Seeing as we have all the battle balancing mostly finalized, I think it would be a good idea to go ahead and let you guys know exactly how battle works. Arc Arath uses the tradition random encounter method. While we realize that this is greatly outdated, we've taken every care to make it as painless as possible. Firstly, the game uses the absolute lowest setting for random encounter frequency... with very few exceptions. On top of that, there is an item called a Ward Sphere that will completely negate random encounters in a room. If you move location (from one screen to the next) the effect is lost. But more importantly, the effect stacks. If you use more than one Ward Sphere in a room, the effect lasts longer. When you start a new game, you are given about 10 of these, and they are extremely cheap in shops. The game is balanced to be moderately easy if you fight random encounters as they happen. So you won't be forced to grind at any time. Any grinding is just to make the game easier for you.


Spells elements:
There are four elements in Arc Arath; Fire, Ice, Thunder, and Earth.
Ice is weak to thunder, thunder is weak to fire, fire is weak to ice, and Terra is weak to none but doesn't deal any extra damage to any of them.

Please refer to this diagram for graphical representation:


If you cast a spell on an enemy that is weak to said spell, you will get a 50% damage increase. So if you case an Ice spell on a Fire enemy that normally does 100 damage, actual damage will be 150. If you cast a Thunder spell on that same enemy for 100, it get's a 50% reduction, so it would be 50 damage instead. But most importantly, never cast a spell on an enemy that share the same element, because that is a 75% reduction. The only exception to this is Terra, which will always do 100% damage with no increases or decreases.


Techs:
Techs, much like spells, will be learned naturally as you level up. Techs consume HP instead of MP. For the most part, techs won't deal elemental damage (there are exceptions). The thing about special attack is that they ignore defense. You'll find that bosses have much higher defense than the enemies in the same dungeon. This would be a decent way to get in physical damage. But there's a huge caveat with both techs (and spells). Because there is no INT stat in RPG Maker 1, eventually the techs and the spells you learn will become outdated and no longer worth using anymore. We spent many a sleepless night trying to figure a way around this, but there's just nothing you can really do about it. Once your attack does more damage than your available techs, there's no more point in using older techs..


Shields vs Swords:
In Arc Arath, you CAN forego the use of a weapon and instead use a shield. This might make fights last longer, but its a good way to reduce physical damage to practically nothing. We've tested the game multiple times using both swords and then shields, and there is a benefit to both. Later in the game, you will be able to use two hands. At this point in the game, enemies gain a significant attack and defense boost. Equipping a single weapon and a shield is by far the most balance way to play. But you can decided to dual wield both weapons at the risk of taking a lot more physical damage than usual. Alternately, you can dual wield two shields and practically negate physical damage entirely, but you'd have to rely on techs and spells for damage. It might be a good idea to dual wield shields on your healer, but double up on weapons on whoever has the highest attack power, coupled with attack up accessories. It's up to you.


Status Effects:
This is probably one of the most important things to know about the battle system in Arc Arath. Several spells and techs will be able to cause status effects. How well these effects will work is entirely based on the enemy's resistance to status effects, specifically. Here are the default success rates of all status effects:

Decrease Attack/Guard/Speed - 100% success rate.
Poison - 100% success rate.
Silence - 95% success rate.
Confuse - 80% success rate.
Sleep - 80% success rate.
Paralyze - 50% success rate.
Petrify - 50% success rate.
Death - 40% success rate.

Enemies and bosses will have specific resistances to them. All normal random encounter enemies will be weak to the listed status effects. But bosses are NOT weak to any of the status effects listed above in bold. Bosses will have a 5000 to 6000 status resist (meaning it will reduce the success rate by 50% to 60%). Also, because of how easy Silence and Poison would make boss fights, there won't be any abilities in spells or techs that will allow you to cast either of those two status effects.


Character Types:
Finally, there are a total of 8 main characters to play as in Arc Arath. Out of the first four character, each one is dedicated to a single element, having both spells and techs. Of the remaining four, some characters will have no techs, but spells that are based on all four elements. Some have no spells but have very high damaging techs. It'll but up to you to find what works best for you.

Wow, it seems like a lot of thought has gone into this. Really sounds nice (especially the no need to grind part!). The more I learn about this game the more I look forward to its release!

Then I wouldn't have bothered listing them, if they aren't even an option. =P

Lantis, I think you and I have managed to make some decent battle action for our fans when they play considering RM1's limitations, yo.

So little system data to make spells, some status effects break battles, spells never change in damage value because an intelligence stat doesn't exist .... And in spite of this, I dare say we have the most involved and variable battle system of any RM1 game made using the traditional method.

Those effects are still in the game. They are used by the enemies on the party instead. And those values are still correct with regard to what we renamed the "Status" stat. Also, it would have probably raised just as many questions if I didn't mention silence and poison anyways.