Spirit Beast Arenas are now open for testing in Platinum!

In order to get to the arena, you'll need to go one northwest of Wehnimer's North Gate, along the Merchant Road. There, just touch the obelisk to enter.

Please feel free to post any issues you might find here on the Spirit Beasts discussion forum, or email me at gs4-auchand@play.net.

Thanks!

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

The obelisk also doesn't seem to work... even though keith stole my stone vs wood. Jerk. :p



>touch obelisk
You reach out and touch an old wooden obelisk.

>Also no matter how we touch your obelisk nothing happens.

That's what she said?

Anyway, the obelisk is fixed and ready to go. I had set it up to be GMs only until I was ready to announce this, and then, y'know, left it that way.

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

I don't mean to sound like a negative nancy on the spirit beast testing, but... it seems like I'm literally spending all my time telling them to switch, and the very second I switch, they're already in a superior stance again. Is that intended?

I'll go a step further than Talryssa. The training battles are impossible. I have zero chance to win.

Keith/Brinret/Shiun

Brinret says, "Bring it on."
A bolt of lightning streaks down from the sky and strikes Brinret!
... 16428101 points of damage!
Powerful blast reduces Brinret to a smoldering pile of ash!

According to my tests, the battles aren't impossible. You may have an opponent that is strong against your beast. Try a different beast, if you have access to it.

However, I don't know how many people we have in plat testing them, Auchund, but I've tried a variety of beasts and tactics, and I wouldn't say it's 1 loss to 1 win, but that could just be me. However, I get the feeling these are SUPPOSED to be hard. So far, I've downed 6 of the 7 trainers. The last one, well, she's got the seductress and the librarian in her packs, and holy crap! I'll get it though.


For those who don't know what we're talking about, the arena is tough, but it's pretty amazing!

You have several options, training, weekly, and blood matches (that I've tested)

Training is just that
Weekly, you have 7 different trainers to pit yourself against. I don't kreally know much after that.
Blood -- Heh, this one I enjoy. Your spirit beasts life is directly tied to yours, percentage wise. If it dies, so too, do you. Bring deeds, and you'll lose your spells, however, you'll be revived. (Side note: Starting a new battle at low health will start you off renewed, since you will now be at 100% health just like your spirit beast)
Blood battles, are the only way to win redmetal tokens (I think that's what they're called, I've forgotten) which is used to buy items for your beasts, such as flacons, or armaments. You can also buy a gem pouch, which has gems in it and a chance rare gems. You can a pitance of redmetal tokens even when you lose, and you gain more tokens based seemingly on how well you battled.

That's all for now, I'll provide more info after testing more

>Okay, so I logged in from work, and the first attempt I finally beat the last trainer, haha. For beating all three beasts, I got a stone for a prize. A smooth stone. Ha!

Once the system goes live for reals, these will be replaced with radiant bestial soulstones, which are alchemical items used to upgrade uncommon beast potions to rare beast potions. Right now, smooth stones just seemed like a good placeholder.

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

I dunno if I got better or they got easier, but I started winning about on par with what you said earlier. 1:1. My beast also leveled up to level 8, so I'm ecstatic about that.

If we are going to make the training battles a 50:50 win rate can we please give 50 exp for a training loss? When I'm doing training battles it's because I want to grind out levels. When I'm getting nothing for a loss it just feels like I wasted my time and silver. Our beasts should be learning something during every training bout win or lose.

Keith/Brinret/Shiun

Brinret says, "Bring it on."
A bolt of lightning streaks down from the sky and strikes Brinret!
... 16428101 points of damage!
Powerful blast reduces Brinret to a smoldering pile of ash!

>If we are going to make the training battles a 50:50 win rate can we please give 50 exp for a training loss? When I'm doing training battles it's because I want to grind out levels.

I still haven't seen compelling evidence to encourage giving experience for losing, as it would be a pretty big change to the system and its workings. However, in order to make training make more sense, I've adjusted training battles so that masters now quality-match to beasts of same quality to the one you are using. They still level-match. This should make things more fair.

As far as weeklies go, that was a good concern, and weekly challenges now do not level-match. Blood arenas still do.

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

So what are the small crystal vessels?

You pour a small crystal vessel onto your butterfly talisman. Motes of silvery light begin to coalesce around the talisman, heralding the eruption of an orange swallowtail butterfly from within. It revels in the nourishing fluid!

Sated, the butterfly sinks back into its talisman, and the vessel crumbles away.

I didn't notice any change in stats or anything, so not sure what to expect from it. (Should be noted my butterfly is maxed for stats)

If nothing else, it kind of gave me a grin to see it wiggle around joy.

>Do the NPC spirit beasts start the match with the special energy charged? They always seem to be able to launch one before my beast has enough energy built up.

No. I believe I've said this a few times, but there is functionally no difference between NPC trainers and opposing players from a mechanical standpoint.

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

>So what are the small crystal vessels?

Small vessels give a flat 50 experience to a Spirit Beast. Larger ones give a considerably greater, random amount.

Auchand

"I have passed through fire and deep water, since we parted. I have forgotten much that I thought I knew, and learned again much that I had forgotten. I can see many things far off, but many things that are close at hand I cannot see."

>>Though I'm still not convinced that insight isn't the best stat ever.

I've been pretty convinced that it is, heh... assuming that this is mechanically how it works, the chance to autoswitch with no RT is unspeakably good. The times that I've gotten the most wrecked by NPC trainers have been when I detect the opponent's stance to confirm proper positioning and immediately Special, only to find that they've somehow already switched. Or, any number of other times that they've somehow switched stance twice in less than five seconds. And it's pretty hilarious when a string of auto-stances seem to occur in response to one another.

---

"Bring me your suffering. The rattle roar of broken bones. Bring me the riot in your heart. Angry, wild and raw. Bring it all. I am not afraid of the dark."
- mia hollow

the most frustrating matches are the ones where the NPC has a special attack ready to go immediately.