Battle Update #1

This isn't as much as I'd hoped to have done re: changes to the combat system, but as I was starting to spin my wheels, I felt it best to put out an update and see where folks were on the changes that have already been made.

Some custom scripts, primarily Yanfly's, gave the battle system a good foundation to build on, though I'm certainly not using (or even understanding) the full potential of what I have to work with already.  If nothing else, there's a good many formatting issues I need to figure out, as well as some unnecessary status messages to turn off.

Additionally, bringing the power curve way down felt like a good move to me - it accentuates the fact that these are regular folks, walking around with all of 10hp to their name.  Getting that one or two extra damage against a bandit or getting bodyslammed by a thug feels a good deal more visceral when you're so close to death even on your best day.

Initially, I had wanted a combat system based off of The Banner Saga - with health and attack power being directly correlated, and armor protecting the wearer until it was broken.  This is proving difficult to implement, so I've changed tack a bit - as attacks are focused on one target, their defense will fall lower and lower, allowing more damage to penetrate their armor until that debuff wears off.  At the moment, (and as currently balanced) I don't know that this provides interesting tactical choices, but I could very well see it making a difference if the party is punching a bit above their weight class and it takes two fighters knocking down an enemy's defense with their attacks just to allow the heavy-hitter to get minimal damage through.

Perhaps a random chance of inflicting a status effect more tied to the weapon / nature of the attacker would be more thematic / interesting?  Or (more ideally) offer up more interesting choices than spamming the same old attack every turn - I'd like to give several options for "attack" and "defend" that have different tradeoffs, so that given the current situation, it might make sense to go for the big attack that will leave you defenseless / unable to act for a while, or perhaps instead of simply avoiding incoming attacks, you should hunker down into a full block.  Or would preparing a counterstrike be a better option?  Just talking through it, this feels like the way to go - it's just a matter of implementing it in a way that feels natural and intuitive, so that's a feasibility study for another day!

In the next update, I hope to have the battle system more close to finalized and let folks try out the main characters and their special abilities.  I'm also hoping to do more with the concept of "Beliefs," which I've stolen from the tabletop RPG, the Burning Wheel.  As you make choices at various points, your characters' beliefs will change and develop, which will in turn shape the course of dialogues and plotlines available to you.  It's another little system I'm excited to explore, so I guess I'd better wrap this up and get back to it!  Enjoy, and please let me know what feedback you have!