Forces and Gameplay Mechanics

[Ryna]

I think everyone can agree that Force-class balance has always been an issue in the Phantasy Star franchise. In PSO Version 2 on Ultimate mode, Forces tended to do poor damage due to high tech resistances. In Phantasy Star Portable 2, the mechanics of the PP system severely inhibited the potential of the class. For Phantasy Star Zero, Forces were arguably the best class due to their damage potential and reasonable TP bar size.

What kind of gameplay mechanics would you like to see for the Force class in Phantasy Star Online 2? Assuming the game uses a TP/PP bar, would you prefer a game design that emphasizes a PP pool for each weapon (like PSU) or should the character have a collective pool (like PSO/PS2)? Beyond that, what types of techniques would you like to see?

[MAXrobo]

i think they should go back to PSOs system of having a TP bar linked to your character. and dont have it refill like in PSP2. insted make you use fluids to refill it. also id like to see the techniques be different from element to element. in PSU they where basicly the same, all that mattered was the resistences. i think that made using force characters really boring to use.

[Jinketsu]

Assuming we're not going to be getting a better and more wide variety of equippable equipment and parameters that help with the issue, a pool would be nice.

Hell, even if we have several different weapons for each element that enhance various different techs - I'd still rather see an overall pool to consume from, rather than applying said techs to a weapon and worrying about 6 or 7 weapons' TP.

[Niered]

I've been playing a lot of Sacred 2 recently, a good, if rough around the edges, sort of ARPG, and they have a pretty good system a few other ARPG's use as well, dunno if it would work in a PS title, but basically, it eliminates an MP or TP or Mana bar completely, and focuses strictly on recharge times for skills. Each character comes with three skill schools, and using a skill in a school sets all the recharge timers in that school back by the amount listed for that skill.

This works nicely because it forces the player to use skills outside of a few favorites, and actually level up and use skills that are more situational than purely damage based.

In PSO2, this could be used in a similar fashion, using a fire based technique, such as Foie, would set all the timers of all fire based techs on your action pallete back by a small amount, including the one for Foie, but using Rafoie would eat them up even further, forcing the player to use a different school, such as zonde or barta.

It also fixes the "-fluid" or mana potion spam inherent to ARPGs, a system that is just a spammy bullshit fest.

[Justyn_Darkcrest]

I would love to see the game go back to the TP system (MP/PP don't really care what they call it) as long as they bring it back to the techs being a part of you're char and not linked to the weapon.

I did like that PSU boosted the effectiveness of techs in battle vs. PSO low damage output at high lvls, I would however like to see a more balanced version of a warrior Force (like WT) that can mix techs and melee effectively.

As far as visuals go, it would be nice to have every tech look a little different (PSO had this to a degree) but I won't be too upset if they don't as it's the game play I enjoy most.

[Kent]

A TP-based system like PSO's, is definitely better for Forces - particularly if they decide to emphasize the dungeon-crawling aspect (which they should - especially if you look at something like Challenge Mode - which, if you've ever played that as a Force, you'll really understand how proper TP management comes into play).

Though, the way PP worked in PSP2 shouldn't necessarily be overlooked - I certainly wouldn't mind having a separate pool like that, for the purposes of using special attacks with weapons, or for using powered-up versions of any of your techniques (for the puposes of exploiting a combo made, if such a thing is in the game). However, TP should be the primary resource for casting Techniques.

Techniques, of course, are something your character performs, not something their weapons perform - additionally, techniques should all be functionally-different from each other, so that players are required to think a little more in order to properly exploit the elemental weaknesses of any particular enemy or group. PSO has probably the best arrangement of techniques for this purpose, save for perhaps Diablo II (which also had almost all of its spells for the Sorceress, Necromancer and Druid unique in comparison to all of their own other spells).

The technique type homogenization we saw in PSU is invariably a bad thing, just like the notion of specific weapons being required to cast them.

[Msr. Bojangles]

A TP-based system like PSO's, is definitely better for Forces - particularly if they decide to emphasize the dungeon-crawling aspect (which they should - especially if you look at something like Challenge Mode - which, if you've ever played that as a Force, you'll really understand how proper TP management comes into play).

Though, the way PP worked in PSP2 shouldn't necessarily be overlooked - I certainly wouldn't mind having a separate pool like that, for the purposes of using special attacks with weapons, or for using powered-up versions of any of your techniques (for the puposes of exploiting a combo made, if such a thing is in the game). However, TP should be the primary resource for casting Techniques.

Techniques, of course, are something your character performs, not something their weapons perform - additionally, techniques should all be functionally-different from each other, so that players are required to think a little more in order to properly exploit the elemental weaknesses of any particular enemy or group. PSO has probably the best arrangement of techniques for this purpose, save for perhaps Diablo II (which also had almost all of its spells for the Sorceress, Necromancer and Druid unique in comparison to all of their own other spells).

The technique type homogenization we saw in PSU is invariably a bad thing, just like the notion of specific weapons being required to cast them.

My thoughts exactly. I cannot ask for anything more than something like this.

[Allison_W]

I'm going to go on the record (again, really) opposing not only PSU-style techniques and techer weapons, but PSZ-style techer weapons where the weapons are such a huge part of MST and technique damage that a FO is pretty much obligated to use them, and a HUnewm/HUnewearl has to switch to a techer weapon to get anything out of their attack techniques. Techer weapons should be handled roughly PSO-style, where the bonuses are more moderate and attack techniques actually retain some kind of point when you have a non-techer weapon equipped.

[Ceresa]

I'm going to go on the record (again, really) opposing not only PSU-style techniques and techer weapons, but PSZ-style techer weapons where the weapons are such a huge part of MST and technique damage that a FO is pretty much obligated to use them, and a HUnewm/HUnewearl has to switch to a techer weapon to get anything out of their attack techniques. Techer weapons should be handled roughly PSO-style, where the bonuses are more moderate and attack techniques actually retain some kind of point when you have a non-techer weapon equipped.

Getting worthwhile tech damage in PSO already required switching between the 3 elemental staffs (and merges too) every mob spawn to get the elemental boosts until that glorious day that never came where you get a psychowand to get all 3 raboosts in 1 weapon. Making the weapons give straight up MST or TP or TEC or whatever they want to call the tech damage stat was a godsend...

[Randomness]

I'd like a medium between PSU and PSO tech styles, with regards to effect/appearance.

PSO, tech level had little to do with anything but raw damage. PSU, tech prefix basically told you exactly what the attack area would be.

I would like more variety than in PSU, but I'd also like to be able to hit a given area with each element (more or less).

For instance, I could go for Rafoie being the characteristic explosion, while Rabarta is a giant Barta shot, that on impact becomes a cone-shaped ice blast (Like PSO Gibarta). For Razonde, you could have a storm of Zonde shots with small splash areas come down. Somewhat random, but also predictable to hit a rough area.

Gi-techs could basically be Razonde, Rabarta, Gifoie from PSO. Maybe have Rabarta do a couple spaced hits (As a difference from Razonde's single blast, and it gives it more chances to freeze!). Obviously, Gifoie in this setup would retain greater range.

If you wanted to re-use Dam- techs, you could go with the straight flamethrower for Damfoie, a longer range, but non-penetrating hail of ice shards for Dambarta (Think PSZ's Rabarta), and a continuous chain lightning effect for Damzonde.

The basic versions could stay the same. I wouldn't be adverse to some techs in only a couple elements, as long as each had linear, surround, and explosive versions. Megiverse would be cool to have in PSO2, and the Nosu- series as well.