable 20%, meaning to survive you have have full health on turn 3, take 20% or less damage, then receive 75% damage immediately on turn 4 before you can even heal. So it's a situation where on turn 4, if Sally doesn't have 635 HP or more after she gets hit by the Egg Turret's regular attacks, she's gonna be killed in turn 5 by a 600-630HP damage move.  So to win, you have to get lucky, and play extremely perfect. I want extreme battles to be like this at end game, but not in the beginning of the game. ^^;


ANYWAY, I'll be fixing this fight. 


SO, along with these difficulty balance changes, I'll be fixing a few bugs Sallyhot and I found. :) Please be sure to let me know what you think of the options I listed above! I need feedback on what you think I should change! 


The patch should be rolling out Later today or tomorrow the latest. Tata for now!


-Blazeymix


Comments

Zanoss

Some balance that sounds good =P

Wakeangel2001

I'm playing the game right now, I found Sally's gear and got up to level 5 and still barely survived 5 or 6 turns against the boss, I'm doing more leveling now but DEFINITELY make the thing blindable, since it gets 2 attacks per turn and one of those attacks can hit 5 times in a row. I was frantically throwing rocks at the thing trying to decrease its accuracy and finding out that did nothing feels kind of cheap. (If a boss is immune to certain status effects maybe find a way to tell the player in advance?) The thing I'm wondering about is the Mobian fly trap, it's a plant but it takes more damage than any of the robot enemies and deals out way more damage in addition to status effects. I know you probably intended those things to be taken out by a party but it feels outright unbeatable when you're solo.

Jack Ponder
>>5936465

The Mobian fly traps, least from what I can tell, are optional enemies you can fight for sweet experience and cool loot. Of course, they're also pretty friggin' tough but I was able to kill it by blinding the fly trap with a slingshot empowered Rock or two and then spamming grenades at it over and over again till it died. And yeah, I think bosses are immune to blind from the Rock. The fire effect from the slingshot enhanced grenades seems to work though.

Anonymous

Might I suggest increasing the walk speed just a touch? It's a bit of a slog getting from one place to another. I also think some enemies take too long to kill. It kinda feels like enemies are currently designed to be fought with a group. I think on average, when in a solo party, most solo enemies should die in about 2-3 hits, and groups should have enemies that die in 1-2 hits. So, like, in a enemy group you can have one mob that dies in about 3 hits and 2 that die in 1.

Wakeangel2001

okay I got one! I never liked the concept of save points in level based games like RPGs, or in general really but it's REALLY bad in RPGs. You see, I was making progress through the cave, taking out all enemies ahead of me, until a Swatbot got lucky and stun locked me twice in a row, allowing it and its 2 crabmeat friends to take me from full HP to dead in one exchange where I couldn't do anything to stop it. That means I'm sent back to the save point and lost 10 minutes of progress, not to mention I had to face all the enemies in the cave AGAIN. I don't want to have to walk back and fourth to a bucket over and over again to make sure I don't lose progress, perhaps you can just implement a regular "save where you stand" system to get rid of this tedium? Remember, tedium isn't the same as challenge.

PhantomBat5

Not sure the difficulty of the demo I played, but yeah, I got smoked a few times early on. But I finished the demo in about an hour and a half. And I'm not an RPG player. Overall, I thought it was fun even without the "fun" bits. Looking forward to more down the road.

PokeBuns
>>5937310

BM: Hi there. So, this is all great feedback. The harshest, but also the most helpful! I'm going to address your concerns one by one and please note I've taken everything you said into coniseration, even if I dont agree with some of it. So first of all, yeah, I'm gonna make the boss blindable. I admit in hindsight Sally's moves should all be able to be utilized in battle, especially when she's on her own. As far as not getting any sort of warning or notification that the boss was immune to Blind? Yeah, I agree with that as well. Actually the truth is, I had thought about this and I knew it'd be a bit cheap and frankly unfair. But it wasn't on my prioriity list of things to find a solution for as I wanted to get the playable demo out before worrying about immunity notifcations. I'm glad you told me your thoughts on the matter because I felt this was going to be a problem, and I was right! So the good news is, I'll be working on fixing that for the next update or next couple patches. As far as the Mobian Fly Trap, it's an optional fight. So it's meant to be hard. I didn't intend that fight to be a party fight, it's designed for Sally solo, but it is quite hard to take on if you aren't level'd high enough with gear. The point of that optional fight was to give players a fun challenge where they need to strategize to win. I wont be doing anything to change this fight as it's not unbalanced, it's something that will need to be taken on when you're level'd enough. :) Now, Save Points. I know this is a bit of a tricky topic as this is a major gameplay choice for me as the developer. Do I want players to be able to save anywhere? or Designate a save point for them. To tell you the truth, save points at extra challenge and risk to the gameplay. For example, in the dungeon you could have went back outside to save before each fight. Granted this is tedious, but it's better than going ahead too much, dying, and then having to start all over. That being said, I will be making changes to the save points to make it far more fair, fun, and managable. First of all, for now, I'm not going to enable saving anywhere. Instead, I'm going to put a save point immediately at the start of the dungeon so you're able to run back to it quickly after each fight without having to worry about dying. I think this will give players a lot more leeway and freedom to either risk it and move forward, or play it safe and go back to save. I hope you like the changes and find it a lot better than before! As far as tedium isn't the same as challenge is concerned, from a video game design standpoint, save points again are to give players a bit of extra challenge and risk to progression. If they are able to save anywhere and any time, a ton of challenge is taken out of the game. It may not be your thing, but it is a viable gameplay mechanic that Sallyhot and I are going to go with for our RPG. It wasn't at all meant to be tedious though, so again I'll be adding save points to eliminate a lot of that tedious loss of progression when dying. All in all, wonderful, incredibly helpful feedback. Thanks so much! :)

PokeBuns
>>5937278

BM: Hi there! Thanks for the feedback, here's my response :) First of all, the walk speed is slow, however you CAN run if you hold shift on your keyboard. Which should speed things up a lot :) You cannot however run in the dungeons, as it's designed with placed enemies and exploration in mind. If the dungeons get too big, I might have to enable running in them. Try out the running in Western Great Forest! :) Secondly, your concerns about solo enemy HP is a good one. However... ^^; it's a bit tricky and complicated. Y'see, when I was making the build and had Sallyhot playtest, he kept saying the enemies were too weak, too easy, the battles were too quick, etc. The issue is, he doesn't want our game to be a "spam attack" RPG, he wants me to design it where the player is almost forced to strategize to make it through battles. If the enemies are easier to kill in the beginning, then Sally will be able to spam attack to get through, which isn't what we intend for the game. We do want players to have to use strategy in the game to beat the enemies. Again it's a very difficult thing to balance, as your point is still valid. It's Sally by herself, and it's the beginning of the game, so enemies should be easier to kill. Still, we tried to find a good middle ground for players(With Caterkiller and Spybot) to fight them without simply spamming attack so much. If you use your grenades, you'll be able to 2 hit them for example instead of 3-4. They aren't designed to be fought with a group, I did design them for Sally to beat solo IF the player utilizes her playstyle. It's a bit different than your typical RPGs yes but we dont want to make just another typical RPG, we want to try to do somethnig different, to stand out. But yes, I do see why you think they were designed for multiple characters. One thing I do think I'll change as per your suggestion, was with mob sizes. You suggested that if there's a mob of 3, 1 should have a lot of HP while 2 should have little. I agree with this completely, and I'm going to be taking steps to adress this in the build. :) That being said, in dungeons, the enemies have a lot more HP, and that's because they're designed to be longer, more difficult fights that the player needs to use Sally's skills to fight and survive effectively. The enemies in the dungeon were designs however to be tough for one character but not at all overwhelming for Sally. If the player strategizes correctly, Sally can get through it fairly easy. Again, the enemies here have a lot of HP but they're designed to fight one character, not more. So they don't do a ton of damage unless Sally is underlevel'd. Anyway, thanks so much for your feedback again! Please keep it up and tell me any of your thoughts in the future, and let me know if the upcoming Balance update is more fun to play and fixes some fo your concerns. I admit, you've been a huge help. Especially with the large mobs thing. :)

PokeBuns

SH: The difficulty level would probably be my fault. xD I kept asking for more of a challenge. I love RPG's and I love em hard and seein as I was pretty much the only game tester before launching, well...fact is we need more game testers I guess. xD I like to think we got to a good balance of things, but that's the opinion of an experienced RPG player and not a casual player. But, Idk, yes you can't race through this game, you have to level before taking on certain enemies. The Fly Trap is beatable around level 6, which is what you'll naturally progress to if you take on every fight and don't run while looking for all 4 of the treasure chests, 1 being hidden. Then the mini boss is beatable at around level 8, which if you beat at least 2 of the fly traps, you'll get to in a hurry. Use rock and rock ss a lot, it's a very handy attack and will keep you alive longer, which is why we gave the enemies more health, we wanted peeps to actually use the gadgets and slingshot rather than spam attack. xD Anywho, we'll be adding a lot more features to things for the next patches and such, and eventually I'll be adding in the mature cut scenes ya'll been waiting for. :p

PokeBuns
>>5942769

later in the month I should say, cutscenes later in the month. xD

Bedlam Fox

Maybe it's just I've played so many RPGs back in the day, but I thought the difficulty was pretty well spot on. Didn't really need to grind a whole lot to stand my own (though I did get pwned by the first fly trap enemy when I instigated it). All in all, it's pretty damn promising and just about all the little quirks and problems I've had with it have been pretty much discussed already. Though I would like to see a normal save point at the beginning even in normal (doesn't have to reheal you, like the rainbow cone from Grandia or Anchor Icon from Skies of Arcadia or whatev's. XD). One thing I would like to see, and this is coming from an old Sega-fanboy, but if any of the future characters get magic/techniques, would be nice if you borrowed the Phantasy Star or Shining Force nomenclature in keeping with Sonic Team/Sega games and all (ie: Foie/Barta/Zonde/Resta for Fire/Ice/Lightning/Heal). The only thing else that ran through my mind is that is this whole game going to be SFW or is there going to be a NSFW release along side it (Kinda like what Harmarist is doing with his game: Anubis and the Buried Bone)? Just an idle thought is all, =-u^= Still, keep up the great work guys! Closest I've seen to my 25 year dream coming true!

PokeBuns
>>5943843

BM: Wow, you've made my day! Thanks so much for the kind words, to tell you the truth, this is my dream game too. and it's kinda crazy to be making it myself! xD I'm so glad it's like old school RPGs, it means something to me when folks say I did it right, ^^; Cause ya I'm like you, I love the classic RPG games and they were pretty dang tough! :P I'm glad I seem to know what I'm doing. Let me know what you think of Hard Mode after I fix it. Anyway, Bedlam, I planned on adding a save point on the beginning sign post actually ^^ so I'm glad you gave your input cause it's what i had in mind. As far as your suggestions for using the Phantasy Star magic words for Fire/Ice etc, I think for Nicole and other casters I might just do that! I love your suggestion, it's a pretty good one. So I'd say you're gonna be pretty happy when I put em in, cause I like the idea a lot! Erm, though I would need a full list of spell names/item names what-have-you just because I never played Phantasy Star. ^^; Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Please keep giving more feedback with each release! We need input from old school RPG fans like you, and feedback from folks who like more casual gameplay. :) OH! and you asked if this was gonna be NSFW or SFW, well I actually wanted to release two version! :) One for folks who want the NSFW, and one for folks who just wanna play that dream Sonic RPG! Also dont worry about Sonic not being in the game, cause he's coming! Just not gonna be playable ^^; at least not until we make some patches and consider him for playable. Would be fun to add him later on for sure. :)

Wakeangel2001

I just beat the regular mode for the first time, I like Jerry's design. I admit I very rarely play turn based RPGs but, is it common for the enemy HP to not be displayed? I'm kind of used to having that as kind of a progress bar, to let me know how well I'm doing in a fight. Is that just not a thing in RPG maker or is it just how they do things these days?

PokeBuns
>>5947434

Old school RPGs didn't have HP bars ^^; It's just a design choice. I want to add a "Scan" move eventually though! or something to that effect