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Final Fantasy Zero Design Diary: The Power of SCIECNE!
Posted 11th January 2009 at 08:04 AM by Kamikaze Midget
In this update, we look at the Alchemist and Astrologer jobs, and view some of the items your characters will be using.
The Alchemist was a bit hard to design. I wanted to preserve FF's "mix" mechanic, because it's so distinctive, but it was running into troubles in implementing it at the table. Great charts of item combination are pretty exhausting (not to mention page-consuming), but a random system wouldn't preserve the idea of a formula that is key to the Alchemist's flavor. The solution wound up being informed by the Stash abilities. The idea of using free items was good, so I had the Alchemist combine those free items with the elemental crystals (which are crafting items for characters) to produce a new effect (taken from the various games).
The other major issue with the alchemist was HOLY CRAP, THIS GUY WAS OVERPOWERED IN THE FF GAMES. Anyone who knew the mix list and put in the time harvesting those rare items was going to have a big payoff in the Alchemist. Unfortunately, at the table, a list and "item farming" are pretty unrealistic. I had to be very choosy about which mix abilities to include in the Alchemists' suite, and they don't have many of the more maniac abilities that alchemists from the FF games had...
...at least, not by default. New mixes are easy to introduce, after all, and having a unique item be used in a one-time mix for a tremendous effect isn't a big deal, as long as you can't repeat it.
The Astrologer suffered from a bit of a different problem...the curse of a CRPG "debuffer:" pointless in the battles that really matter.
Solving this problem reached into FFZ's philosophy about ailments, actually: immunity in FFZ isn't really "immunity", it's more "trade it for damage" (or a Delay, or some other thing you can drop). A boss may be "immune" to Instant KO, but what that really means is that if you hit the boss with Instant KO, maybe he just takes massive damage instead. And anyone else can still be hit with the actual Instant KO.
Astrologers won't be useless. Anyone who wants to pick up a few extreme gravity abilities or alter time and spce, they'll be good in every battle for something.
Items were kind of fun. I've got many more items than I put in that document, but jotting them down there helped me categorize FFZ's award system (the XP/AP split, the purpose of Gil, etc.) I like the idea of items as a gil-sink. Have a few extra coins laying around? Buy more items! Quantity won't hurt anything!
So without further adieu, you'll find this info, and the stuff that has come before, in My MediaFire folder.
Direct links:
Alchemist
Astrologer
Items
The Alchemist was a bit hard to design. I wanted to preserve FF's "mix" mechanic, because it's so distinctive, but it was running into troubles in implementing it at the table. Great charts of item combination are pretty exhausting (not to mention page-consuming), but a random system wouldn't preserve the idea of a formula that is key to the Alchemist's flavor. The solution wound up being informed by the Stash abilities. The idea of using free items was good, so I had the Alchemist combine those free items with the elemental crystals (which are crafting items for characters) to produce a new effect (taken from the various games).
The other major issue with the alchemist was HOLY CRAP, THIS GUY WAS OVERPOWERED IN THE FF GAMES. Anyone who knew the mix list and put in the time harvesting those rare items was going to have a big payoff in the Alchemist. Unfortunately, at the table, a list and "item farming" are pretty unrealistic. I had to be very choosy about which mix abilities to include in the Alchemists' suite, and they don't have many of the more maniac abilities that alchemists from the FF games had...
...at least, not by default. New mixes are easy to introduce, after all, and having a unique item be used in a one-time mix for a tremendous effect isn't a big deal, as long as you can't repeat it.
The Astrologer suffered from a bit of a different problem...the curse of a CRPG "debuffer:" pointless in the battles that really matter.
Solving this problem reached into FFZ's philosophy about ailments, actually: immunity in FFZ isn't really "immunity", it's more "trade it for damage" (or a Delay, or some other thing you can drop). A boss may be "immune" to Instant KO, but what that really means is that if you hit the boss with Instant KO, maybe he just takes massive damage instead. And anyone else can still be hit with the actual Instant KO.
Astrologers won't be useless. Anyone who wants to pick up a few extreme gravity abilities or alter time and spce, they'll be good in every battle for something.
Items were kind of fun. I've got many more items than I put in that document, but jotting them down there helped me categorize FFZ's award system (the XP/AP split, the purpose of Gil, etc.) I like the idea of items as a gil-sink. Have a few extra coins laying around? Buy more items! Quantity won't hurt anything!
So without further adieu, you'll find this info, and the stuff that has come before, in My MediaFire folder.
Direct links:
Alchemist
Astrologer
Items
Tags: design diary, ffz, final fantasy zero
Total Comments 1
Comments
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Seems to be a good idea generally - including "real" CRPGs. If my powers can't hinder the BBEG, let them deal damage at least!Quote:A boss may be "immune" to Instant KO, but what that really means is that if you hit the boss with Instant KO, maybe he just takes massive damage instead. And anyone else can still be hit with the actual Instant KO.Posted 11th January 2009 at 06:50 PM by Mustrum_Ridcully
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