I've been slowly whittling away at this whenever I can between life and other responsibilities. Not a whole lot I can manage in the time I get left, but I've been gradually making strides. I'm posting today to share some of the work done. Though not all of it I can show.
First up, I've finished all of Caith's combat abilities finally. Which means that all of the battle system related tasks on the player's side are finally finished. I no longer need to touch their skill code ever again.
THANK THE LORD.
Secondly, I decided to axe the combo chain bonus revision to the battle system. Why? Well...I actually implemented it at first. But then when I actually tested it, I discovered that it was WAY TOO POWERFUL. The player would hit 999999 Damage recorded on the counter, with the actual damage being even higher than that, in just one Sacred Will. ...Which was mildly distressing. So suffice to say, I did not think that system through nearly as well as I thought I had. It broke everything. Not in terms of coding, but in terms of balance. So I reverted all the code I had changed and decided to keep things as they are now.
So now Strike Chains get no damage bonus from the current combo chain system. But Ether Spells and Bursts do. Combo Chain will be retained from character to character and you can try to build up a high combo to then use as a damage bonus to your spells and abilities. That's it. Chains build it up, Ether/Burst uses it. And it retains till an enemy acts. Simple.
Lastly, I've begun work on implementing Caith into the menus. So far I managed to work her into the main menu. That was interesting as I basically need to made additions to all my code, considering that the menu was originally build for 4...and then 6....and then 7...and finally 8. Once I finish including her into all the menus, I can finally say I'm finished with all the technical nonsense and I can go back to working on story and gameplay segments and continue from where I left the game at Day 4. Which was quite a cliffhanger really.
Here's a screenshot of the main menu. Character's 6 and 7 are blocked out because...well I've never mentioned them before. Or ever. You'll find out who they are in game. 8>
