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Post by TM93 on Oct 10, 2015 12:17:58 GMT
Well, as you all know, I enjoy making Spotlights for DDA, I enjoy seeing people's reactions to what I post, I enjoy seeing what everyone has to say, and I love just MAKING things.
Unfortunately, making things for one aspect of the system is slowing down me making things for another aspect of the system: namely fixing up the main handbook (now that Sanity and Inspiration rules are more than finalized) and finally cracking down on the Blackout Handbook, which I've been wanting to finish for a very long time.
This is nothing personal. This isn't me trying to say I hate Spotlights or hate the loyal fans I've accumulated. This is just me saying "hey, there's other stuff for the system that I want to get fixed up, give me some time and things will be back to normal but with shiny new things". I'll still obviously be available if you need to bug me about information with the system, or heck, just random, silly questions, I'll try to check into the Forums here every day if I can. But Spotlights might not be coming for a bit. I get I said Chrysalimon was coming, but after sleeping on it, I figure that this is a far more productive use of my time and energy when it comes to producing DDA.
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Post by TM93 on Nov 24, 2015 2:16:25 GMT
I feel like this is a good place to put work on the handbook on hold MECHANICALLY unless anything major is brought to my attention. Not that I won’t update it to look prettier in the future, fix gray areas, or grammatical/formatting problems when problems are brought to my attention, but unless a major mechanical issue is brought to my attention… I think we’ve hit a solid resting place. The Digizoid Qualities may require rebalancing at a certain point, but I’ve gotten little to no feedback on those either way.
Which leaves me to two things I intend to work on in the meantime.
First: I’ll be going back to doing a Digimon or Tamer Spotlight (BTW SEND IN SHEETS IF YOU WANT ME TO LOOK AT IT FOR A SPOTLIGHT, I STILL HAVEN’T GOTTEN ANY) once every two to three weeks. I think one every week may have just been straining on my schedule and on my brain, even if it was probably more interesting overall for people to follow. But I think I’ve held back on them for long enough now and can get back to business. I may also go back and redo some of the original few lackluster spotlights in the newer format.
Second: I need to focus on getting the Blackout campaign book up and running. But I think I have to start from scratch, while mechanically ambitious, the current DP Gain System simply makes for FAR too much bookkeeping and makes enemies a pain in the butt to create. It’ll also allow me time to make it look prettier and be easier to read overall. Some of you might have been following this on the Shoutbox, but I figure it might not hurt to reiterate.
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Post by TM93 on Mar 9, 2016 22:42:40 GMT
So, now's probably a good time to get this off my chest: I'm still planning to develop DDA, but our current game is opening my eyes to a lot of things the system might lack, or that it might need better wording on. Some of which are here: digimondda.proboards.com/thread/44/digimon-1-changelist, and some of which are here: digimondda.proboards.com/thread/32/general-balance-missing-mechanics-discussionAnd others which I should probably start getting out there now! (this doesn't include simple wording issues or errors.) 1) A Houserule suggestion section. This will help people get an idea of what they might want to houserule for their games. Ideas like Digisoul mechanics, Storage Capacity, or special rules for purely Digimon based Campaigns. 2) Effect Rebalancing. As it is, past the Rookie and Champion stages, Poison is all but useless, as one example. 3) Adding a quick-to-reference derivative for AoE and Effect Boosts called a Bit. A Bit is equal to 1/10 of the User's Brains Stat. For example, now instead of 20% of the User's Brains, certain Area Attacks will scale to be Base+Bit Value or (Bit Valuex2). Poison might gain a base Damage of 1+Bit value. 4) finally getting around to a Gear Section 5) Modifying how Aspects work. As they are now, they're very very messy. The intention is to first and foremost lower the Aspects to two over three: one Major and one Minor. The Major will be something which is more key to the character; and will instead grant a +4 Bonus to any roll that it associates with. A Minor Aspect will function how Aspects do now. This should hopefully streamline Aspect work a bit more. 6) Reworking the layout and design of the handbook. As it is, it's become messy. Qualities need to be put in alphabetical order, to be honest. Speaking of, there may need to be some added Qualities; namely a Quality which allows Support Digimon to remove negative Effects. This is by no means a final list; however due to me having to rework the book from the ground up; it'll probably take a while to finish.
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Post by numemonsalesman on Mar 11, 2016 9:54:26 GMT
I really like the Aspect change, they were something that always gave me trouble to come up with. Looking forward to the updates!
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Post by TM93 on Mar 13, 2016 16:25:10 GMT
So over the last few days while working I've had a few more ideas. Pardon the later additions.
Updating Data Optimizations into multiple tiers which unlock at different Stages. The "basic" Optimizations from the Digimon Emperor's work will remain how they are, unlockable at any stage. Uncatchable Target and Long Range Optimizations will both be moving to the second tier of Data Optimizations, which will be known as Data Specializations. Data Specializations are reserved for Ultimate Level Digimon and higher. This is to create a more noticeable power curve than the current "+15 DP and Digizoid" jump from Champion to Ultimate, and later on create another minor jump over just Burst Power between Burst Mode and Mega. Burst Power may be getting a minor nerf to compensate (+4 for 4 rounds over +6 for 6 rounds) and Ultimate Level Digimon may now have to pay an additional 1 DP to purchase a Digizoid Quality to compensate as well. These balance changes are not finalized, just ideas.
Data Specializations will hopefully create a more diverse line of tactics. Data Specializations will each have the Prerequisite of taking a Data Optimization. The Data Specializations you can take will be associated with the Optimization you chose. For example, Uncatchable Target will fall under Speed Striker (the bonus will be adjusted to counteract the Speed Striker loss to Dodge, don't worry!) and Long Range will fall under Ranged Striker Optimization. Some new ideas are a branch of Brawler which will let the Digimon make Attacks, Pins, and Throws while Clashing as a Simple Action, limited to one of each per Round (it would hardly be fair to let the Digimon use two Melee Attacks in a round and deal insane amounts of damage). Another idea is a further bonus to either Positive or Negative Status Effects which will fall under Effect Warrior (Black Mage and White Mage.), or a Melee Striker Optimization which will let the Digimon make an additional, free Melee Attack once per Round.
Each Optimization will have 2 Specializations to choose from. At Ultimate and Mega Level, a Digimon may choose one of the two Specializations. At Burst Level, a Digimon may purchase BOTH Optimizations. Essentially this will make Burst Level Digimon the best at their respective roles, but it will take a massive amount of investment to hit such a stage. This should hopefully reward players who have achieved the highest stage in their campaign; an incentive to get to endgame, so to speak. Data Specializations will still cost DP to purchase.
Another idea is to add a new Attack Effect. One will be a Cleansing Effect; something to let Healers really be Healers and remove Effects if they do happen to be placed.
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Post by TM93 on Apr 2, 2016 15:29:03 GMT
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Post by numemonsalesman on Apr 5, 2016 4:40:08 GMT
It's good to see Hit and Run get an explicit mechanic, since so many digimon are described as using "hit and away" tactics. I like that Long-Range has become a subset of Ranged Striker, it felt weird to have them be two different things. I like the new buff effects as well, definitely makes support characters more useful.
However, I kind of foresee the Bit, CPU, and RAM formulas being a problem. The stats are (presumably) rounded down fractions of a stat that's already a rounded down fraction, which will probably result in very low numbers. It seems like they will rarely be higher than 1 or 2 until the players reach endgame territory.
Keep up the good work man!
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Post by TM93 on Apr 5, 2016 4:54:24 GMT
While I do see that being true, it just felt like having a hard number would be easier to keep track of over having to do the math for the specific fraction you need while also checking what the effect does. Having the values as a number which you can check quick over having to go check the Effect Table then do the math every time... it felt like it'd make combat go quicker, even if it's more bookkeeping out of combat.
Luckily a lot of things also scale well, not a lot is purely a "1 Bit/CPU/RAM" Value modifier, a lot of them use Double or more (more potent things like Blast Diameter and some Effects will scale slower, but either way). And thanks for the support.
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Post by numemonsalesman on Apr 6, 2016 3:30:39 GMT
I definitely agree that having a number is better than having to calculate fractions every time, I just was unsure about the specific formula. Since it scales it sounds like it will be less of a problem than I anticipated. I look forward to seeing how it turns out in playtesting.
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Post by TM93 on Jun 9, 2016 13:56:05 GMT
Update: still chugging along at the V.11 update. Just going a bit slow due to being called into work more often than usual with summer hours.
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Post by TM93 on Jun 21, 2016 16:18:58 GMT
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Post by numemonsalesman on Jun 22, 2016 6:54:31 GMT
Thank you so much for all your hard work, I've really been looking forward to this.
I like the new Data Specialization and Hybrid Drive options.
I think you should include the Body bonus on the size categories chart. I'd also suggest moving the Derived Stat in front of the Qualities.
I assume the formatting will be tweaked in the full version? It's a little hard to read now, and I liked the boxes around each Quality in the previous PDF. I think writing out the formulas numerically might make them easier to find when needed, for example "CPU Value times five" would be easier to read as "CPU x 5". Is the number border meant to be binary code? It should just be 0s and 1s if that's the case.
This isn't a big deal, but it might be useful to have two separate columns for Effects, one for offensive effects and one for beneficial.
Once the core mechanics are sorted out, will there be a DigiDex of sorts, listing the base stats and qualities? That would be an invaluable NPC generation resource, and serve as a guideline for further digimon creation. If numerous people pitched in by stating out a few of their favorite digimon it could get filled out pretty quickly. I think the most important part would be to agree on a general Quality to Stat DP expenditure ratio.
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Post by TM93 on Jun 22, 2016 14:33:21 GMT
Some things have already been tweaked actually and will be updated in the full version (for example a wording issue which caused confusion with the Character Advancement Section which for one sentence implied that Bonus DP only gets applied to higher stages (it did state all just before that but I did have to tweak), and it was brought to my attention that I accidentally used Kaiser Nail with GrappLeomon, who does not sport the move. I re-checked the sheet and changed that to King of Fists).
I fully expected this to not be perfect. Now bear with me, I'm still tired from my closing shift last night.
I wasn't sure which would make more sense, words or numbers, that said this is the only feedback I've gotten on that.
Quality Formatting can only go so far, the boxes were an absolute nightmare to maintain. I can try to tweak ones you see as too close to each other, but I do have limited space per page.
I think I'd intended to put the Body Bonus there but zoned out.
It's actually Ternary (Base 3)! Ever since I saw Tri I figured that was a better way to go about code for Digimon than Binary.
Due to differences in paragraph size I can't really justify a Positive/Negative column, but a quick P/N symbol next to the effect should get the job done, yes?
Lastly, on a Beastiary/Monster Manual/DigiDex, we'll have to see once the dust is settled, but it's very doable, even on my own, once I can get a format going.
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Post by numemonsalesman on Jun 29, 2016 9:24:20 GMT
Oh that's cool! Here's where I show my hand and accidentally reveal I haven't seen Tri yet, haha.
Good thinking, even a +/- might work.
For my own GMing purposes, I made a rough DigiDex to whip up NPC's quickly. I've just been using a 1-3 star ranking for each stat to represent DP allotment priority.
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Post by TM93 on Jun 29, 2016 12:56:42 GMT
So I did find some of the paragraphs in the Quality section that needed some extra space to not cause eye-issues (mostly ones with minor lists under the Quality name such as Extra Movement or Attack Effect) and increased the spacing as best I could. Apologies for not noticing right away.
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