Today, I'm going to begin the process of rolling out finalizations to the Skill Learn and Mastery systems. For those of you who don't know, Mastery is when you use a skill over and over and then it either becomes stronger or requires less resources to use or some other effect and Skill Learn is when you raise a class to a high enough level that you see abilities appear under the Learn Skill tab inside Skills in the menu.
Phase 1
Let's talk about the vision first. Since I began creating the game, I've programmed in dozens of skills that so far have never been accessible to players. My goal right now is to release everything I've had baking in the oven before working on too much new stuff. So that's where we get into Black Mage - the first class to receive Skill Learn updates. By level up, Black Mage will learn Arcane Shock, Firebolt, Waterbolt, Frostbolt, Poisonbolt, and Airblade. You can accelerate the learning of the latter 4 by purchasing them from Skills -> Learn Skill once the Black Mage class hits level 5. Once these 'tier 1' magic abilities are learned, the tier 2 abilities become available in the menu when other conditions are met, but no other abilities are learned via level-up alone. For example, Fireball becomes available to learn in the menu once Black Mage hits level 10. To purchase the ability, it will cost 2500 gold and 30 Burning Essences. What's so good about tier 2 skills to justify the cost, right? Well, they hit twice. So while they begin at Mastery level 0 and are expensive to use for a while, they are the best bang for your buck each individual turn. I don't want to give away everything here, but let's look at the fire line in detail:
Firebolt
MP Cost: 30
Damage Formula: (a.mat * 4)
Variance: 25%
Additional Effects: Burn (30%)
Max Mastery Level: 5
Mastery Effects: +3% Damage Per Level, -2 MP Cost Per Level
At Max Mastery: +15% Damage, MP Cost: 20
Fireball
MP Cost: 60
Damage Formula: (a.mat * 4)
Variance: 25%
Additional Effects: Burn (45%), 2-Hit
Cooldown: 1 Turn
Max Mastery Level: 10
Mastery Effects: +5% Damage Per Level, -3 MP Cost Per Level
At Max Mastery: +50% Damage, MP Cost: 30
Lava Burst
MP Cost: 100
Damage Formula: (a.mat * 4)
Variance: 25%
Additional Effects: Burn (60%), 3-Hit
Cooldown: 2 Turns
Max Mastery Level: 25
Mastery Effects: +5% Damage Per Level, -3 MP Cost Per Level
At Max Mastery: +125% Damage, MP Cost: 25
Eruption
MP Cost: 75
Damage Formula: (a.mat * 4)
Variance: 25%
Additional Effects: Burn (50%), Area of Effect (Enemies Only)
Cooldown: 2 Turns
Max Mastery Level: 10
Mastery Effects: +5% Damage Per Level, -2 MP Cost Per Level
At Max Mastery: +50% Damage, MP Cost: 55
By examining the above 4 skills, the effects of the Mastery system become clear - but how do you level up an ability? Simple - use it! By default, the amount of times an ability needs to be used to level up is 10 times per level + 10. Ex: Leveling from 0 to 1 takes 10 uses, from 1 to 2 takes an additional 20 uses, from 2-3 takes an additional 30 uses, so on and so forth. It is important to note that the default is not always used for every skill, but for the purposes of elemental abilities - the default is always used.
Important key notes about Mastery:
- Default Max Mastery: 10
- Default Level Formula: level * 10
- Default MP Cost: cost * (1 - (level * 0.05))
- Default TP Cost: cost * (1 - (level * 0.05))
- Default Damage Formula: (value * (1 + (level * 0.05))
- The default applies to every skill not explicitly mentioned in this or previous patch notes. As time goes on, there will be differences for players to discover.
tldr about the key notes... by using an ability more, it costs less to use and does more damage (or healing)!
Phase 1 -> 2
Today, we roll out the changes to Black Mage, Mastery, and Skill Level Up. Over the next couple weeks (or however long it takes), I will continue to quietly roll out updates for the other available classes. If a new major class is not announced, then a post here on Steam is unlikely to happen. If you want up to date information on changes to the game, Discord is the best place for that (https://discord.gg/7GehvwKGCv - Select "CoA" role). To know if the game has been changed since this post, see the Version # from the title screen ("Info" under "Continue"). With today's roll out, the game version will be 6.507, the patch notes for which are listed below.
Ideally, I won't continue to make long posts about minor changes or updates to smaller side systems. The next post you can expect to see here on Steam would be about new experiences.
Until then, catch you on the flippidy flip
6.507 [Build #157, Release Date: December 16, 2024]
Bug Reports:
- The fastest way to report a bug is on Discord @ https://discord.gg/7GehvwKGCv.
New:
- Skill Learn System beginning with Black Mage class. See "Mastery" section below for full details rolled out this update.
Fixes:
- Removed Eurus from the Raphael's Tower area when he is already in the party.
Updates & Changes:
- Hallows Shield, Scarf, Earrings, Scabbard, and Strap can now be sold for the same items they were purchased for. This will allow current players to swap the broken Talisman versions with the functional Accessory versions.
- Added minimum to tier 2 and 3 halloween skill.
- All Tier 2 magic abilities now have a 1 turn cooldown.
- All Tier 3 magic abilities now have a 2 turn cooldown.
Mastery:
- Tier 1 magic skills now have a mastery max of 5.Tier 2 set at 10, and tier 3 set at 25. Tier 4 (aoe) set at 10.
- Tier 1-4 should properly function for Black Mage class at various levels (up to 25).
- Triple-Strike mastery set to max 10, -5% mp cost per level, +5% dmg per level.
- Airslash & Airstrike mastery set to max 5, +3%dmg/-1TP/-1MP per level.
- Airslash II & Airstrike II mastery set to max 10, +7%dmg/-1TP/-1MP per level.
- Airslash III & Airstrike III mastery set to max 10, +15% dmg per level.
Notes & Known Issues:
- Mastery changes likely will not apply to abilities already learned by the characters.
- This patch will go live before the end of the day.