Souls of Destiny: Full 4 chapter update patch

[CONMAN]

Been meaning to reply for a while...

First battle of the new content ...man that priest can jump!, in same fight if Jenna dies or goes critical, she starts talking like rafa then runs away This was actually pretty challenging, most my characters had low jump so it was like a death trap with those archers. Then they jenna got critical and left lol. Plus the priests are all badasses. The main enemy though, forgot his name, but he was pretty much useless.

Jenna replaced Rafa in this game and I forgot to fix the conditionals sheet.  This battle played out the same for me- Despite having Beowulf skills, the "boss" is like the least tough part of this battle.

Nice queen portrait!

Not mine! It's already in vanilla, but I think only seen in a Brave story entry.

Goug sidequest is just conner and mustadio at first, then conner, mustadio and besrodio. Not sure if this was intended or not. Definitely made things challenging (which is always good IMO)

On purpose- Buddy adventure!

zero recruitment sidequest, he dives into a deep spot so it looks kinda odd when he talks. Also shadow attacks the other ninjas too

That's weird about shadow- patcher looks right.

Snow blade, fire blade, and wind blade all have the same range and effect area in description, but they are not the same.

Also snow blade does more damage than fire blade, even though it's an area attack

whoops- thought i had those.

Fencer MUCH more balanced with new dmg formula, but I still feel like it needs a little bit of a boost. Not too much, I mean they are instant attacks, relatively low MP cost and they did decent damage with equipment that boosts the element but still feels like they are slightly lacking

I'll play around and take a look.  I also think the class needs a name change, but I haven't been big on any name yet.

No green cherry for umaro? He only has north wind and head cracker. I still think you should give him the moogle summon too, so he can summon his pal mog  Also umaru can unlock other classes, was this intentional?

I overlooked the job class thing- probably will have to replace byblos... Weird on the green cherry... I have it on mine and it's quite useful.

I think it'd be nice if holy sword could be used with samurai swords, and have a equip great swords skill for paladin since there is already a equip sword skill for knights. That way I can use great swords in other classes, and if I have her as a samurai she can still use holy sword ( plus it makes sense since they are still swords )

I agree on the Katana use. The only way I would consider "equip knight sword" would be if it was only for one special.  It's one of the few decent perks of regular knights.

Also in holy sword description, it still lists the element(like lightning stab is lightning element and etc.) even though I think they are all inherit the element of the weapon. Not sure what your intentions are with them, I know there is a quick asm fix for it somewhere around here, but honestly I prefer them to inherit the element of the weapon

I don't think I ever thought about this- it should be asm'd.

I also would like to see a couple of the draw out (samurai) skills get an upgrade. Especially the first bunch of skills, they just do a little more damage than the last one. So once you get the next one it becomes useless. The only one even remotely useful out of the first 3 is the MP damage one.

I never thought about changing their skills up, but I'll take a look.  I like the idea of a little variety.

can't view descriptions in loki battle, and beginning of ch4 really glitches out if you try to view descriptions
on any equipment gained in the loki battle (see attached screenshot)

I knew Gunginir was glitchy- I tried to fix it once and it apparently didn't take. In fact, once selected, all other text for items become glitchy until you either leave battle or exit that particular menu.  I thought Mjlonir was fine, but I'll double check.

hawkeye is supposed to be a more powerful charge attack, but does not inherit weapon element, so if I have say a holy lance, with 108 gems(boost holy) it actually does less damage.

Barrage doesn't display damage, I also didn't check to see if it inherits weapon element

Zero's move ability (silent) does not make player invisible on move

Zero comes with secondary ability steal, but has not unlocked thief yet and has no steal abilities

I don't think the formula for hawkeye takes element- I'll see if I can change it.  I feel like barrage stops displaying damage when used with a non-ranged weapon-noted. Not sure why I gave silent walk to zero- I think I intended to change that ability to something else. Steal removed (I think I originally had him start as 6 levels of thief-but then he didn't have enough of his base skills learned to be useful in that battle.)

are you still working on this game ? and how far is it playable to ?

Yes, 4.

Slowly replaying and fixing stuff as I go- I'll try to keep updates popping out!

[Guru]

No biggie man, been swamped lately anyways.

I agree on the Katana use. The only way I would consider "equip knight sword" would be if it was only for one special.  It's one of the few decent perks of regular knights.

Not sure what you mean by this, one special character or one special weapon? I was thinking it would be a nice special perk for the paladin lady ( what the hell was her name... ), Especially since she is likely the only character who will use knight swords, since the only 2 classes that can equip them are knights and paladins. I know I at least don't plan on putting any characters as knight class for a base, at least by the time great swords are available. Either way you should at least ditch the equip sword ability she has in her paladin class, since it is already available in the knight class. Although chelsea and lala both have skills that are available in other classes, which is kind of nice....

Speaking of the draw out skills, I got an idea from one of the bugs someone mentioned in JOT5, where draw out was unintentionally damaging the user. A really strong "darkness" like skill that compensates for it's awesomeness by damaging the user. Would be cool for the Muramasa, because I believe it is considered a cursed blade? I just looked it up, it is not the cursed blade I thought it was, but all swords made by Muramasa are considered cursed demonic blades. In contrast swords made by Masamune are considered holy swords. The one I was thinking of was forged by a chinese couple who forged swords, and were both killed, and their spirits are said to dwell in the last sword they created (or pair of swords?) can't seem to find the name of the couple/sword(s) anymore. The chinese have the coolest legends lol

On purpose- Buddy adventure!

The goug sidequest was one of the hardest battes I think. Really enjoyed the challenge, even had to restart a couple times.

It's a lot easier to point out bugs and things I either don't like, or have suggestions on. So don't get the wrong idea cuz I obviously enjoy the hack  If you ever want more feedback on something specific just ask. I'd be more than happy to go back and test different things too. I meant to go back and test out balance on some of the new characters since I didn't use them all, but yeah life can be a pain in the ass sometimes lol. Hopefuly soon!

[DeJ]

Just picked up your new patch (the BETA version) and have been playing through it.

I gotta give you props man, this game is a lot of fun! Good story so far and I like the changes you've made. The new characters are also legit and the battles are still a challenge. I am still early in chapter 1, but have decided to dedicate some time to your patch.

I played your initial release and it had some issues - but this time around, it's much better.

Keep up the good work man! I am excited to see what this has to offer.

DEJ

[DeJ]

Yo ConMan -

I just encountered:
Frog in Lenalia Plateau, won't let me invite him though. Is this just a mini boss meant to drive me mad or am I missing the way to actually recruit him? (Invite w/ Mediator doesn't work) Furthermore, does he only appear once or multiple times? I would love to be able to recruit him!

It was a pleasant surprise as I love CT.

Lemme know!

[CONMAN]

He's just there for fun! He and Crono pop on that location every once in a while.  I intend to have Magus, and perhaps more pop up in chapter 4 eventually.  You can't invite Frog.  I have considered some sort of weird scenario where I might let you control him and other stranger characters that will pop up.

[DeJ]

Sweet man!! Great addition. Found Crono too, haha.

Loving the patch in CH 2, rolling through it nicely!

You should seriously consider scaling all story battles to the level of the controller's party, to make things more difficult.

I am literally having an easy time punishing each creative battle. Having great fun, but it's easy. I am an FFT grinder though. And to see what this patch has to offer I feel grinding is warranted.

Don't know how easy it is to scale the levels, but you should add that in your next patch!

[DeJ]

Found Shadow in Barius Valley. Sweet Samurai vs Ninja battle. Not even going to try recruiting him. Great addition man! Loving this patch!!

[Guru]

Ha I never found frog. I'm gonna have to go back and kick his ass now...

He's just there for fun! He and Crono pop on that location every once in a while.  I intend to have Magus, and perhaps more pop up in chapter 4 eventually.  You can't invite Frog.  I have considered some sort of weird scenario where I might let you control him and other stranger characters that will pop up.

This sounds cool, I'd love to see more you do more of this. Hope you bring out some OP badasses that can kick my ass! Being able to control some of em for battles would be neat too.

[CONMAN]

Progress Report!

I've been meaning to post for a couple weeks. When I have downtime I figure I'm better off working on the mod rather spending time updating this thread.

Slowly replaying and fixing things as I go.  A fair chunk of time has just been playing and trying to grind some generics to test out stuff.  I love to try to auto-battle grind, but I feel like 80% of the time they lose.... I'm currently near the end of the second chapter.  Bunches of little things like dialogue, camera, unit animations... changed an evtchr...yadda yadda.  Thanks to the newest patcher/shishi update I have been able to change the over-world sprite and have edited the battle conditions graphics to be accurate (defeat Magnus etc..)

I've been increasing the difficulty of story battles when they seem a little weak.  I still need to adjust the info on a few item/ability descriptions I had overlooked- or simply screwed up.  I may make some adjustments to class abilities to even things out.  I probably boosted the samurai a little too much.

The third chapter should take me a little more time than the others, but I plan to spend more time on my mod now than other hobbies for a bit.  Events will need some tweaks, I need to move umaro/yetis to the byblos spots to work properly, I need to finish the Ruvelia Queen sprite etc...

I day dream the upcoming fourth chapter all the time...  I have the main story all worked out.  Vanilla's 4th is like the size of 2 chapters.  I don't plan to have it be quite so long.  Maybe a little over half the length of Vanilla, but I intend to have more side quests, super monsters and the like.  At some point, I need to get over my fear of the unknown- and mess around with Xifanie's ISO manager- I definitely feel limited with the current ability effects and would like to add a couple new ones.

I can't help but have some giant and therefore time consuming plans for the final chapter.  Intend to make at least 3 sprites: A new lucavi, a monster sprite Apocalypse,  and complete my man/dragon "phantom beast".  I want to have some sort of "mini battle arena" side scenario- for things like: chrono crew vs Magus, or Thor vs Marvel baddies...

Finally, I intend to end the game with alternate final battle/ending scenarios.

[Timbo]

Rather than grinding things out, why but create a separate ISO where all skills cost 0 and are learnable by JP? You can test your events by giving Ramza a range 255 enemy only  255 auto murder attack.

[3lric]

Rather than grinding things out, why but create a separate ISO where all skills cost 0 and are learnable by JP? You can test your events by giving Ramza a range 255 enemy only  255 auto murder attack.

How would that help with gameplay testing in the slightest? That would make the testing incredibly inaccurate...

[Guru]

I can't help but have some giant and therefore time consuming plans for the final chapter.  Intend to make at least 3 sprites: A new lucavi, a monster sprite Apocalypse,  and complete my man/dragon "phantom beast".  I want to have some sort of "mini battle arena" side scenario- for things like: chrono crew vs Magus, or Thor vs Marvel baddies...

These all sound awesome  I've always been a fan of SoD, I jumped in around ch 2.5 but I've definitely enjoyed everything you have come up with so far. Can't wait to see how you wrap up the story!

If you ever need a tester or anything feel free to hit me up. My next semester is going to be a nightmare so not sure how much free time I will have until it's over, but I'm still willing to do what I can.

[Timbo]

How would that help with gameplay testing in the slightest? That would make the testing incredibly inaccurate...

Great Question. Before I answer, let's see what CONMAN actually said.

Slowly replaying and fixing things as I go.  A fair chunk of time has just been playing and trying to grind some generics to test out stuff.

What do you suppose he's grinding out with his generics? Could it be JP to spend on the abilities he created? If that's the case, which, based on his statement, is a perfectly reasonable assumption, then my suggestion to just create a version with no cost abilities probably makes a lot of sense.

[3lric]

Great Question. Before I answer, let's see what CONMAN actually said.

What do you suppose he's grinding out with his generics? Could it be JP to spend on the abilities he created? If that's the case, which, based on his statement, is a perfectly reasonable assumption, then my suggestion to just create a version with no cost abilities probably makes a lot of sense.

No, JackOfAllTrades, it doesn't. Anyone who has used FFTP for more than 3 minutes knows that you can simply set the JP to 1 or 0 or whatever to learn and test abilities much easier if abilities are what you are trying to test... (or he could even more easily just use the debugger)

With that in mind, he's obviously testing gameplay in a way that requires actual gameplay testing

[CONMAN]

The marathon continues.... Still plugging away! 

I've replayed through all three chapters and only have one event I still want to tinker with (a brave story one thankfully).  I haven't messed with the fftactext/spells messages that I needed to. But, fixing events seemed like it would be the longest clean up process and I'm happy to mostly have that behind me. 

I've gone ahead and laid out the bones for the first leg of chapter 4: worldmap/attackout/conditionals/patcher.  I've put together condensed (mostly placeholder) events and done some tinkering with them.  This chunk should be about 20/25% of the final chapter's story battles.  That definitely drives home that fact I really need to get this done really well before I move on...

Once I am satisfied with the second leg of the story battles and most if not all of the side quest events I will release a ~3.5 for this mod.

...

I was about to post the hypothetical thought that I could have the first full 4 chapter story mod out near the end of the year. However, after checking, I realized I posted a beta 1 chapter mod a little over 4 years ago (that pace is probably a little optimistic).  Ajora, the time flies!

[Guru]

Cool, thanks for the update! Sounds like you are nearing the end at least, that is very exciting to hear!

[CONMAN]

Progress log!

Progress totally came to a halt for a little bit as I worked on a Cthulhu sprite- I almost used a palette swapped squid, but it would have been an unacceptable use of that name.  It's pretty close btw.  Spriting is definitely slowing this down.

Need to touch up and complete the first battle series of the 4th chapter, but it's largely set.  It has some "custom music" to boot! I've set up the skeleton for the map path leading to the next series.  That series should be the last story line portion before I release another update patch.

I'm working on a hand full of side quests, a couple single and couple multi-battle series.  Also, the Deep Dungeon Cave of Illusions will open after the first battle series.  Other than the final floor, these battles won't use the protagonists at all... Each battle will be theme battles ie Beoulve team vs, Marvel team vs, Super Boss vs, etc.  I'm going to use the lightened-up maps for the deep dungeon.  I'm removing the find-the-panel to open the next floor mechanic and replacing it with a simple a defeat Elidibs avatar/unit id "x".  I always hated finding those damn panels!

[CONMAN]

Having some fun making side quests.  I always liked Beowulf and wanted to include him.  Totally taking him on a different path.  Felt like sharing the first scene.  Here it is!

[DeJ]

Haha Conman - this is awesome!

I love the Reptilian references. I think I like this Beowulf a little better, less... noble, and he's a crude drunkard.

Seems you are on the home stretch to a completed patch, this is truly good news!

I will happily play through your patch once you post another update with the great work you've done.

Keep it up man, you have an outstanding patch on your hands!

[Tomershalin]

Any new updates on this project? I've been liking it so far