Phantom Tactics development journal

That knight is adorable.

He tries so hard!

Small fixes today:
- You get gold after each battle. I need to balance this with the Bandit's stealing -- I think the Bandit is probably stealing way too much right now.
- Moved the battle display up, solving the overlap problem mentioned earlier.
- AI fixes:
-- immobile units should be immobile for real now
-- should now correctly identify whether the enemy is using mage-types (i.e. so that the AI knows whether it's worth it to use a Cleric as support)
-- support units who are already in position no longer use their move to stay where they are
-- units no longer move to support slots that are adjacent to enemies

The list is bigger than I thought. Nice.

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Yesterday: Threw together a demo of the thing I was talking about on my LJ for RMZ. He wasn't sold on it, but he liked the demo, so we're gonna run with it. I think I'd like to flesh out the concept more in the future, since what we'll be doing with it is pretty small. In particular, the heroes are going to be fixed. I like the system and I think there's a lot I could do with it.

In Phantom Tactics news: Some minor but important fixes since last time. Mostly, I need to finish the Demon, Wraith, and Cleric animations (Cleric is new; previously, he wasn't going to animate. I'll probably ship the playtesting version without the Cleric animation) as well as the final cutscenes. All chapter 1 battles are complete other than the animations. (Although that does remind me: I need to re-test the last battle since fixing the one class ability.)

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Demon animation finished.

The chapter 1 boss battle is extremely easy if you know how. But you don't, so it isn't! The key to beating it on harder difficulty levels (where the minions begin to be threatening) will be to take advantage of this exploit. Most players will catch on in this battle, if they do at all. Note to self: attempt this level without the exploit.

Actually, I just realized that the way the battle is set up right now, the boss will chew through your characters one at a time and there's not much you can do about it. I'll need to reposition him.

Cutscene 1-5.5 is scripted, but needs some special effects. I just got these from Twinhamster and it looks relatively painless to put together.

To do before playtesting release:
- Wraith anim
- Cutscene 1-6.5
- Gold balancing

To do before release:
- Music volume
- Cleric anim
- Anything else that needs polishing

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Isn't that a good thing? If a battle is really hard unless you figure out the trick to it, in which case it's easy, isn't that pretty much the definition of a strategy-based battle?

If you played Disgaea, the boss of chapter was was LUDICROUSLY difficult unless your first four moves were pretty specific, for instance.

Unless it's an out-an-out cheat, of course

I actually have no idea how hard it'll be normally. I'm going to guess it's doable -- at least on regular difficulty -- but requires careful management of your units lest they die in the process.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more ridiculously overpowered the boss's special ability is. I'm going to change it slightly, making it so that the spirit of the ability stays intact, but you don't automatically lose the first unit you throw at him.

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

- Changed the boss's ability. The original ability wasn't really thought through; this version of it is thematically similar, but not cripplingly powerful.
- Wraith animation finished, I think. I need to retest both Wraith and Demon, then figure out sound effects for Wraith. They are both totally awesome, though. I can assure you of this. They are a cut above the other awesome animations that Twinhamster has put together.

That leaves 1-6.5, gold balancing, and the special effects for 1-5.5 before I kick this baby to the testers.

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

First, I liked the demo, and the promise of monsters to fight instead of people, is rather delightful.

Anyways, I'm wondering about this games release date. It seems to have taken you quite a bit of time to complete chapter 1. Is "chapter 1" the whole game (with a whole new game being chapter 2 .hack style)? If not, how many will there be? Will you release with only chapter 1 finished? ..etc?

Chapter 1 is, you know, the first chapter. You'll keep your save file and continue when chapter 2 is released.

I do plan on releasing the game incrementally, which is part of the reason why the release date keeps getting pushed: if you're going to be able to continue from chapter 1, then I need to make sure that everything's done right the first time around. If I decide that the stats need rebalancing later, then I can't go back and update everyone's saves. If I decide to change the plot later, then I can't very well go back and issue a retraction. Also, I've been doing a good amount of polish -- some things that you'll notice and appreciate, some that you won't notice but will still appreciate.

The real reason for the delay, naturally, is that I'm lazy. However, most of the chapters after chapter 1 will be much, much less work than chapter 1 was, simply because chapter 1 includes the entire game engine. This does not mean that the other chapters will be released in a more timely manner.

I'm going to coax my wife off the laptop so I can get some work done. Wish me luck!

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

- Verified the Wraith animation.
- It's awesome, by the way.
- Discovered a "hilarious" bug that caused all the enemies in a certain battle to have the same bonus that is applied to the player in that battle. Discovered this after ten minutes of wondering why the battle was so hard. ("Why does that Knight have 28 defense? That can't be right.")
- Fixed same. I think so, anyway.
- Gold finally displays after battles. (I thought I'd done this earlier, but while I was preparing the strings correctly, I wasn't actually showing them.) I'm going to have to nerf the Bandit versus Skeletons for sure, but I think he only needs a slight debuff otherwise.

Need to finish up 1-5.5 and 1-6.5. Need to retest 1-5 and 1-6.

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

- Tested 1.6, which now works as intended.
- Finished 1-5.5's special effects.
- Tested 1.5. I don't know what I was thinking. The enemy units need to be repositioned at the very least.
- Demon looks awesome.
- Gold seems fine. I'm not sure how well it will scale, but right now I think the Bandit is very useful without being overpowering.

To do before playtesting release:
- Fix 1.5
- Script 1-6.5

To do before public release:
- Title screen (!)
- Music volume
- Cleric anim

Hoping to finish the playtesting release tomorrow!

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Priorities out of order, right here at Slime Salad!

- Music volume is now normal.
- Threw together a minimalist title screen. I kind of like it.
- Now I'm going to replay 1-5!
- And later, I will script 1-6.5 (this assumes I'm not feeling lazy).

I'm still hoping to finish all this tonight and send it to the playtesters. Stay tuned!

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Playtesting release complete. The only things that I know need to be changed before the public release are the cleric animation and a few lingering bugs that I think I've got squished.

This chapter is complete!

---

Mega Tact v1.1
Super Penguin Chef
Wizard Blocks

Huzzah!

This chapter is fantastic!

---

♪♪♪ Du du duuuu ♪♪♪