December IotM

[Satan]

Not to start any unnecessary drama, but I'll post my opinion of this month's IotM here. I want to clarify that I'm not personally attacking anyone, so don't misunderstand me like last time. I only bring these things up so that if my thoughts are valid, they can be learned from in the future. So anyways.

1. I like the flavor, but other than the damage and other bolded outcomes like chips/xp/hp/pp, the actual effects of the combat item can be hard to discern.

2. "by the force of yule eye"

Is that supposed to be a pun? By the 4th of July? That's crafty, kudos. Otherwise it just sounds awkward.

3. Speaking of the eye, what does it do? Just fire damage? If so, then it seems strictly worse than the yule bat, which seems to do more damage in physical and fire than the eye does in fire alone. So I suspect it has some secondary thing that it does, but it's hard to say. If the use message says what it does, it's very vague. The horse's message that talks about shocking the enemy sort of hints at what it does, but as I said, it's hard to tell if that's flavor or indicator.

4. One use per battle makes this item a hard sell. It would be a much better item if, after you had used it, you would be able to use the item for a full cycle (if not multiple cycles, to balance it). I realize it wasn't done this way because of the yule block's ability to end the battle, which might seem out of place if it was done the way I suggest... Although maybe it's not that out of place? But comparing it to, say, throwing star sets, you were given 5 items and you could use each one once in a battle. With this IotM, you're given 5 items that are roughly equal in effects (save the yule blocks), but you can only get 1 effect for the battle. Value wise, it seems it's lacking.

5. One thing that surprised and delighted me is that yule blocks work on scaling enemies. This almost makes up for only being able to use one effect per battle, since it's a 1 hit KO for S7G (and you even get some chips). While not making it absolutely easy, it offers a viable alternative to farming for TNT or stat farming to survive there. But for people who don't do S7G, I'm not sure how useful this feature is... If it even works on bosses, I would say that makes this a very good item indeed, since it would help in stunt and speed runs by reducing the need for levels/skills... Although maybe that's not balanced.

EDIT: Not sure if bug or feature, but bonuses to XP gain do not apply to the yule blocks, and I'd assume the same of the chips but I haven't tested.

[Kinak]

That didn't seem terribly attacky, so thanks on that front.

Some of those questions are very good things to start looking at. I hope the answers interest you.

The force of yule eye is in fact a terrible, terrible pun. Which, as we all know, is the best kind!

As far as value goes, yes, it's absolutely true that I can make this or any other item better: remove restrictions, buff stats, and so forth. But doing what's good for the game means making the "hard sell" sometimes.

And sometimes it means erring on the side of caution. I think the item's pretty sweet, but if you don't... at least I didn't shoot for the moon and unleash some gamewarping stupidity.

Cheers!
Kinak

[Cristiona]

3. Speaking of the eye, what does it do?

It's pretty clear post-combat what it's doing.

[Satan]

3. Speaking of the eye, what does it do?

It's pretty clear post-combat what it's doing.

Is it? I just checked again for any kind of message to hint at what it's doing, at the end of the combat and at the beginning of the next, but I couldn't see anything... Maybe it's more clear to you since you know what it does? Or maybe it's boosting xp/chips, I don't really pay attention to those figures anymore.

EDIT: Just did a few more runs, I see why I didn't notice what it did now. I had my +items sidekick on and was fighting in an area where item drop rate is already pretty high, so the message about the eye finding the item wasn't showing up often.

[Kinak]

Back to a completely related note....if you have two of these items, do you get two uses of the item per round?

No, although it does add some flexibility (because they can be in different forms).

I usually try to set up items so having multiple copies doesn't add a bunch over one copy, just to keep things more or less level.

Cheers!
Kinak

[xKiv]

5. One thing that surprised and delighted me is that yule blocks work on scaling enemies. This almost makes up for only being able to use one effect per battle, since it's a 1 hit KO for S7G (and you even get some chips).

- It doesn't seem to count as a s7g kill (at least in my journal), so it's nice for getting heaps of XP, but not for getting *to* those heaps in the first place
- Chips (for scalers) have been nerfed. 45k chips every 5 turns was perhaps a bit on the "too much" side. (and I am not even really trying there any more)

Back to a completely related note....if you have two of these items, do you get two uses of the item per round?

"Only one item of this type can be used per combat."
Considering how both the ectoplasm and yule disappear from usable items as soon as I use one of them, that's a very strong indicator that you would only get 1 use no matter how many you have. Which is how the ectoplasm worked, iirc?

--
May the fork be with you.

[Cristiona]

Which is how the ectoplasm worked, iirc?

Correct.

[Satan]

5. One thing that surprised and delighted me is that yule blocks work on scaling enemies. This almost makes up for only being able to use one effect per battle, since it's a 1 hit KO for S7G (and you even get some chips).

- It doesn't seem to count as a s7g kill (at least in my journal), so it's nice for getting heaps of XP, but not for getting *to* those heaps in the first place
- Chips (for scalers) have been nerfed. 45k chips every 5 turns was perhaps a bit on the "too much" side. (and I am not even really trying there any more)

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't do much testing with it, I just noticed that it works for S7G, I happen to get a bunch of XP there already. That balances it, though, that's really cool. As for the chips, yes, when I tested it was already fixed, just a few hundred. No reason for you to get lots of chips there, but a few hundred is nice.

[Patojonas]

If anything I'd like to be able to use the yule along with the ecto items. Don't see why one iotm has to interfere with another since all forms have different effects that don't overlap with the other iotm.

I mean, you can use the throwing stars along with any of these, can't really see a good reason as to why is there a need to prevent the use of ectoplasmic items after using a yule item.

[Kinak]

If anything I'd like to be able to use the yule along with the ecto items. Don't see why one iotm has to interfere with another since all forms have different effects that don't overlap with the other iotm.

For the same reason equipment has slots, basically. It means you can replace one with the other and there are, if I designed things okay, potentially interesting choices between the two.

With the throwing stars the only real limits are how long combat lasts and how many you bought. As much as the latter might make me a little extra money, I'm not really comfortable with either of those limits.

I mean, you can use the throwing stars along with any of these, can't really see a good reason as to why is there a need to prevent the use of ectoplasmic items after using a yule item.

The throwing stars are a whole other ball of wax. In retrospect, I probably would have made both the ectoplasmic items and yule items exclusive with the throwing stars, but that ship sailed quite a while ago.

Cheers!
Kinak