Home  | Login  | Register  | Help  | Play 

=DF= Friday, April 5th Design Notes: Book 3: Convergence - Convergence (Part 2)

 
Logged in as: Guest
  Printable Version
All Forums >> [Artix Entertainment Games] >> [DragonFable] >> DragonFable General Discussion >> =DF= Friday, April 5th Design Notes: Book 3: Convergence - Convergence (Part 2)
Page 1 of 212>
Forum Login
Message << Older Topic   Newer Topic >>
4/5/2024 21:26:53   
Laeon val Observis
Member
 

quote:


Friday, April 5, 2024
Book 3: Convergence - Convergence (Part 2)
Hey there, heroes!

Convergence (Part 2) is has arrived.


Deep within the Fissure, bathed by the glow of the Mana Core, pushed to the edge by your first clash, Jaania refuses to surrender. She prepares to give everything she has to defeat you... and so the final battle between two heroes begins.

You can also face the extreme version of this week's boss battle... but be warned, it's not for the faint of heart! Inn restrictions will apply, and DoomKnight V1 is not allowed, but succeeding will unlock a special helm that enables a new DragonLord customization option!

Head over to Outpost Yeden to play Convergence (Part 2)!



Also this week, April seasonals have arrived!

This year, the Eclipsed set is here! These items found from under the mountains of Ostveld are now available for your own personal purchase! Who made them? Where did they come from? Does it matter?


Also, previous years' April specials have returned!

Check them all out in the Book of Lore!



Also this week, a couple of bug fixes and updates:
  • Fixed an issue where leaving Braughlmurk after leaving a Braughlmurk quest would cause a black screen.
  • Fixed some issues with Braughlmurk telepoints.
  • The Book 2 quest, 'The Merge' now has an additional reward to further upgrade the Forgotten Spear.
  • The Guardian Smith has been added to Book 3 Falconreach.
  • Anything else I may have forgotten.


And that's all for this week!



Careful, ladies and gents. Even I, a Doomknight armed with Inn gear, cannot defeat the normal fight without suffering.

Paw printed, and tagged! ~Gingkage

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 4/9/2024 6:59:02 >
DF AQW  Post #: 1
4/5/2024 23:17:03   
Roxas45
Member

Finally completed the quest!
Ah, that took much longer than I thought it would - Deathknight coming in clutch.

VERY much looking forward to the next release. In the mean time, hunting around the wiki to see where I missed the items for the merge shop. XP

spoiler:

However, I DO have some questions - What did our character mean by "Of course, I understand?" when Amadaeus pulled out his DA. I know he had one since he needed one to titanize Fluffy - but how does that help ours? Or is it just a simple thing of transferring power in the same vein as what Warlic did?


< Message edited by Roxas45 -- 4/5/2024 23:18:15 >
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 2
4/6/2024 4:34:50   
Sumbrosus
Member

Whew! That did take some doing.

Thanks to Roxas45 for the idea of going in Deathknight; that helped a LOT.
I tried a run with extra potions from Nieboheim and my Atalean armour, but that did not make as much of a difference as I'd hoped. :-/

Also: yay, more upgrades to the adventurer's spear! Those are fun. :)
I was unaware of the existence of the Dream Embers upgrade before now, so I had a reason to relive the finale of Book Two.
It's amazing how far the Hero has come... I can't help but wonder what Book Four will be like.
AQ  Post #: 3
4/6/2024 5:06:30   
Flabagast
Member

Such a cool promo image!

spoiler:

Wow. I can see why ya'll needed more time. I really wasn't expecting Jaania to get an entire magical girl transformation. So sick! Dove went absolutely HAM on her design too! What a fight; the vision of Lore being frozen over in protective ice was a great visual metaphor. The music was fantastic as well.

I admit I felt some pity seeing Jaania so defeated. I feared a far worse outcome for her of course, but knowing she may never be able to use magic ever again still seems like a poetically tragic ending for her. Akanthus on the other hand... I knew my guy was big, but to see that man hoist that entire thing on his back and yeet himself off of the platform was... I have no words. Maybe Vaalirus was onto something.

@Roxas45
spoiler:

I'd actually forgotten Amadeus had a Dragon Amulet. He jumbo-sized Fluffy with it, as you've said, and Caitiff did something similar with its Doom Amulet despite our Dragon's bond with us. Regardless of that though, an Amulet is still a potent source of dragon magic; it makes enough sense that Amadeus could use it to amplify the effectiveness of our own.


@below
I only did the normal version of the fight (almost dreading the extreme version, should be fun) with paladin. Stats in strength, endurance and wisdom. Nothing too fancy build-wise.
spoiler:

I think Hesperrhodos has either been completely used up, or Jaania's simply dismissed them and they're chilling in the Plane of Elemental Spirits. I doubt we'll be seeing them again regardless, given Jaania's state.


< Message edited by Flabagast -- 4/6/2024 5:50:46 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 4
4/6/2024 5:08:35   
Sumbrosus
Member

So, Flabagast.

spoiler:

What kind of build did you use to defeat Jaania?
I took Roxas45's advice to go Deathknight, kept healing presence on all through the battle.


By the way ... does anyone have any idea what happened to Jaania's pseudo-elemental spirit?

< Message edited by Sumbrosus -- 4/6/2024 5:11:20 >
AQ  Post #: 5
4/6/2024 5:48:00   
Vaalirus
Member

This moment went beyond my expectations for what came out of our confrontation with Jaania 
spoiler:



The transformation sequence of Jaania's full synchronization is truly a sight to behold in its utter magnificence, I can easily see why there needed to be a delay for this part alone. In the conclusion of part 1, I was anticipating Jaania to appear quite grotesque based on how her soul was clearly falling apart and the fact that Hesperrhodos looking like quite the atrocity themselves but with this form I can only appreciate the elegant design choice. I daresay I'm rather envious that we have yet to achieve such a state with Aegis at the moment. I absolutely love that one of the first things that drawn attention to as she transform is the Rose emblem that appears on her chest which you could argue is symbolic of us confronting the embodiment upon which the Rose's ideals stand on but also everything those ideals mean to Jaania herself as she holds them closely to her own heart. The second thing that stands out is how her facial scar becomes not just highlighted but increasingly pronounced which could represent her mental scars with magic having grown exponentially after all this time and that in turn being the thing that motivates her, desperately so, to remove any and all suffering from the world of Lore. Lastly, are her many arms meant to control and hold all she can within her grasp and likely representative of the kind of "mana god" she was attempting to aspire to. One in which she has her hands in everything to either guide it on the paths she deemed were right or to cleave it way if she deemed it had no place in her world to be. A world of total perfection in which the gears turn as she demands. An idea that I feel is rather clear when she basks in how complete her full synchronization is and her commenting that she will remove us from "HER" perfect world if we won't stand aside or join her revealing the height of her hubris.

The boss fight that follows soon after is well constructed in my view, befitting of a penultimate boss and the primary antagonist of this entire saga. Admittedly, I was a little concerned when I saw that the mechanics of the boss fight included us needing to breaking parts of the boss just like the ones in the Inn, as those ones I struggled with the most when it comes to management, but I was pleased to see that it is relatively easy to break the tome or the glaive respectively so long as you are being patient with classes like chaosweaver or simply opting for a less multi hit class to get a break in a few turns. Thematically, there's a lot to love here like the fact that Jaania uses ice and metal befitting her natural prowess as an ice mage but also keeping within the ideals of the Rose has for a world bereft of magical influence. What I find most telling here however is that cutscene that plays when Jaania is on her last legs and she reveals her world of perfect order to us. A world completely covered in ice to protect from suffering for an eternity to come is not one usually thinks of when they want to be safe but it makes perfect sense from Jaania's perspective. She wants to eliminate suffering and so she believes she has to act the ultimate shield to make that happen to keep anything bad from ever happening. All of this to ensure that the world is a state of perfect order and "happiness" for the sake of her own sanity. It makes me realize how much she contrasts from someone like Notha, an agent of Doom, or more accurately chaos, because unlike Notha, who wants people to be able to choose for themselves at all cost (at risk of throwing the world into chaos), Jaania, an agent of Destiny arguably, will do everything in her power to control everything and everyone to see that Order is never disrupted.

Alas, for Jaania's vision, we manage to defeat her once again and she has nothing left to throw at us. In the aftermath, as expected, the white in her hair has grown exponentially and I have to assume by the pressure of the mana core that her soul is not looking to good right now. I'm a bit surprised that she didn't die immediately after this but not really disappointed though I'm completely perplexed by the fact Zvezdana didn't try and kill her and is even healing her so that she survives. I doubt this means good things for Zvezdana and the Magesters like her when this matter concludes as I'm sure they just want to punish Jaania themselves, but I hope it won't come down to a confrontation. As for where Jaania goes from here, I can't even begin to guess.


There is of course still the threat Akanthus poses with the doom device and I'm honestly surprised he was able to lift it on to his back without much struggle. I know he was made incredibly strong but jeez though I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised when the guy slowly stomped over to guard against the Warlic, Xan, and Zvezdana. I still don't know how we intend to defeat Akanthus maybe at this point he'll be corrupted by doom device or perhaps get a connection to the Core but I'm honestly stumped though it feels like the answer here is that we will be fighting a titanized version of Akanthus, whatever he becomes from here on. Truthfully? I think it's fitting that we make the ending of the saga another titan fight, keep with tradition and all that.

Ah but the mana core awaits



_____________________________

Let us find tranquility.
DF  Post #: 6
4/6/2024 7:08:00   
Roxas45
Member

I keep Deathknight as a plot thing for the most part. Its useful for both offensive and defensive rotations, and honestly, I didn't need to be as defensive all that often, since the skills and Synergy with the DK items helped a LOT.
Not to mention, you switch presence, use the HOT, then heal - and you've effectively healed close to one third of your health in a matter of 2 turns almost.

All this time and I never once considered what happened to the Spirit. I assumed that it was a soul synchrony but made closer to 100% what with (what I suspect to be) a seemingly empty spirit. Like it didn't look like the other spirits we know/knew, and it felt far more puppet like in the way it was controlled.
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 7
4/6/2024 7:30:21   
Laeon val Observis
Member
 

After getting a taste of RNG acquisition of the "consolation prize" (took me 6 runs, 0 losses, to earn the max level facsimile of our spear) and getting a deeper feel to Learning with Manga FGO's Gudako's gripes at storytelling attack animations needing a skip function, at it's current state, Pally and Pyro are the only classes that can subjugate the normal mode fight without extra pots or Hero Diet, which says something about the fight's difficulty. While there's room for that in the EX fight, perhaps tuning the one attack that only the two aforementioned classes could endure like it was Tuesday for them is in order. The EX fight is definitely a contender if not an outright dethroner for Pandora EX as the most difficult solo.

< Message edited by Laeon val Observis -- 4/6/2024 7:32:03 >
DF AQW  Post #: 8
4/6/2024 11:31:04   
Koh
Member

That battle made me want a Master Soulweaver rework that lets us use full synchro as a transformation rather than a burst attack, something similar to ShadowWalker's Umbral but maybe with a larger charge up and cooldown.
Post #: 9
4/7/2024 6:46:25   
Sumbrosus
Member

In hindsight, I wonder where Jaania got that soulforged glaive from.
Is it one of the weapons Sobislav stole from Tomix's father, back in Nieboheim? Did Hesperrhodos somehow make it? Did she buy from the surly Soulsmith in Ravenloss, possibly through an intermediary?

Did anyone else draw a parallel between Jaania's use of a tome in battle and Nythera's use of the same? Nythera has untold potential and access to many different magics, and Jaania is the Archmagus of the Rose and used at least two different styles in this fight: magecraft and soulweaving. I'm also reminded of how Nythera went off the deep end due to hubris for a while, only to step back from the precipice. It's a shame Jaania couldn't.

About the adventurer's spear merge reward: I like the symbolism of it looking like Jaania's glaive at level 75. It seems to suggest the Hero has to carry the burden of not just their own desire to save the world, but all the genuinely good works Jaania did as well, now. Someone has to step in to keep the Rose on the straight and narrow after this, and it's not fair to put it all on Hansa.
AQ  Post #: 10
4/7/2024 13:58:24   
TFS
Helpful!


I think Jaania EX is one of the best fights in the game, the increased development time is really evident.

The Gear mechanic is really good - it's a much better way to implement Simon Says than whatever was going on back during the dance pads phase, simply by virtue of taking actions that actually affect the combat and flow of the battle. Like another really good boss, it also serves to forewarn RNG splits several turns in advance, so there's an aspect of variance and a check for flexibility that the player is actually able to prepare for and respond to - so that it's a skill check and not just pure luck.

I think the part targeting mechanic is also finally done well here, and does contribute a lot to the fight. There actually are contextually relevant points where you'll want to target body over tome, and trade-offs that make attacking the tome not always the optimal play whenever you can. It's clear a lot has been learned from prior iterations of this mechanic; unlike chaos lord chaotic chaos king of chaos, the twelfth lord of chaos, breaking the body parts actually is beneficial to the player and makes sense within the context of the fight. And unlike Eulin, it isn't at all janky and doesn't interfere with the clarity of the fight at all. This mechanic, again, feels like it successfully introduces an element extraneous to the fight in a way that meaningfully adds to and improves the actual combat - which again feels like a better iteration of the dance pads concept.

In fact, it feels like Jaania actually borrows elements from all of DragonFable's 'big bosses' over the past few years - she cycles between offensive and defensive stances like the Unraveler, she has visual tells that are later obscured like Pandora, she demands you defend yourself by dealing more damage like Drahr'Dolaas, she has RNG splits forewarned in advance like both of the Drahrs, she even has stinky threshold immunity and a 1HP cut like the edgy AQW OCs. It's very evident that a lot has been learned over the past... seven, jeez... years of challenge bosses and this boss would not have been made without all of the bosses preceding it. Jaania EX really does feel like a culmination of all of DragonFable's boss design thus far - which I guess is pretty fitting for the story's final boss.

The only (very minor) issue I have with this boss is that I think threshold immunity and 1HP cut are just obnoxious mechanics on principle - though in this instance the Anime Blast only happens once per fight and you control when it happens, so it's not the worst thing ever. There also isn't much reason for most classes to bother targeting the glaive at all.

All in all, I really liked this boss. One of the best in the game, if not the best. Really glad I got to play through this!
DF  Post #: 11
4/8/2024 2:04:28   
Laeon val Observis
Member
 

Thus, I've earned my place among those who pushed their sanity to the limit by beating Jaania Ex. Was clutch win, but a win nonetheless (burnt through Hero Diet, Zard Legs+, and Cocoaberry Juice alongside 1 HP and MP pot). And invested a small sum of DMs and gold (was getting boring to dive with Pirate to freely acquire pots and Hero Diet). Had my heart in my mouth as I failed her last Command check while I was in Favor. Good thing cLingering just had enough juice to eat her remaining HP before I self-destructed.

< Message edited by Laeon val Observis -- 4/8/2024 2:07:50 >
DF AQW  Post #: 12
4/8/2024 3:48:32   
Lee
Member
 

First and foremost, I just want to start this by saying I really enjoyed this release myself. Normal mode was interesting, and the extra time taken definitely was worth it. In addition to that, the cutscene mid battle was a very nice touch.

I'm gonna start by prefacing this post by stating that "I understand this is a final (or near final) boss to DragonFable's Book 3. However, that in now way changes my thoughts or opinions on this".

~~ Normal Mode ~~

Who exactly is this fight tailored for? Story Players? Level 90 Players who's just broached the Inn? Endgame players such as myself who frequent the Inn and have an understanding with how most of the mechanics on Jaania work
I'll start with Jaania's "Spin Down" effect, more specifically, her +80 MPM/BPD. 80 MPM/BPD (I'll just refer to this as MPM for easier writing) is huge. Assuming a Story Player is approximately level 75 by this fight, they'd likely havea 50 Bonus? Throw in the fact that Jaania throws around some very nasty -Bonus on top of that. It quickly becomes a wall.

Nowhere in the game, does the Player get taught (besides a single popup on the Status Screen with your stats and the like) on how Bonus Vs MPM works or even how much it matters. So people will quite literally find themselves missing more often than not. Some folks in this thread already have mentioned using Paladin, I've seen word about Deathknight and Technomancer too, but why exactly do they work? Each of those classes have a large amount of +Bonus backing them (and in Paladin's case, it's BPD shield and heavy defenses) outright negatives or heavily reduces this issue.

Ignore the Bonus/MPM for a moment. Jaania's body parts is another new mechanic that short of Oddtog in a Side Story - has not been brought up in the Main to my knowledge. Nowhere in the game does it explain how this "new" mechanic works or whether you should pay attention to it. Or the fact that Mana Damage (Hi Necrotic Strike) makes it an absolute joke. This mechanic however, has popped up in the Inn a fair few times as we all know.

In addition to that, you have both a purge on the Player as well as an unavoidable "Draco's Claw" that sets your HP to 1. Yes, the next turn you are able to heal up if you're prepared or in a good state. But short of Thorin (and last quest with Jaania lol), this Claw is something that's only appeared twice from memory in Book 3's Main Story. The Command's are great, however they're extremely easy to miss if you don't think to check the Status Page (in the wider community, do people actually think to check it?) as well as the orbs at her feet, acting as a count down.

There's more points but I don't want to make this any longer than I have. This is more a personal nitpick as well but for me personally, it's becoming really tiring seeing Damage Reduction and large amounts of All res.

TLDR:
A lot of Inn mechanics that your average Story Player wouldn't know about are finding their way into this fight. Throw in the fact that none of them are really explained, short of thrown in your face ("think fast, chucklenuts") as well as the most basic mechanics (All res, Bonus, MPM/BPD) being extremely relevant here yet but not explained in any capacity whatsoever really shows

There's also the major issue that Jaania's debuffs - this goes for most if not all debuffs throughout the game - don't scale to your level. Meaning -60 Bonus Vs a level 75 Player is going to be considerably more brutal than to a level 90 Player

~~ Extreme Mode ~~

I imagine this is what people would call a "hot take", but inflating a fight's difficulty primarily via RNG that has little to no counterplay, is not remotely fun in the slightest in my opinion. For example, if you roll Command - Halt and are unable to skip your turn via a potion or not attacking, then you're just screwed. I feel like this is related to my points in Covetous Fortune last (?) month and how you can simply remove that painful RNG by just outright speedrunning it.
There's also having do deal with 2 Commands in Phase 3 and Phase 4 (1 of either Halt or Attack, and 1 of either Effect or Solitude)

Ignore the Commands for a moment and there's even more issues in my opinion with this fight.

To be blunt, this fight is very overtuned and having the excuse "Oh it's an Extreme fight so that's normal" being thrown around does nothing to solve it at all. Swan Song Extreme is a great example of this, in which people were forced to rely on Aww and Ice Scythe for months before several classes were revamped and improved to have a better chance at this fight. An extremely late Draco Claw as well in an Extreme fight is brutal and a massive kick in the face for no reason in my opinion. This is further inflated by the fact that Jaania will execute the Player if their HP is below 33% in Phase 4

When does said Draco Claw occur?

At the beginning of Phase 4

~~ "Fixes" ~~
An "Easy Mode" for Normal Mode Jaania, I dont' feel would fix much. Unless you're tackling her large MPM and -Bonus debuff, nothing much changes. If my primary concern was on the damage side of things, then Adventure Mode would solve that fine.

I've seen a few players across the community since release - Discord and Reddit - having trouble with Jaania in Normal Mode alone. I've seen players outright mocked for having difficulty with this fight. This in particular is more directed at the community rather than Jaania. Outright disrespecting or being insulting to players for either not knowing what to do or just not understanding the basic mechanics of a game since it's stated literally nowhere short of one or two lines in the Stats Screen sincerely needs to stop.

I'll finish this with a question since I've said more than enough

Who exactly are these Story fights as of late being tailored to? Because there's a large gap between who meant to be targeted for and who it's actually being targeted at.
Post #: 13
4/8/2024 5:50:16   
Dr.Paradine
Member

Enjoyed catching up after a few months away, absolutely frigging loathing the Boss 'fight' and its ridiculous mechanics.

'Hey you broke her glaive? Great she repaired it instantly! Good job wasting your time!"

'Hey you busted her Tome? It'll be back a turn or two.'

'Hey you broke both her items? Absolutely no debuffs to her overall stats for the loss of equipment, also screw you she regens them anyways with no turn/damage cost.'
AQ  Post #: 14
4/8/2024 6:31:07   
DragonKeeper
Member

I was able to defeat Jaainia normal mode using pirate with mostly pre-inn items, with the exception being legion bracer and equipping the ultimate blinding light of destiny for the turn I drank one hp potion. I suspect that adventure mode would be even easier. I really like the reward. It is a great challenge. Will try extreme mode soon.
DF  Post #: 15
4/8/2024 6:37:19   
Sumbrosus
Member

You know, Zvezdana looking after Jaania may still come back to bite us.
The Magesterium wanted to get its hands on her, way back at the Gala, and Jaania is a genius researcher. The fact her experiments got so twisted would hardly be a turn-off for the Magesterium... Who knows what kind of edge Jaania's discoveries might give them?
Even if they're allies for the moment, the Magesterium is ultimately no less an enemy than Sobislav's faction of the Rose.
AQ  Post #: 16
4/8/2024 11:01:12   
TFS
Helpful!


@Lee:

quote:

Nowhere in the game, does the Player get taught (besides a single popup on the Status Screen with your stats and the like) on how Bonus Vs MPM works or even how much it matters.

This is, frankly, an insane statement. Every class in the game has a -Bonus debuff. Nearly every class in the game has a +Bonus buff. About half of the classes in the game have a +MPM buff. Bosses have been using Bonus and MPM buffs since quite literally Book 1, let alone Book 3. Like you said yourself, this very basic game mechanic fundamental to DragonFable's combat is explained on every single stat panel in the entire game. I genuinely have trouble believing that this statement applies to any number of players who have gotten to Level 2 and unlocked their shield skill, let alone to players who have reached the very end of the game.

quote:

Jaania's body parts is another new mechanic that short of Oddtog in a Side Story - has not been brought up in the Main to my knowledge. Nowhere in the game does it explain how this "new" mechanic works or whether you should pay attention to it.

Uh, what? I genuinely don't know where the clarity issues lies with this mechanic. In DragonFable, the player targets enemies by clicking on them, and initiating the battle with Jaania informs the player that her body, glaive, and tome can all be targeted. Hovering the mouse over Jaania's body, tome, or glaive will highlight it, and clicking on it will inform the player that they're now targeting the part, along with how much HP it has remaining. I don't think you need a solid grasp of theoretical physics to understand this one - what the player has to do and how to do it are very clearly presented and communicated. I sincerely don't understand where the confusion lies and haven't spoken to anyone who has, nor seen any other comments indicating as much - can you point me towards what step of the process specifically you're missing?

quote:

Or the fact that Mana Damage (Hi Necrotic Strike) makes it an absolute joke.

Uh, first of all, this was a glitch that was fixed two days ago. Second of all, mana damage does not make it an 'absolute joke;' the one very specific interaction you're referring to occurs specifically with DoomKnight and only DoomKnight - the very few mana attacks in the game otherwise do less damage than a normal attack on average. Third, this isn't an "inn mechanic" - this persistent glitch has been fixed on every boss it's actually been reported for, and clearly isn't intentional. I don't think launching with a glitch that has since been patched and strictly helped the player in the extremely rare instance it came up makes the mechanic poorly designed or inaccessible, and again have missed the leap in logic here.

quote:

The Command's are great, however they're extremely easy to miss if you don't think to check the Status Page (in the wider community, do people actually think to check it?) as well as the orbs at her feet, acting as a count down.

The condition for each Command is very specifically announced in a pop-up when it's used, though? They would be completely unmissable even if the stats panel didn't exist. And, again, I very heavily doubt that many players would make it this far into the game without knowing to check the stats panel. Surely most players figured this out at Level 5 when they tried to use Fire on a Fire Elemental...? I'm not sure what kind of theoretical player you've been talking about in this post so far - someone who doesn't know what shields do, how to check the stats panel, or even how to click on enemies...? I think these claims aren't very generalizable at best, and outright dishonest rhetoric at worst. If you think the boss is too hard, just say the boss is too hard - you don't need to claim that players who have made it to the very end of the game don't know how to check stats/resists or even click on enemies, to try and conflate it with some sort of accessibility/clarity issue.

quote:

A lot of Inn mechanics that your average Story Player wouldn't know about are finding their way into this fight. Throw in the fact that none of them are really explained, short of thrown in your face ("think fast, chucklenuts") as well as the most basic mechanics (All res, Bonus, MPM/BPD) being extremely relevant here yet but not explained in any capacity whatsoever really shows

I don't mean to be trite, but you haven't listed any "Inn mechanics" in this post so far. You mentioned having more points that you didn't go into, I'd maybe understand your perspective a bit more if you went into them?

quote:

I imagine this is what people would call a "hot take", but inflating a fight's difficulty primarily via RNG that has little to no counterplay, is not remotely fun in the slightest in my opinion. For example, if you roll Command - Halt and are unable to skip your turn via a potion or not attacking, then you're just screwed

It is hot, because it's wrong. You're forewarned about her Commands 3 to 5 turns in advance, which is warning to not waste your non-damaging moves, as you'll need them when the command expires. Even if you end up in the rare (but realistic) situation where you have no non-damaging moves that will be off of cooldown when the Command is announced, and this has somehow happened three times to the point where you're out of mana potions to burn, you can just not connect an attack? Don't buff your Bonus and target the glaive with a 1hit, maybe even equip a -Bonus item such as the Magi Helm, to miss the attack and satisfy the command.
Also, it's not like failing a Gear check is even a loss condition if you aren't doing it consistently? Failing one check causes the gear to do 800% damage (several of her normal moves do 600%, as a point of comparison) and heal her for 8%... that's not the end of the world? Classes like Paladin that match up well into the fight can fail like half of the gear checks with no issue.

quote:

There's also having do deal with 2 Commands in Phase 3 and Phase 4 (1 of either Halt or Attack, and 1 of either Effect or Solitude)

It is literally not possible to fail Solitude if you are actually reading the text on screen. There is no situation where the player can fail to dismiss Draco.

quote:

To be blunt, this fight is very overtuned and having the excuse "Oh it's an Extreme fight so that's normal" being thrown around does nothing to solve it at all.

But you haven't listed any examples of overtuning? Overtuning refers to when content is well-designed but the numbers behind it (in the context of DragonFable, examples of this would be damage %s or Bonus buffs) are too large to be fair or enjoyable. The allegations you've leveled against the fight are that it's poorly-designed, not about its tuning.
Also, well, it is an extreme fight. It's supposed to be hard. That's the point.

quote:

An extremely late Draco Claw as well in an Extreme fight is brutal and a massive kick in the face for no reason in my opinion. This is further inflated by the fact that Jaania will execute the Player if their HP is below 33% in Phase 4

When does said Draco Claw occur?

At the beginning of Phase 4

This is completely untrue, and never has been true. Please play the fight.

quote:

I've seen a few players across the community since release - Discord and Reddit - having trouble with Jaania in Normal Mode alone. I've seen players outright mocked for having difficulty with this fight. This in particular is more directed at the community rather than Jaania.

I don't know about Discord servers, but I haven't seen a single comment like this on Reddit. What I have seen is exactly one Redditor calling Verlyrus a 'moron' for making the fight too hard, before apologizing and deleting it after completing the fight.

quote:

Who exactly are these Story fights as of late being tailored to? Because there's a large gap between who meant to be targeted for and who it's actually being targeted at.

It's literally the final boss. It's meant as - and should be - something players have to learn, practice, and work towards being able to beat, as it is the culmination of the entire game. It doesn't gate progress, it is the end goal of progress.
While I do think there is merit in lowering the regular version's MPM to account for lower-level players, I think the complaints you've leveled against the fight are largely pretty poor and 'addressing' them would make it a substantially less fun/interesting/memorable boss. Like, I'm checking Reddit right now because of your comment, and all I'm seeing is people sharing strategies and successfully clearing the fight - that indicates to me that it's probably in a good place?

@Dr. Paradine:
quote:

'Hey you busted her Tome? It'll be back a turn or two.'

The act of breaking the tome purges her debuff and causes you to take less damage, forcing her to build it up again - so just by breaking it you've already gotten what you wanted.
quote:

'Hey you broke both her items? Absolutely no debuffs to her overall stats for the loss of equipment, also screw you she regens them anyways with no turn/damage cost.'

Breaking the glaive gives her -20 Boost and Bonus.

The tome and glaive also always come back when she uses specific moves that she always uses on the same turns, so you can wait for her to exhaust the moves and then time it accordingly.

< Message edited by TFS -- 4/8/2024 13:36:08 >
DF  Post #: 17
4/8/2024 16:45:39   
Laeon val Observis
Member
 

@Lee, you might want to cool off. Apart from how TFS properly described your argument as having flimsy substance (although I will suspect that your premise was generated due to multiple failed runs as much as just influenced by videos of the fight without being hands on with it), you're starting to sound like one of those volatile "intellectual" arguments that occur in the AQ sector of these forums, including the... unionized... feel of your last sentence/s. You cannot please everyone.

I've just tried the recently added DA-only Easy Mode. While I'm normally okay with inclusivity even though the current real world is bordering it into a bandwagon, this form of the aforementioned story fight -if I have to be fully honest with my criticisms- feels like an insult to all the innovations in combat design we have built over the years. Too stripped down to the bone, like an overcompensation to make it backward compatible with those still stuck at the Book 1 grade "difficulties" of battle.

< Message edited by Laeon val Observis -- 4/8/2024 16:48:37 >
DF AQW  Post #: 18
4/8/2024 19:47:13   
  Verlyrus
DragonFable Boxcat


easy mode no longer requires adventure mode now. but you also don't get the random drop at the end. Which isn't that big of a deal since 3/4 of them were DA only anyway.
AQ MQ  Post #: 19
4/8/2024 22:17:09   
everett910
Member

Fun release, really went all out, beat normal mode with chaosweaver without extra pots or the heroes diet, soul annihilated, and extreme mode with full deathknight, 2 hp pots and a hard tack, still used the seaweed but it was unnecessary, probably got a lucky rotation. Took a while to respect the mechanics and learn the rotations, but it was fun fight. Like fighting another soul/chaosweaver and a shin megami tensei boss I was fond of. Didnt realize there was an orb countdown, was just counting, ah well, the core awaits.
AQ DF MQ AQW Epic  Post #: 20
4/9/2024 5:45:32   
Roxas45
Member

I AM now concerned about what this looks like to a NON DA Player - cos most the classes have their right side skills locked.
I'm thinking maybe Technomancer could do it....? Most of the left side skills are dodge based are they not? I think this requires some testing on my part.

I'm trying this again and again, but I think I need to retink a LOT of things if I'm going to be using this to farm, in all honesty - that weapon looks amazing.
AQ DF MQ AQW  Post #: 21
4/9/2024 7:07:01   
Laeon val Observis
Member
 

Tested that theory, and Paladin could do normal Jaania in. As a self-challenge, I even did not max out both pots and Stan'd the whole time (to assume a scenario wherein a 200 AST/FIT/PROT dragon may not be available). Not too shabby, so an NDA should be able to do the same, but better safe with additional pots as the battle after getting a Noble Phantasm to the face can be pressuring. Especially if the scenario also plays on resistances scattered across multiple elements instead of devoting it to All.
DF AQW  Post #: 22
4/9/2024 7:14:42   
ProbablyCallum
Member

@roxas, nda players shoudldnt really have any regard at this point in the game tbh, in book 1 yeah sure but its been nearly 20 years they should just buy the game. Its the price of like 3 coffees
DF  Post #: 23
4/9/2024 7:26:58   
Laeon val Observis
Member
 

^Before you go deez nutz out of this argument, the fact that there are still NDAs inquiring every once in a while is just an insensitivity from you. Regardless of the fact that the majority of the rewards in this particular fight is DA, there is nothing wrong to prove that having some degree of advanced combat in a story fight is possible to win for NDAs. Especially if it is to also emphasize that at this stage of the story, it should have been expected regardless of possible detracting remarks from more boomer players.
DF AQW  Post #: 24
4/9/2024 20:15:02   
TFS
Helpful!


^To be fair, you have to spend a lot of time scouring message boards and chat platforms to know that not a single NDA has expressed struggling with this boss, and the complaints about potential difficulty are all from DA players making up hypothetical NDAs and arguing on their behalf. I don't understand all the weird armchair discourse on Discord and even on here about how NDA players who have made it to the end of the game don't know how to check stat panels, or how to click on monsters, or what MPM does. In fact, I'd even go so far as to claim that the average NDA player who has made it this far is probably better at reading and clicking than the average DA player, simply because they've been playing on hard mode this whole time lol. If any content were to filter NDA players, it'd be "hard stat check because game assumes DA only items/skills" and not "NDA players don't know what shields are" (which I don't think is the case here either, as it's already been cleared by numerous classes and levels without use of DA content).

Also, like, even barring that, I don't think it's a great design principle that content - let alone the literal final boss - be designed with the free trial in mind in the first place. This just makes the game weaker (it has long been established that players will always go for the path of least resistance even if it's less enjoyable, I won't bother dignifying claims to the contrary) in that it's less enjoyable for players who actually bought the game, and that there isn't any learning curve that transitions a player to endgame content as they complete the story. This is a pretty systematic issue with the game as a whole, though, and not unique to Jaania. Leave it to DragonFable to spend two release cycles designing the best fight in the game as its final boss, and then patch in a skip button two days later I guess lol.
Even if there were points to be made that the normal fight is too difficult, I don't think patching in an option that makes the final boss impossible to lose really helps anyone. It doesn't constitute a well-curated play experience for the people who take it - a big final boss that culminates 13 years of content should be something that players struggle with, learn, share strategies for, and remember after they've completed the game. (And, as a side note, it's not like anyone was stonewalled by this boss or anything? It was only out for a couple days and the few people I saw struggling on release were pretty overjoyed to have figured it out on their own a few hours later - isn't that exactly the desired outcome?)

It's not that I'm really emphatic about this change or anything, as the EX fight isn't going anywhere and that's the content actually designed for me. It's not even close to surprising or unprecedented either, every story boss in the game is systematically trivial, often by design. I just think that players having to expend effort and take a few tries to learn a final boss's mechanics is good game design, and patching in an option to effectively skip it makes the game weaker - and that's apparently not the most common perspective lol.
DF  Post #: 25
Page:   [1] 2   next >   >>
All Forums >> [Artix Entertainment Games] >> [DragonFable] >> DragonFable General Discussion >> =DF= Friday, April 5th Design Notes: Book 3: Convergence - Convergence (Part 2)
Page 1 of 212>
Jump to:



Advertisement




Icon Legend
New Messages No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages Locked w/o New Messages
 Post New Thread
 Reply to Message
 Post New Poll
 Submit Vote
 Delete My Own Post
 Delete My Own Thread
 Rate Posts




Forum Content Copyright © 2018 Artix Entertainment, LLC.

"AdventureQuest", "DragonFable", "MechQuest", "EpicDuel", "BattleOn.com", "AdventureQuest Worlds", "Artix Entertainment"
and all game character names are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Artix Entertainment, LLC. All rights are reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY


Forum Software © ASPPlayground.NET Advanced Edition