Outline For Sandbox City

Demon Stats

ThanosToday at 12:55 PM
okay so the general gist of how to stat player demons here is figuring out what ranges of player levels they should reasonably cover and then seeing what the average number for those levels is on regular PCs
in SMT, Demons do tend to end up slightly stronger than the main character when you obtain them because they grow faster at first, they gain a lot of stats, but at some point they stop gaining any stats so your MC catches up to them and then surpasses them
which is why you fuse them

ThanosToday at 12:56 PM
I think Tiers should be reasonably divided into segments of about 8 levels, personally, with Tier 1 being 2-9 and everything else following suit
like Tier 2 is 11-19, Tier 3 is 21-29, Tier 4 is 31-39, etc.
and since each Demon has 8 Ranks, that should be an easy division to do

ThanosToday at 12:58 PM
so the way we can do this is by giving Demons of each Tier a base stat array and then letting players immediately rank them up once

ThanosToday at 12:58 PM
just letting them distribute points willy-nilly is maybe asking for trouble
because at that point there's little difference between regular Demons and Partner Demons
regular Demons should be more balanced overall, even if they have higher stat totals, while Partner Demons are free to focus down their unique builds and become busted like a PC
now, fused demons are stronger than both created demons and recruited demons through negotiation

ThanosToday at 1:00 PM
because fusion gives a couple random stat points and lets them carry over a couple skills from the demons you used to fuse them
for that purpose I suggest Demons have a total of 10 skill slots, only 8 of which are actual ranks, with 2 of them being inherited skills
that gives fused demons a slight edge, and the Partner Demon can compensate by having Soul Skills instead

ThanosToday at 1:02 PM
for their actual stats, having their gains be slightly higher than PCs sounds good to me, with the stat array being slightly lower than the points a PC of the level you can fuse them at would have
this will require actual proper math so Vini will be invaluable in balancing it but I can probably cook up some numbers if you wanted me to

Demon Tiers to Equivalent Player Summoner Level to player total stats:

like Tier 2 is 11-19, Tier 3 is 21-29, Tier 4 is 31-39, etc.
and since each Demon has 8 Ranks, that should be an easy division to do

Summon Cost : Upkeep Cost (Minimum for that demon tier)

Partner Demon:

Normal Demon:

Event Demon:

Fiend shares Summon costs with Event Demons, but upkeep cost is 30% of MAG

ThanosYesterday at 12:58 PM
so the way we can do this is by giving Demons of each Tier a base stat array and then letting players immediately rank them up once

ThanosYesterday at 12:58 PM
just letting them distribute points willy-nilly is maybe asking for trouble
because at that point there's little difference between regular Demons and Partner Demons
regular Demons should be more balanced overall, even if they have higher stat totals, while Partner Demons are free to focus down their unique builds and become busted like a PC
now, fused demons are stronger than both created demons and recruited demons through negotiation

ThanosYesterday at 1:00 PM
because fusion gives a couple random stat points and lets them carry over a couple skills from the demons you used to fuse them
for that purpose I suggest Demons have a total of 10 skill slots, only 8 of which are actual ranks, with 2 of them being inherited skills
that gives fused demons a slight edge, and the Partner Demon can compensate by having Soul Skills instead

ThanosYesterday at 1:02 PM
for their actual stats, having their gains be slightly higher than PCs sounds good to me, with the stat array being slightly lower than the points a PC of the level you can fuse them at would have

ThanosYesterday at 1:35 PM
Event Demons need a slightly higher stat array to more closely match PC gains

Thanos03/17/2020
And regular ass Tier 10 Demons when maxed will be like, as strong as a Level 95 PC
The Partner Demon when maxed Tier 10 will be about on par with a Level 99 PC
But then you have Event Demons and Fiends
Event Demons can vary between regular Demons and slightly weaker than Fiends
Like a maxed Lucifer would naturally break a couple stat caps and be stronger than a Level 99 PC
Fiends, on the other hand, or at least the Tier 10 Fiend, The Reaper, is about as strong as a Level 120 PC
Naturally, the MAG costs for these fuckers are astronomical

PLayers can get free soul skills.
Tier 2 at level 25.
Tier 3 at level 50.
Tier 4 at level 75.

Tier 1 Soul Skill Card | Teaches a Tier 1 Soul Skill to a character/Partner Demon | 10,000 VC
Tier 2 Soul Skill Card | Teaches a Tier 2 Soul Skill to a character/Partner Demon | 30,000 VC
Tier 3 Soul Skill Card | Teaches a Tier 3 Soul Skill to a character/Partner Demon | 70,000 VC

Tier 1 Skill Upgrade Card | Improves a Tier 1 Skill into a Tier 2 Skill of the same type (Agi to Agilao, Cleave to Fatal End, etc.) | 25,000 VC
Tier 2 Skill Upgrade Card | Improves a Tier 2 Skill into a Tier 3 Skill of the same type | 50,000 VC
there are no Tier 4 Soul Skill Cards or Tier 3 Skill Upgrade Cards
at least not any buyable ones
we may give them out as extremely valuable rewards for missions, keyword being may

Supreme Moogle, God of HRToday at 12:53 PM
We could have them be rare drops from Dungeon Bosses, but limited only to first runs
BruhToday at 12:53 PM
soul skills can be pretty powerful
Supreme Moogle, God of HRToday at 12:53 PM
And only one instead of one-per-player
ThanosToday at 12:54 PM
MAKE THEM FIGHT FOR IT

Supreme Moogle, God of HRToday at 12:55 PM
But for real unless the drop chance is like
ThanosToday at 12:55 PM
1%
Supreme Moogle, God of HRToday at 12:56 PM
Ehhh then one for everyone is probably fine
ThanosToday at 12:56 PM
and only on the lowest depth of the dungeon

ThanosToday at 5:27 PM
on a similar but separate note: any strengths that change exp gain in any way are strictly forbidden

ThanosToday at 5:27 PM
now, if you wanna keep Hunt skills
Supreme Moogle, God of HRToday at 5:28 PM
Okay everyone get ready
ThanosToday at 5:28 PM
just make them have innate vampiric healing
BruhToday at 5:28 PM
Drain, huh?
ThanosToday at 5:28 PM
the Forgotten heals HP equal to x% of the damage they dealt to the enemy
BruhToday at 5:28 PM

Supreme Moogle, God of HRToday at 5:28 PM
I'm about to make the only prestige class you should care about
ThanosToday at 5:28 PM
it's better HP Drain
which, honestly
BruhToday at 5:28 PM
im okey with dis
ThanosToday at 5:28 PM
would make Death builds fucking busted
BruhToday at 5:28 PM
lol
ThanosToday at 5:28 PM
Death Forgotten would become a pretty prominent meta

Figure out how money will be distributed in materials, boss fights, discovering landmarks, and exploration.

Test out combat system, equipment, and stuff.

MAG and alignment.

ThanosToday at 4:54 PM
anyway conclusion: crits/weaknesses double POW, not straight damage; as expected outside buffs like Tarukaja/Heat Riser and Power Charge affect damage directly instead
I think if we set it to 40% we'll have a decent margin of error
overall we're hitting I think slightly higher numbers overall
and making attack buffs slightly lower than canon might help fix that
that said I'm honestly kinda tired of these calcs overall so I don't wanna get deeper into this tonight