Thank you for the bug reports, and for your work on the wiki! The inability to set the "none" training plan is indeed a bug which will be fixed in the next version. As for triggering the Megalomaniac Distortion multiple times, there's currently no bonus beyond being a very "cheap" repeatable way to get +50 EE.
Splendor's reluctance to use Glorious Fatal Curse isn't actually a bug. Because the move doesn't interact with surround mechanics, the Chosen decision algorithm doesn't actually take surrounded allies into account. Instead, it looks at how much EE you're gaining and asks "Will the EE I drain be worth dealing HATE damage to myself?" Because you gained such a huge amount of EE on the previous day, Splendor decides that the relatively small amount of EE she'd be able to chip away from you just isn't worth it.
Good catch on the Animalistic Frenzy usage not making sense, though, and on the bug when Bargaining with Splendor. Both of these will be fixed in R54.
The difficulty of training your second-in-command is definitely something I had in mind while balancing everything. This is why they get their unique Defiler by default - otherwise, it'd often be basically impossible to give it to them, especially since any time spent training them cuts into their brief window of usefulness before being replaced.
I also agree that a lot of the Favorite text doesn't fit very well right now. I have a whole bunch more I want to do with Favorite text, whenever there's a good spot in my development schedule for it, but I've been pretty much putting it on the backburner for now.
You're welcome!
I didn't know that about the decision to use Fatal Curse, that they're less likely to use it if you have gained a bunch of EE the day before. That explains a lot of the difficulty I've been having with getting Undead MOR PE% up in general. I've been able to make other Undead trigger it. I'm just not sure I ever saw Splendor do it.
I can offer some clarification here since the mechanics were adjusted at some point and you're both probably remembering how the game worked in different releases. Currently, only Aversion and Negotiation downtimes set the weight for all other downtimes to zero. The EE-generating Distortion downtimes only set the weight to zero for downtime actions that generate equal or less Evil Energy. So, even when using Tempt, the subject can still do the T4 downtime actions that generate +50 Evil Energy, but only if she has enough trauma for it. The energy generated from the Distortion downtime actions themselves don't change.
In that case this code in Project.class may actually be a bit off (according to Java Decompile GUI--no idea how it shows on your end).
This code, based on how I view it working, is setting the weights for all Actions 0-20 to a comparitively low floor if capped.booleanValue() is true, right? The weight in particular for Actions 16-20 will be set to 1T if I'm reading this right? ON JDGUI, it starts on line 15572 but I have no way to tell how accurate that is for the actual source code, or if I'm even reading it properly.
Code:
for (i5 = 0; i5 < 21; i5++) {
if (capped.booleanValue())
if (i5 == 0) {
actionWeights[k][i5] = Long.valueOf(10L);
} else if (i5 < 5) {
actionWeights[k][i5] = Long.valueOf(100L);
} else if (i5 < 9) {
actionWeights[k][i5] = Long.valueOf(1000L);
} else if (i5 < 13) {
actionWeights[k][i5] = Long.valueOf(1000000L);
} else if (i5 < 17) {
actionWeights[k][i5] = Long.valueOf(1000000000L);
} else {
actionWeights[k][i5] = Long.valueOf(1000000000000L);
}
w.corruptionTierSummary[k][i5] = actionWeights[k][i5].longValue();
So won't the Temptation distortion almost always trigger { if capped.booleanValue() } since it has higher weight, since its weight isn't capped? Its weight is 5*(sum of all Traumas) + 2.5*(ANGST). Similarly for Rampage & Megalomania, which are uncapped at the same value if activated.
capped is initialized in my view on line 15552 as false and set to true on line 15555 if any element of actionWeights[][] is greater than 10T. So for Forsaken running around with >10T actionWeights[][], which is only 2T total Trauma (plus some number of ANGST) they will do the Distortion-related action, which is the changed behavior that
Nobody032 noticed.
Of course I could be totally wrong on this, my view of your code comes from within JDGUI, the usual disclaimers, etc. But if I'm right you can just change "i5<21" to "i5<17". Well, you'd still have to worry about the calculations in Downtime() exceeding Java's Long datatype at, uh, what is it? 9 Peta-? 9 Exa-? It's around one of those values--but you've got to code for that anyway since you've already left actionWeights[21:25][] uncapped.
I felt like forcing the player to use a specific Commander in order to defeat using the Megalomania Distortion was a pretty big downside, so I balanced around that. In particular, being stuck with a Suspiciously Incompetent Splendor as your second-in-command is really painful, because the only way to get the ball rolling in the final battle is to use the four basic moves and then Surround from there.
The game doesn't outright require you to beat the Megalomaniac's allies first, but it does strongly incentivize it, since you can't Capture anymore after using Recruit.
I agree that adding some more mechanics (and in particular, some benefit to proccing the Distortion multiple times) would make things more interesting, but I'm not sure if it really needs to be more difficult. But then again, maybe I was just playing sloppy in my playtest, and requiring players to be a little more careful would actually be warranted.
I plan on including an item in the next update that lets your Forsaken cope better with being usurped. Maybe I should add a cheat that lets players select some specific starting items in campaign mode, just so that the playstyle-affecting items can be used without completely throwing the game balance out the window.
So, I had Splendor in Loop 11 and Loop 14 (skipped 12-13 through warp but she still drained Motivation the whole time). I didn't try to trigger Megalomania in those loops for that reason. Of course, I'd like to trigger it for Loop 15 in the Victory fight.
I'm actually having real trouble with Loop 15, but not in the way where it'll be impossible to finish. Rather, I'm going to need to accept that I need to sacrifice more Forsaken, even some that I'd really like to keep around, to even be able to use mine. My roster of usable low-cost Forsaken is almost entirely Undead and Animalistic Forsaken. So, they regain Motivation at 1/3 the usual rate. However, Splendor still drains them at the same rate as the others. As such, I really can't get enough Motivation through training to get them to a usable state because a training session focused on Motivation restores about 40 or so for them, while costing all their Stamina. And by the time their Stamina comes back, two days after training, they've already pretty much lost the Motivation they gained. The only one that's consistently usable is Metalhead, my Demon Knight.
Splendor's Bargaining system is perhaps not as helpful as intended. I haven't looked in the code, but it seems like in Loops with Devils, she only seems to ever offer the "stop spreading propaganda about Devils and Animalistic" bargain. And, in the loops I warped through, she was offering deals about empowering Chosen that... probably didn't actually exist? And sometimes crashing the game? I know there's a priority system and that if Devils are in the Loop, they have the highest priority, but I have not actually seen her offer anything else in those four (two fights, two skipped) Loops. If she had ever offered the "stop draining Motivation" deal I'd be in a very different situation going in to Loop 15.
So, some suggestions for how to tweak it for variety and balance, since this is my first real time using it:
1) Maybe she could have more than one deal active at a time? Would this be unbalancing? I understand the desire to make her a real challenge, but if I'm having to give up permanent progression in the sense of trained, active, useful Forsaken to get her state to anything other than "not making my whole team fucking useless", she still seems a bit much.
2) Maybe her deals could affect two of her attributes at once? That makes conveyance, difficult, though.
3) Maybe, if her current deal has something to do with difficulty of the Chosen for this Loop (Devil/Animalistic propaganda, empowering a Chosen) she could offer a different deal during the post-Final Battle training portion of the Loop? Or maybe during the training section of the Loop (and during skipped Loops) she could always offer the "stop draining Motivation" deal as this is the one players would want? It makes some logical in-world sense that she would stop offering the "don't provide Intelligence for the next Loop" deal after that point, because she's been providing intelligence already through most of the Loop at that point. And it makes no sense that she offers deals about empowering Chosen in loops where there are no actual Chosen.
4) Maybe, she could drain less Motivation from Animalistic/Undead Forsaken, just to balance the higher cost of restoring that Motivation? The same 1/3 modifier for them, and a 1/2 modifier for any Superior Forsaken? I'm not sure about the conveyance of this and it might push things too far the other way, though. I don't want her to be a pushover, I definitely want her to cause changes to my strategies.
I understand the desire to not have her help you vs. other bosses--she's got actual relationships with them, and I'm not at all looking to change that part. But overall her system is "using Forsaken sucks now, plus some other very minor penalties you won't notice because your whole team is at 0 Motivation all the time."
If anyone has different feedback and has actually played significant Loops with Splendor sabotaging you, please share, as I don't want to assume my feelings are universal. I don't know how many players actually reach double-digit Loops.
In the end, I think this and everything else is about making a fun challenge to the player and I'm not having much fun by having to sacrifice Forsaken I've had since early Loops just to make the rest of them usable. Of course, it's always your call.
If you want to see what this looks like for yourself
CSdev I have put my current save in this post. I've also put some Saves from before the last time I did a save game purge as savesbeforevictory.sav. It's not really possible to get the one Forsaken who is allowed to Tantrum every day to line up with the Animalistic vulnerable cycle when I want it to. I have to feed a Forsaken to the breeding pit for every 2 days that I'm wanting to send out another Forsaken (besides the Demon Knight).
