Saturday, July 15, 2017

Paladin Cecil initial equipment change

My overall philosophy for this randomizer is that I want it to test the player's knowledge of the game, not their knowledge of this program's quirks.  One problem that's been flying in the face of that goal has been Paladin Cecil's initial equipment.

The original version of the game gives you the Legend Sword as Cecil's initial equipment.  This has problems; it's way the heck too strong for you to be allowed to have it at level 1, plus it's marked as a "plot item," meaning it can't be trashed, sold, or stored in the Fat Chocobo.  If Cecil leaves and rejoins, and his initial equipment features the Legend Sword each time, you could get multiple into your inventory, which would then be weird when you upgraded one to the Excalibur.

Previously, my solution was to award the Legend Sword at the time you're supposed to get it according to the plot, but replace Paladin Cecil's initial equipment with the Silver Dagger, which is much weaker but has the same zombie-busting power.  But with play tests, I was finding that giving the player a Silver Knife was warping the game much more than I intended - so long as it stayed on Cecil it wasn't so bad, but your early game success was often defined by whether you realized you could strip the dagger from Cecil and hand it off to Edge or Edward or Kain, who normally have some problems getting equipment for the early game.

I was thinking about replacing the dagger with a bow and arrows, which Paladin Cecil is allowed to use, but that has the problem that it activates the Long Range glitch even for casual players who would have no idea that was a thing.

Earlier today I realized an alternative solution: Paladin Cecil will now start with the Silver Staff rather than the Silver Dagger.  The staff has 12 attack, which is more than the Shadow Sword but less than the Darkness Sword.  It also busts zombies (though not spirits).  And although it can be transferred to other characters, giving +3 Will to a white mage is far less of a game changer than giving Kain +17 attack and zombie/spirit busting power.

Today's Hard Mode test will include this change.

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