The issue of supports and how overwhelmingly good they are has seized my attention again. Here's a proposal to address that.
Alright so my main issue with the current support system is that it's just too good. For the sake of simplicity, lets use the stock example of the book-
At Rank C both Gain: +0 DMG, +0 DR, +2 Hit, +2 Evasion, +5 Crit, +5 Dodge
At Rank B both Gain: +1 DMG, +1 DR, +5 Hit, +5 Evasion, +10 Crit, +10 Dodge
At Rank A both Gain: +1 DMG, +1 DR, +7 Hit, +7 Evasion, + 15 Crit, +15 Dodge
This seems like an awful lot of bonuses to get in combat by virtue of being within 3 spaces of a specific person.
Now, we do not want Support bonuses to be bad. The idea behind them is to create a further incentive for character interaction between (primarily) the players. But the nature of the benefits of the support system as we currently have it in play, I argue, does a poor job of this.
Because only your highest ranking support in range matters, sometimes players will focus entirely on one other partner to the point where opportunities with other characters are lost. Pairing tunnel vision, if you will. If we allow each support bonus to stack, greater inter-party exchange will be incentivized, leading to more shenanigans.
Obviously the current calculation method of bonuses simply won't work for this. However, the main reason for that is that each unit contributes their own affinity bonus to the support. If you simply remove that, there is a significant change to the end result.
Assume Unit A has an anima affinity and is in the endgame and has 3 support Partners- One fire, one dark, and one wind, at A, B, and C support level respectfully. Let us further assume that each support is in range. Here are the benefits that we see using current methods-
DMG: +4.5, HIT: +7.5 CRIT: +30
And here's what it looks like using listed values, but without using Unit A's affinity and benefitting from all partners.
DMG: +2.5, HIT: +10, Eva: +7.5 CRIT: +30
Obviously this is still very good, but it is in the realm of usability. Also, it results in a slightly wider spread of benefits rather than a laser focus, something the balance of this game is highly susceptible to.
This is why I also propose a general reduction to the actual benefits of affinities themselves. The primary method for this reduction will be to bring each affinity selection down from three benefits, to two. Some affinities already have only two benefits, but have stronger values for those they possess. This shall be reduced also.
My proposed list:
Fire: Hit: +2.5, Crit: +5
Wind: Eva: +2.5, Crit: +5
Anima: DMG: +0.5, Crit: +5
Light: DR: +0.5, Eva: +2.5
Dark: DMG: +0.5, DR: +0.5
Thunder: DR: +0.5, Crit: +5
Ice: DR: +0.5, HIT: +2.5
Water: DAM: +0.5, Hit: +2.5
Heaven: Hit: +2.5, Eva: +2.5
Earth: DAM: +0.5, Eva: +2.5
So what probably immediately jumps out at you is the fact that DG is missing as a benefit entirely. I chose to remove it from my proposal for a very simple reason: Nobody wants to have it. We have a character skill that obviates it, and the usefulness of it is debatable, even when in excess compared to critical bonuses. It just made more sense to get rid of it entirely.
In any case, lets revisit that thought experiment from before- a unit benefitting from 3 supports at a time- Fire: A, Dark: B, and Wind: C
DMG: 1, DR: 1, Hit: 7.5, Eva: 2.5, Crit: 20
This gives us a fairly wide spread, and somewhat more reasonable values. I've also included a couple other configurations.
Thunder, Water, Anima
DAM: 1.5, DR: 1.5, Hit: 5, Crit: 20
Heaven, Light, Wind
DR: 1, Hit: 7.5, Eva: 15, Crit: 5
Earth, Wind, Fire
DAM: 1.5, Hit: 2.5 Eva: 12.5, Crit: 15
Anima, Dark, Fire
DMG: 2.5, DR: 1, Hit: 2.5, Crit: 20
Earth, Earth, Fire
DAM: 2.5, Hit: 2.5, Eva: 12.5, Crit: 5
Anima, Anima, Anima
DMG: 3, Crit: 30
So these values are clearly lower, though not much more, than values we had in place for A rank under the previous system, but they are predicated on having 3 specific units within 3 spaces of the beneficiary instead of just one.