Quote Originally Posted by Shurrikhan View Post
I'm just curious then what's been "lost" from the 8-man version? As I said, I can't really improve it past the 8-man version (which I personally thought to be boring and binary itself). Heck, at least you have all of 2 options more across the 4-man version than the 8-man permits, at the cost only of exchanging assigned cardinal/semicardinal positions for more general ones (left/right, close/far).I'll fully agree that wouldn't be satisfying content (or at least, no more than the 8-man serpentine pushover gatekeeper to SB savage tier 1 was), but I don't think it shows any evidence of an inherent design weakness in low party numbers.
Yeah maybe O1S was a bad example. 1 tank with current job design restrictions just feels awful in my brain. Regardless of really any fight.

Well, I'm sold. I can't agree more with the desire for such challenges, and for the means to deal with them.

Though it was just part of the larger picture for me, I wanted something very, very similar through a revised leveling system tentatively called the Ability Sphere.
Reading the leveling sphere I definitely see vibes of my design. I just chose the more modern approach while you took the more immersive approach. Both valid though.

The idea behind mine would be that you wouldn't really know what kind of skill you needed until you starting having issues and said, you know I really need a way to get an enemy off of me. XYZ skill isn't cutting it alone. Then you present the player with options to facilitate that goal. Do I empower an existing skill with a new effect? Do I create a new one? Do I design it as an offensive skill? Utility? Defensive?

Your design even reminds of one of my favorite games. Mana Khemia. It had a AP board where you crafted items that unlocked slots on these boards. You then would unlock new abilities, stat increases etc for your team. You needed to have adjacent slots unlocked though and the system kept me crafting items nonstop. It was a great feedback loop. My concept actually draws a lot of inspiration from MK as a game. it doesn't hurt that the game has probably some of the best turn based combat to ever exist.