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Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo

Started by The Damned, February 21, 2011, 08:06:11 pm

Who should live? (Keep in mind, if Reis lives, she WON'T be a Dragoner.)

Reis
Beowulf

MysticKnightFF5

Strange as this is, I actually like magick. For some reason, it just looks more "right"...maybe it's because American English fucked up most words.

The Damned

October 14, 2011, 10:22:32 am #101 Last Edit: October 17, 2011, 02:16:15 am by The Damned
(Fuck. I had wanted to done with several things by now, not just one. Figures.)

Even with me getting distracted by certain Things and the like on Youtube and being more tired than usual, which is saying something [yet again], this shouldn't have taken so damn so long.

So, I finally finished redoing the weapons. ...Preliminarily. Sigh. Oh well, I at least have an idea what I want to do with more of the archtypes now that I've decided to try to take from the FFXII first and foremost.

I'm not using everything from there, for sure, and I'm going to be modifying the hell out of some things, especially when it comes to armor and probably accessories. However, I figured I might as well try to take as many equipment cues and references as there from possible given where the story is going.

Which reminds me, I should probably try to actually say what the story's about somewhere sometime soon. I really have to start trying to event or doing something more productive than starting at Excel all day.

Speaking of which, I posted yet another Excel document in the original post. It's a redacted equipment of my original, shitty equipment list, though it's only weapons, perfumes (so you can see why I'm probably killing them) and chemist items at the moment. Feel free to use it as an example of what not to do. WP for all weapons is going to break at least 5 now, probably averaging around 8. None of this "4 WP" or less bullshit and being more mindful of the elements, procs, Item Attributes and patterns you hand out.

(I should note that "equipment purpose" section is pretty obsolete outside of my quick update to Hides.)

Anyway, before the standard Demon Wall of Text, I suppose I'll just a list of the weapons I'm using from FFXII, which I just remembered I have to actually, you know, finish. Here it is if anyone actually cares:

Swords - Rapiers are probably doing to "die" now or formally get their own categories:
1. Mythril Sword - Maybe
2. Mythril Blade - Unlikely
3. Broadsword - Yes
4. Longsword - Maybe
5. Iron Sword - Yes
6. Zwill Blade - Yes
7. Ancient Sword - Yes
8. Lohengrin - Yes (may become a Greatsword/Knightsword, even though those aren't the same things.)
9. Flametongue - Yes
10. Demonsbane - Yes
11. Icebrand - Yes
12. Platinum Sword - Maybe
13. Blood Sword - Yes
14. Bastard Sword - Unlikely
15. Diamond Sword - Maybe
16. Runeblade - No
17. Deathbringer - Maybe
18. Stoneblade - Yes (might become a Greatsword/Knightsword)
19. Durandal - No


Daggers - Probably formal name of Knives now:
1. Dagger - Yes
2. Mage Masher - Yes
3. Assassin's Dagger - Unlikely
4. Chopper - Maybe
5. Main Gauche - Yes
6. Gladius - Yes
7. Avenger - Likely
8. Orichalcum Dirk - Yes
9. Platinum Dagger - Yes
10. Zwill Crossblade - No
11. Danjuro - No


Axes & Hammers - Axes will now be more numerous and, "ironically", are probably the weapon type beyond Swords and Daggers with the clearest purpose now:
1. Handaxe - Yes (Axe)
2. Iron Hammer - Maybe (Hammer)
3. Broadaxe - Yes (Axe)
4. War Hammer - Maybe (Hammer)
5. Slasher - Yes (Axe)
6. Sledgehammer - Yes (Hammer)
7. Hammerhead - Maybe (Axe)
8. Francisca - No (Axe)
9. Morning Star - No (Hammer-likely to become a Flail)
10. Greataxe - Yes (Axe)
11. Golden Axe - No (Axe)
12. Scorpion Tail - No (Hammer)


Maces - These are...problematic because maces, realistically, AREN'T flails and, even if they were, they are step on Staves toes. So...yeah, easily my most unsure weapon type:
1. Mace - Yes
2. Bronze Mace - Yes
3. Bhuj - No
4. Miter - No
5. Thorned Mace - Maybe
6. Chaos Mace - Maybe
7. Doom Mace - Yes
8. Zeus Mace - Yes
9. Grand Mace - No

Measures - I am unsure if I'm going to use these. Their role might be absorbed into Books/Tomes or Harps/Instruments.

Greatswords - Knightswords by another name (except when they're not). Pretty much still going to be forced two-hands in most, if not all, instances:
1. Sword of Kings - No (At best, it will be referenced.)
2. Treaty Blade - No (At best, it will be referenced.)
3. Claymore - Unlikely
4. Defender - Yes
5. Save the Queen - Yes
6. Ragnarok - Yes
7. Ultima Blade - No (At best, it might be referenced.)
8. Excalibur - Yes
9. Tournesol - Unlikely
10. Wyrmhero Blade - Maybe

Katana - They are pretty much banned by the plot of the game, so the only thing that might be taken from here is Masamune.

Ninja Swords - Unlike katana, ninjatos will probably not even be referenced in the game.

Spears - Now we start getting into the distance category of weapons:
1. Javelin - Maybe
2. Spear - Yes
3. Partisan - Maybe
4. Heavy Lance - Maybe
5. Storm Spear - Yes
6. Obelisk - Unlikely
7. Halberd - Unlikely
8. Trident - Yes
9. Holy Lance - Yes
10. Gungnir - Yes
11. Dragon Whisker - Maybe
12. Zodiac Spear - Yes


Poles - Will likely stay physical and not be powered by magical even if that means it competes with Spears. I really don't want a repeated of Two-Handed Pole-wielding mages who OHKO everything, even if Two-Hands/Doublehand and Two-Swords/Dual-wield are being weakened:
1. Oaken Pole - Yes
2. Cypress Pole - Yes
3. Battle Bamboo - No (due to foreign aspects, though there will be a foreign pole [that I'm stealing from Raven)
4. Musk Stick - Maybe
5. Iron Pole - Likely
6. Six-fluted Pole - Unlikely
7. Gokuu Pole - No (in name only, though)
8. Zephyr Pole - Yes
9. Ivory Pole - No (foreignness)
10. Sweep - Unlikely
11. Eight-fluted Pole - Yes
12. Whale Whisker - Yes

Rods - Speaking of stealing, these are probably using Celdia's Wand idea/going back to what they occasionally were already in some Final Fantasy, so these will probably use MA now but have the poorest WP. There is some complication here since the roles of Rods & Staves in FFXII are literally the exact opposite of Rods & Staves in FFT:
1. Rod - No
2. Serpent Rod - Yes (since it's basically Ice/Sleet/Frost Rod)
3. Healing Rod - Maybe
4. Gaia Rod - Maybe
5. Power Rod - Unlikely
6. Empyrean Rod - No
7. Holy Rod - Maybe
8. Rod of Faith - Likely


Staves - As said above, Rods & Staves in FFXII are rather reversed. My Staves have never been clear in purpose as seen in the original post--neither has anyone else's, to be frank. Regardless, Staves will now be sharing the strengthening role with Rods (and Flails, which is part of the conflict between them) despite being close-range compared to Rods's new range:
1. Oak Staff - Maybe
2. Cherry Staff - Yes
3. Wizard's Staff - No (since/though it's technically Wizard Rod)
4. Flame Staff - No (since/though it's technically Flame/Fire Rod)
5. Storm Staff - No (since/though it's technically Thunder Rod)
6. Glacial Staff - No (since/though it's technically Ice/Sleet/Frost Rod)
7. Golden Staff - No
8. Judicer's Staff - Likely
9. Cloud Staff - Yes
10. Staff of the Magi - Maybe

Bows & Arrows - For the ranged weapons in FFXII, I decided to count the weapons and ammunition as one since I can't (technically) replicate the ammunition restrictions (for every weapon); as such, the "ammunition" For Bows especially, they've been split up into Longbows & Greatbows, which replace Ninja Swords and (unlike in my abortive Redacted equipment Excel) will have shorter range than Longbows:
1. Shortbow - Likely (Longbow)
2. Silver Bow - Yes (Longbow)
3. Aevis Killer - Yes (Greatbow)
4. Longbow - Yes (Longbow)
5. Killer Bow - Unlikely (????)
6. Elfin Bow - Maybe (Longbow)
7. Loxley Bow - No (N/A)
8. Giant Stonebow - Maybe (????)
9. Burning Bow - Yes (Longbow)
10. Traitor's Bow - No (N/A)
11. Yoichi Bow - Maybe (????)
12. Perseus Bow - Unlikely (Greatbow)
13. Artemis Bow - Yes (Greatbow)
14. Sagittarius - Unlikely (Longbow)
15. Onion Arrows - Yes (N/A)
16. Parallel Arrows - Maybe (N/A)
17. Fiery Arrows - Likely (N/A)
18. Bamboo Arrows - Maybe (N/A)
19. Lightning Arrows - Likely (N/A)
20. Assassin's Arrows - Unlikely (N/A)
21. Ice Cloud Arrows - Likely (N/A)
22. Artemis Arrows - Yes (N/A)


Crossbows & Bolts - Crossbows are still planned to be WP*WP or, at least, purely WP-based given that guns are now not available to generics; they will generally be evadable unlike Guns:
1. Bowgun - Yes (Crossbow)
2. Crossbow - No (N/A)
3. Paramina Crossbow - Maybe (Crossbow)
4. Recurve Crossbow - Likely (Crossbow)
5. Hunting Crossbow - Yes (Crossbow)
6. Penetrator Crossbow - Maybe (Crossbow)
7. Gastrophetes - Yes (Crossbow)
8. Onion Bolts - Yes (N/A)
9. Long Bolts - Yes (N/A)
10. Stone Bolts - Maybe (N/A)
11. Lead Bolts - Likely (N/A)
12. Black Bolts - Likely (N/A)
13. Time Bolts - Maybe (N/A)
14. Sapping Bolts - Maybe (N/A)
15. Grand Bolts - No (N/A)

Guns & Shot - I originally only planned for two since they're no longer generic weapons, but I figure that I might have three, four or even five now possibly:
1. Altair - Likely (Gun)
2. Capella - Maybe (Gun)
3. Vega - Unlikely (Gun)
4. Sirius - Unlikely (Gun)
5. Betelgeuse - Unlikely (Gun)
6. Ras Algethi - Unlikely (Gun)
7. Aldebaran - Unlikely (Gun)
8. Spica - Unlikely (Gun)
9. Antares - Unlikely (Gun)
10. Arcturus - Maybe (Gun)
11. Fomalhaut - Maybe (Gun)
12. Onion Shot - Likely (N/A)
13. Silent Shot - No (N/A)
14. Aqua Shot - Maybe (N/A)
15. Wyrmfire Shot - Maybe (N/A)
16. Mud Shot - Likely (N/A)
17. Windslicer Shot - Maybe (N/A)
18. Dark Shot - Maybe (N/A)
19. Stone Shot - Maybe (N/A)

Hand-bombs & Bombs - Honestly, I'm still unsure if I'm going to use this or not. Hell, I don't think I've ever even used these in FFXII as of yet.

International Zodiac Job System Only Weapons - Trying saying that three times fast. Anyway, given that most of these are overpowered alts, the only ones I have any possible interest in are Excalipoor/Excalipur/whatever, Byblos Bone & Gendarme and maybe Trango Tower.


Actually, given how lengthy that was and the fact that I've other stuff to be doing, I'll only do that for now. I'll post again soon since that will motivate me to be quicker about trying to get things despite my ineptitude.

That said, despite my earlier question being not really being answered, I must ask another: Are there weapon types that people might want to see that aren't already in the game? I have room for at least two, technically, but I might have room for more. I might have room for only one, though, considering all the stuff that I'm likely taking from FFXII like a lot more Axes. I might have room for none, ultimately, but I want to at least hear something.

Quote from: RandMuadDib on September 28, 2011, 02:00:24 pm
Squenix worked really hard to get that pretentious :D
(i neither condone nor condemn the use of magick vs. magic)


That's true.

Very well. I shall note your ambivalence.

Quote from: Dunkelritter Luna on September 28, 2011, 02:30:49 pm
Strange as this is, I actually like magick. For some reason, it just looks more "right"...maybe it's because American English fucked up most words.


I see.

So be it then. Since you are the only one who actually said anything, I'll just be calling it "Magick" for now unless people care enough to scream bloody murder about it. They had their chance.

Bold EDIT: Damn it. I can't believe I fucked up the bold thing twice without noticing. Doing things manually at times is rather annoying....
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Pickle Girl Fanboy

Blue magic should - if possible - utilize a variety of odd formulas, to keep with the blue mage not quite being a traditional mage.  Like spells that are brave powered, instead of Faith.

MysticKnightFF5

Since when has there been a tradition of the blue mage being an odd sort of mage?

The Damned

(That list that lies below? It is but a glimpse of your Eternal Damnation.)

Okay, so something took longer than I thought it was going to yet again. Gee, what a surprise.

However, I am quite satisfied with the result for weapons and I got something else done that I needed to get for once, so things are actually getting done finally. There is a new weapon type now as well: Whip, which technically replaces Flail. Technically.

GENERAL SECOND EMBARGO WEAPON LIST:
9 Knives/Daggers (Originally planned 10; might go down to 8)
8 Greatbows (At most; might go down to 7)
12+ Swords (Likely will be the original number of 14, but might go down to 13)
6 Knightswords (At least, though it will likely only go up to 7)
7 Axes & Hammers (Will likely become at least 8 if not 9)
8 Rods (This number seems stable.)
8 Staves (This is likely to go up 9.)
8 Maces (Originally planned to be 9 "Flails", Maces have a stable number even being "iffy".)
? Guns (At most ?; hey, I need some mystery.)
6 Crossbows (Maybe might go down to 5 even.)
9 Longbows (At most; might become 8.)
8 Instruments (Currently, these are the most experimental of weapons after...)
7 Books/Tomes (I was originally planning on making 10, but at most it will be 9.)
8 Spears/Polearms (Might go up to 9. These have the most unsatisfying design still....)
8 Poles (These, on the other hand, have a stable number.)
5 Whips (And likely there won't be room for more if these even survive.)
? ???? (Again, "mystery". *flourish*)


Armor and accessories will be started today and should go much more quickly--I actually expect to have more problems with accessories than armor since my initial armor just needs to be made less complicated whereas FFXII's accessories are too...simple for my taste. I might even finish them tonight (baring likely distractions).

Anyway, now it is time again for me to list a bunch of changes and questions in a rather narrow space so crowded that it will lead to further ocular deterioration even though this is me going off the top of my head a month after I had planned to make this particular list.

With that understood, let us begin:

1. What's in a Name?: No, really, tell me (still). I'm likely to go with the PSP spelling (in most cases) at this point due to general apathy even if I probably won't go with that version of the script--outside of the obvious, necessary changes and overhauling; I know a lot of people tend to hate the overly flowery, obtuse nature of that script a lot more than "magick".

2. Adjective As Verbs?: Similarly, I've been noticing lately--especially while doing the weapon list--my "best" intentions, that using the adjectival version of the statuses that I had planned is rather...awkward. The simpler forms seem to follow more naturally, at least when it comes to the ones that already came off as verbs like Slow, Sleep and Haste. I'm trying think of what a middle ground would be still be structured but not obtuse and, more importantly, how to make them both appear in-game if I need to use both. It's probably simpler than I'm remembering since it's been forever since I've been able to test (or play) anything on this computer.

3. Dance On Your Grave: There is a slight possibility that Slayer might die and return to being a Dancer class for women only, though that class will still have to be actually physical this time unlike vanilla's marginally physical Dancer (and marginally magical Bard). This won't really occur for a good bit (otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with Whips), but considering that I want things done and at least playable beta before December ends, I'll have to look at Slayer and Ministrel eventually. Also Summoner and Paladin, but those are slightly better off.

4. You ARE The Weakest Link! Welcome!: So, due to still iffy ability space (though it's a bit better than I thought it was), that mystery character that was to replace Cloud might not exist anymore; hell, the iffy ability space is part of the reason I'm tempted to make Dancer come back.  At present, I'm just going to pretend that he--spoilers!--doesn't really exist and just pretend that Beowulf assuredly exists again, even if that both wastes that plot point and Beowulf is kinda iffy himself as an interfering placeholder. I might just consider replacing that character with Gilgamesh entirely, but I'm not even sure if we have the sprite for him and it kinda screws with Elidib(u)s's motivation, though most of that's easily fixed.

5. Be My Guest: Another thing I was uncertain about was the prospect of uncontrollable guests versus controllable guests. I understand that people generally like the controllable guests because, hey, the AI just does stupid or questionable things a lot of the time and you want to be sure. However, for the most part, I'm going to probably be making it a case-by-case basis based on the plot (for that battle or in general) and it's going to lean towards uncontrollable. My question is this: Would people prefer if it was just one way or the other rather than switching up? If so, then know what's more likely is that guests will remain uncontrollable in all battles if there's no variation. If that happens, though I'll have even more incentive to make Guests even better than I had planned.

7. But We're Friends, Aren't We?: With regards to the above, I plan to make Guests not customizable as well. I'm pretty sure that's kinda important to say even though I haven't said it. Silly me.

8. Buried Treasure: As I mentioned last time, Treasure is pretty much officially dead at this time. Despite still not knowing how to code, if there is any status you want to see in particular, I am open to suggestions within reason. I already have possible replacements planned, but any suggestions are good. Due to wanting to be hush-hush about those replacements until I can code them, I won't directly replying to any suggestions (any time soon); credit will be given if I hadn't thought of in the first place, though.

9. PSP-only? Verboten!: So, despite the fact that I have no current intentions of ever doing a PSP version (since between all the problems that, all the problems even beginning this and multiple things I need to convert over, it just unreasonable if not outright impossible), I have currently restricted myself from using anything (or anyone) that appears only in the PSP version just in case. When it comes to equipment, this is mostly fine, though it has screwed me out of using Sagittarius and a couple of other weapons already. Does anyone particularly care about keeping the PSP version in mind at all sans names for things? There's no way to get those PSP-only items anyway when it comes to hacks, correct? So it is pointless?


Hmmm...I could have sworn I had a lot more than that to relay and ask about. I must have forgotten a bunch.

Oh well. If I remember, it's probably better for it to be broken up.

Now I'm going to go start armor and accessories (after I make something to eat). Provided I get done at an early enough time by tomorrow with both that and the revised script I just promised Cheetah, I'll probably start looking into ALMA finally and hunting down FDC (or someone who can teach me to code) if I can get mIRC working again. I'll also probably post the rest of my initial equipment that might cause Raven's head to explode.

You've been warned.

Quote from: Pickle Girl Fanboy on October 15, 2011, 06:05:06 pm
Blue magic should - if possible - utilize a variety of odd formulas, to keep with the blue mage not quite being a traditional mage.  Like spells that are brave powered, instead of Faith.


I concur. It's just rather...annoying trying to work with the initial formulas first and foremost before I can change anything about them. A lot of them...aren't agreeable, but that's what I'm aiming for at present (even if it kind screws over mages again).

Quote from: Dunkelritter Luna on October 15, 2011, 09:07:56 pm
Since when has there been a tradition of the blue mage being an odd sort of mage?


...Since always? It's pretty much only mage to not only learn its abilities solely from getting attacked by monsters (as opposed to scrolls/buying them/learning then naturally), but also generally have to enough HP, equipment options and other stats to be less squishy than most other mages so it can do so. It also was not affected by Silence in the game--FFV--it first appeared in, but that was more a glitch than anything I'd imagine; I'm going to reference that, though, so...yeah. [/late]
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

MysticKnightFF5

October 27, 2011, 10:08:34 pm #105 Last Edit: October 27, 2011, 10:09:36 pm by Dunkelritter Luna
Blue mage has a set strategy and setup, thank you for proving that. I fail to see how that makes him odd, considering in half the games the blue mage is set up explicitly as a fighter. Don't judge a book by its cover and whatnot. You can also take a look at red mage or (from FFV) mystic knight. Both of those were mages that were also tanks.
Finally, in the realm of FFT, Oracles.
Nuff said.

The Damned

December 03, 2011, 04:52:29 am #106 Last Edit: December 03, 2011, 07:50:18 pm by The Damned
(Geez, it's been more than a month again. Sigh. Need a schedule....)

So, after NaNoWriMo has ended and while still being rather sicker than usual, I have returned. It's not like I haven't been working on this still, despite the crappy health and computer, I just haven't been to the site in a month and not nearly as much progress has been made as I would have liked.

That said, I'm basically finished with redoing equipment, as evidenced by me posting that horrible initial equipment list. It is of course, redacted. With regards to the new equipment, I've decided to try a triple headgear and triple body armor route ala FFXII; unlike my initial equipment and non-Light Armor FFXII, new equipment all have quite a bit of HP, even the starter one.

With that pretty much done, I've started to go over classes again. Well see if I can get that done in a reasonable amount of time. I'm currently looking at Paladin.

I am also currently probably killing off Slayer and bringing back Dancer, which means that Minstrel will just go back to being Bard. It's still a consideration, but it should be resolved in a couple of days (read: weeks for me).

Outside of that, I need to get reacquainted with the site mostly. I would like to think that everyone or most everyone has been doing well. I'll try not to disappear again, especially since I don't even celebrate the holidays.

Quote from: Dunkelritter Luna on October 27, 2011, 10:08:34 pm
Blue mage has a set strategy and setup, thank you for proving that. I fail to see how that makes him odd, considering in half the games the blue mage is set up explicitly as a fighter. Don't judge a book by its cover and whatnot. You can also take a look at red mage or (from FFV) mystic knight. Both of those were mages that were also tanks.
Finally, in the realm of FFT, Oracles.
Nuff said.


(Damn it, I knew I should have answered this before I left.)

Um, even if what you were saying was true, which it's not really, being a mage that can also physically fight and isn't physically "squishy" is odd in and of itself.

Even if your examples of fighter-mages were more recurring (since Oracle is FFT only and Mystic Knight hasn't faired much better), Blue Mage is still odd because it's the only class, much less mage, that gets its abilities entirely from enemies.

Sorry to bold obnoxiously there, but...yeah. Blue Mage is pretty much the oddest magical classes there has even been sans Calculator and maybe Scholar. Odd is not necessarily a bad thing, though, which is part of the reason I even forgot to refute this before I disappeared for a month again.

Mystic EDIT: I forgot that Mystic Knight has appeared two times; technically three if you count Steiner from FFIX. Also omitted "not"--I hate when I do that--and a couple of other things in my eternal tiredness.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Pickle Girl Fanboy

Quote from: Dunkelritter Luna on October 15, 2011, 09:07:56 pm
Since when has there been a tradition of the blue mage being an odd sort of mage?


Quote from: Pickle Girl Fanboy on October 15, 2011, 06:05:06 pm
Blue magic should - if possible - utilize a variety of odd formulas, to keep with the blue mage not quite being a traditional mage.  Like spells that are brave powered, instead of Faith.


First of all, I didn't say that the Blue Mage is odd, I said that it uses odd formulas.  Second, let's go through the Blue Mage in all it's incarnations, and see what people have to say about it.

http://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/file/final_fantasy_v_advance_magic.txt
QuoteBlue magic is an odd category: you have to be hit with the spell to learn it. Blue magic offers a variety of useful tricks to the player, even if gathering them all can be a pain. A few blue magic spells can be reflected back onto you, so those are noted here. Otherwise, the majority can bypass a reflect barrier easily. Note
that just because an enemy is listed as one you can learn a spell from doesn't mean you can easily: you might have to resort to certain tricks such as the Control command to have the monster use its attack upon you.


Here are a few examples of odd formulas.  Goblin Punch, in FF5 and FF7 (IIRC), deals little damage, except when the actor is the same level as the target, in which case it deals massive damage.  1000 Needles, in FF5 and FF6, is the only spell that always deals a static amount of HP damage.  There are Blue Magic spells in FF5 (???), FF6 (Revenge Blast), FF7 (????), and I think there was one in FF8 and FF9, which damage the target based on the amount of HP the actor has.  There is White Wind in every FF that I've ever played, and it's the only ability which restores HP to the targets based on the actor's current HP.  The Level ? Spells, the Spells which deal damage based on obscure game data (Traveller from FF6 uses the total number of steps taken, Chocobuckle from FF7 uses the total number of party escapes, and Quina from FF9 uses some kind of ability which deals damage based on the total number of frogs she catches in a minigame.

I have no idea where you got this Blue-Mages-are-not-odd idea from.  The only thing I can think of is that you haven't played every FF game ever released (unlike me), and you don't really know what you're talking about.  I could go on (and on, and on, and on,...), but I'm getting bored, and posting every spell from every incarnation of the Blue Mage is the definition of off-topic.

The Damned

February 29, 2012, 04:39:16 am #108 Last Edit: March 06, 2012, 02:07:30 am by The Damned
(Oh good, it would seem that mIRC still doesn't work for me. Good to see some things haven't changed.)

Speaking of things that haven't changed, me being a lazy good-for-nothing and having a sub-par computer are two more immutable constants, but I repeat myself.

I'll try to be concise in relating what's happened in the past couple (well, more like three/few) months with regards to this patch and myself:

1. So, against all odds, I was actually working on this rather constantly throughout December 2011 since I knew that my schedule would be a lot less free come January 15th of this year. I basically entirely redid Bard & Dancer, redid some of the more questionable equipment (though I should probably change Instruments now...) & item locations & poaches and finalized some status decisions. I was in the process of redoing some other human classes, including some special ones, as well finally getting stats started...before my accursed OCD took over with regards to monsters. Monsters being focused on yet again confounded me for various reasons given I've been trying to keep plot in mind with regards to all of this and I just didn't want to deal with having to redo Animist (Blue Mage) and its Magick yet again. So I briefly tabled it to (not) work on other projects of mine.

2. And then, come January 11th, my computer's power source dies due to me being an idiot & leaving my computer on 24/7 due to thinking that would help power issues rather than hurt them and my computer being an eMachine, which apparently have crappy power sources. "Luckily", it didn't damage anything when it died, but I was basically without access to this computer for a couple of weeks, so I couldn't have worked on anything if I wanted to or had the time, which I didn't given that I am....

3. Currently back in school, which is part of the reason I wanted to be done with at least the planning stages for this. It's been taking up quite a bit of my time just to not fail, especially since it took forever this semester to get money to buy anything with. I'm just now solving that problem almost two months later, so yeah. I should be working right now too, but I figure that I might as well get this out now since it's already Feb. 29th and it's not going to need to be as long as I thought it would given the circumstances and I'm still working on this.


TL;DR: I was working on it in December 2011; things happened in mid-January 2012; I'm back to working on it ever so slowly.

I've just made "strides" with regards to this patch in the past couple of weeks--it's arguably all I've done that's productive outside of a few utterly necessary things last week--that's, unfortunately, been focused just on monsters. I've decided several things with regards to monsters:

1. 3 New Monster Types: Illithids, Ghosts and Skeletons are getting "replaced" in a way. For the latter two, it took me a while to decide with what, especially since I knew I would need at least one "placeholder" sprite--for which I'm still just going to use Uribo--since Kagebunji has only made so many monster sprites and I wanted to keep them all by the same author/artist; currently, besides Uribo, the other "placeholder" I'm going to use is the Tortoise sprite. It is important to note that due to this change no normal monster has Always: Undead anymore; Vampire Cat has been "replaced" by the Grimalkin and Dark Behemoth will probably just be not Undead. That said, it is also important to note that all three of the aforementioned families will still be showing up, though Illithids might just become one monster (Mindflayer) and Skeletons and Ghosts might become further expanded (after various...complications are assessed and then taken care of).

2. 5 is the new 6: Due to the above, it seems rather obvious, but I guess I should point out that adding 9 more "normal" monsters doesn't exactly help my already existent space issues. As such, it's rather likely, at this point, that monster families will be pared down to 5 skills a piece, which is sadly like Vanilla, except that you won't need to waste your Support on Monster Skill or a slot on a normal attack. We'll see how this goes, though, provided I can get enough "sharing" going on and trim some things from humans, it's entirely possible they could stay at 6 a family, though even then, some of them (Bombs) probably don't really need it.

3. Elemental Shift: Looking at my last elemental distribution with regards to Weaknesses and Absorbs and even Resistances (poor, poor Earth), I forced myself to look over and reassign at least half of them since Water basically Drown everything that didn't Resist it. (Seriously, 17 things were weak to Water Initially, which gets even more ridiculous when there were only like...5 Water abilities and maybe 5 pieces of attacking water equipment.) I also managed to have only 1 Ice Absorb somehow; given that I aimed to have (and have now achieved) a minimum of 5 Absorbs for every element, it almost goes without saying that all three of the added families have an Ice Absorber (even if one of them is kinda forced at present) and that another monster had to change over to that. No monster is neutral now--sorry Goblins, but you go back to being weak to Ice, though they resist Fire due to that.

4. Feeling Blue: I have to basically redo Blue Magick again, though outside of killing off Sap Spirit and likely redoing Devil's Gaze entirely, I'm not going to say exactly what I'm going to do. I've mostly decided though already.


I think that's it for now. I still have work to do and I should do an official update rather soon, but given that I likely won't have this computer after Thursday for at least couple of days since I need to fix something else, it can wait. I haven't finished the monster thing entirely anyway since I need to look at status given I had to look at elementals and I need to make (sure) abilities (that) make sense for the two other families I decided on just yesterday evening.

Speaking of status, it's helped me both solve a monster issue--though all units really need better base MP growth given how abysmal the vanilla ones are--and been arguably the biggest issue since it's been rather forever since I've actually played/tested this game or any other version of FFT at this point. (Yes, for some reason, neither emulation will let me play Parted Ways without still crashing on me.)

Still speaking of status, in my eternal pilfering from others, there's an increasing chance that I'll just straight-up kill Confusion now like, I think, one of formerdeathcorps' suggestions from a while ago. Oddly, despite once being rather desperate for new status space, I'm not exactly sure what I'd end up replacing it with. As much as I want to solve the AI issue so as to do away with the Loss "strategy" and other such A.I. things, unlike the Doomed/Death Sentence issue, even if I solved it, it still doesn't seem like Confusion would add much with the unique (comparative to other FFs) way that FFT works. I guess I could just separate Addled and Silenced into two different statuses and bring back Silenced. Meh. Not particularly keen on that when I could just change Addled back to Silenced in the first place. Still need to learn how to code before I do anything status-related though anyway.

(Speaking of pilfering, I'm probably "stealing" that new reaction percentage used for ARENA apparently pitched by RavenofRazgriz of (Br+Fa)/2% since that solves two status problems in one fell swoop. Also, probably "stealing" Eternal248's elemental divisions, though outside of Counter Magic and Reflect immunities, I was already doing those anyway, though perhaps not for the same elements, i.e. Water had the most AoE.)

I think there's more to relay, but it can wait. I need to do some actual work now on both this and other things. That or go to bed even though I should be keep my lazy ass awake to do work.

TL;DR: I yet live. Unfortunately. This patch isn't dead yet. More to come "soon" (read: within the next couple of weeks).


RUSTY EDIT: Figures that I'd forgotten that possessives/apostrophes make spoilers unable to open. Nice to see that hasn't changed either.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Pride

Hoping to see this more regularly updated!
  • Modding version: PSX
Check out my ASM thread. Who doesn't like hax?

The Damned

(...And with that declaration, Pride is officially more enthused about this than I.)

Despite having utterly wasted yet another weekend, partly because I'm engaging in more self-loathing than usual, I decided that I should probably update this thread before my Internet potentially goes out due to...issues.

As such, I've redone the first post and the two human class-related posts. Also, the new generic monsters are Wolves, Flans and Cactuars. Surprise.

(I've yet to update the monster-related posts, so don't put any stock in those one way or another right now, note on Bad Breath aside. They've been worked on, though; they've been worked on quite a bit, actually. I just don't feel like/that I have time to update them considering that I literally spent [read: "wasted"] hours on updating those first three posts.)

I'll keep my post "short" for once: Provided I still have Internet by Thursday or Friday, I'll try to update statuses--though those still needs a bunch more work since I still have no idea how to code, partly due to my damn emulator/computer issues--and monsters like they should be updated. I might have equipment or a new Excel sheet up to by then as well.

I make no promises, though, especially given how often I break those. Instead, I'll just offer my sincere apologies for all those broken promises and wish you a nice week.

...I suppose I should make short list of what I updated, at least when it comes to the class stuff:

1. Rearranged all skillsets in the order that they'll appear in game to help facilitate AI's usage and such.

2. Killed Marksman's "Aim: Vitals", "Salve", and "Cupid" to give them "Blinding Bomb", "Oily Bomb" and "Poisonous Bomb".

3. Gave away Orator's "Shatterchord" to Bard to give Orator "Pacify".

4. Gave away Priest's "Regen" to Paladin to give Priest "Unction" and gave Priest "Might".

5. Talked about how Regenerator will probably go to another class.

6. Gave away Wizard's "Unction" to Priest to give them "????" and gave them "Focus".

7. Talked about how Marksman's "Focus" RSM is probably dying or at least needs change. (I think I erroneously attributed it to FFMaster instead of Xifanie. If so, my apologies.)

8. Killed Paladin's "Nurse" to give it Priest's "Regen".

9. Killed "Holy Blade"'s and gave Paladin "Holy Circle".

10. Gave Paladin's "Seal Evil" to Acolyte with Paladin getting Acolyte's "Confusion Song".

11. Remembered to change back "Cleanse" and "Esuna"'s status cancellations.

12. Noted "Shield Bash"s improvements.

14. Killed off Berserker's "Takedown" to give them "Eschew".

15. Made note that I might give "Shield Break" to another class....

16. Killed off Chemist's "X-Ether" "Ultra Potion", "Stimulant" and "Turtle Shell" to give their overpowered asses "Giant's Drink", "Hero's Drink", "Echo Herbs" and "Golden Needle".

17. Noted changes in all other Chemist items sans "Second Life".

18. Rearrange Thief's skillset as with all others, rename "Steal Memories" to "Steal Experience" and note that I might kill "Steal Weapon", but that it beyond noting in Chemist above that I might give Thief Maintenance.

19. Gave Illusionist "???".

20. Gave away Acolyte's "Confusion Song" to Paladin and gave Acolyte "Seal Evil".

21. Made mention of how overpowered Acolyte's "Return" probably is at present.

22. Killed "Ragnarok", "Midgardsormr", "Shoat?" and "Eden?".

23. Made "Mog" ("Moogle") into "Monteblanc".

24. Upgraded "Carbunkle".

25. Turned "Siren" back into "Slyph".

26. Created "???" as the last Learn via JP summon instead of "Bahamut".

27. Made "Bahamut" and "Sylph" into Learn on Hit Only summons.

28. Give Dimensionalist "Undo".

29. Remembered to finally make a [EXPLETIVE EXPUNGED] note in Excel about how I nerfed Mime's stupid amount of status immunities.

30. Made a note about Blue Mage's name change to "Animist"...before promptly eliminating all traces of what its abilities actually are now sans Bad Breath.

31. Made a note about how immunity to Dying is pretty worthless in Embargo, so contemplate maybe changing it to something else....

32. Switched out Minstrel for Bard.

33. Switch out Slayer for Dancer.

34. Had to go back and redo all the [EXPLETIVE EXPUNGED] equipment lists under classes now because I forgot about "Toques" and all the other changes I had made. Hurray.


Yes, that's "short". Considering the list that I had between the skill changes and the status changes and the one I had to make up when shifting monster's elements and simplifying them....
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(Well crap. I had wanted to get this in before midnight, but between my computer acting up and me being incompetent as usual....)

Speaking of incompetence, I accidentally added a poll that I'm still not entirely sure about, but since I can't un-add it (or at least see no way to easily do so after lazily looking), I guess I might as well attempt to use it. More on that in a bit.

So, despite basically wasting my entire break working on Embargo and nothing else (when I actually worked on anything) and in light of my Internet only being back since Wednesday yet not really being an excuse for not working, I can't say that I've done as much work on this as I would have liked. That said, this is only really a mini-update, but a rather important one. As such, the next update probably won't come until after April 8th, especially with all the real life stuff I need to catch up on that I didn't this week. (Sigh.)

Anyway, I might as well stop delaying the inevitable--I've used up enough time already:

1. No More Second Chances?: First (but not really foremost), as you can obviously see at the new poll at the top, I am now considering killing Reraise(d) status. After doing yet more research on status, some of which was decidedly more thorough than before, I realized that I'm not historically "beholden" to it like I am with perhaps, say, Confused/Confusion. Hell, it doesn't even appear in FFXII (or FFVIII), which is what I'm taking the bulk of my inspiration from if I have to pick one FF over all the others. Killing it off would certainly solve a lot of (seeming) potential problems besides the one raised--no pun intended--in the poll and talking with formerdeathcorps in chat on Thursday made me aware of another potential problem that makes status space even more "precious". As such, I'll be honest and say that I'll likely end up killing it regardless of how voting turns out.

That admitted, don't stop yourself from voting with honest answers. I'm rather curious to see what opinions are about Reraise, especially given how few I got about magic vs. magick. Inaction is why you guys are stuck with the "k" version of that word when Embargo eventually comes out in 2020 after all. (Note: I'm not sure what this means for Dragon Spirit, but that's certainly one less problematic Reaction I'd have to worry about after figuring out a way to "fix" Brave Up and Face Up and still have to deal with HP Restore.)


2. Cloud Nein: Despite the fact that my original replacement for Cloud is still someone I want to explore (and thus is the reason why I'm not revealing him), I believe that I've come to definitive choice for replacing Cloud that is also even more coherent and relevant to the plot than my original choice. This person certainly wasn't my first choice and there are some issues that I need to work due to his nature, but it frees up some things, such as the space that Buster Sword or Materia Blade or whatever takes up; hell, I don't even need a new sprite to be made for this person since one already exists. So you can officially say good-bye to Mr. Strife, not that he ever really stood a chance of getting (back) in.


3. Silence Shall Fall: Addled is now dead and Silence makes its return/debut as...Silenced status. I finally decided to buckle down on Thursday and just make a list of what I intended to make Addled block versus what Silenced blocked from vanilla and would likely block going into Embargo and, well, the Addled list was way too freaking complicated even just for the generic classes; it also helps that Silence status is more historical. I'd actually share it with you, but there are some things in there related to plans that I don't feel like redacting at present, so I won't (for now).

That said, I'll tell you that Silenced is abbreviated as "Slc" and I've thought up some rather "smart" ways, surprisingly (especially for me), of no longer making hideously unfair to mages beyond just some status-based shuffling. It being more "fair" is the only reason why it's back and that Addled is dead because I wanted to try a less draconian approach from the beginning, but was too dumb to think of anything until now. Of course, considering I only thought of it now and that it seems "smart" to me without testing, I wouldn't be surprised if this backfires horribly, especially since I'm going to have issues with spell quotes anyway.... (Note: I suppose I note here that, for now, yes this means that all instances/references of Addled in other posts can be correctly replaced with Silenced. So, yes, Bard is still immune to Silenced.)


4. Status Update: Oh, yeah. I updated that status effect list too "yesterday". You're welcome.

Not see in that above posts are is the list of statuses that aren't assured. I suppose I can share those now that I think about it.


Statuses that could really go one way or the other. Reraised was here until Thursday.

1. Petrified (Petrify) --> Rather powerful. Too powerful, actually, which is why, if you've noticed, no generics (read: generic humans) can even cause it and only one monster class can cause it with an ability or two they might not even be keeping. That said, I think I've thought of a way to "fix" it....

2. Invite --> No, I'm not killing Train (or Secret Hunt), even though it's rather unfair to monsters. It's just that, even with formerdeathcorps informing me on Thursday that, yes, this does count as a status due to hidden flags, I'm not entirely sure that it needs the status effect slot. Not yet, anyway. I'm probably wrong.

3. Confused (Confusion) --> I think I've thought of a way get around this, though for the most part involves a)getting around the Loss strategy/exploit with the AI and b)giving me a finite duration, something that I'm increasingly worried about being able to do after a Thursday....

4. Frogged (Frog) --> Like Petrified, except slightly better, if only because Frogged victims can (potentially) cure themselves. Still, it seems like it might need a "fix" of some sort and, in addition to being too valuable to get rid of, the ways to do so are far less clear cut than Petrified.

5. Doomed (Death Sentence) --> I still need to try to fix how the AI deals with this, i.e. stupidly. Ironically, this became less stable when the idea to get rid of Reraise(d) occurred to me.


Statuses that are rather likely to "die"/be replaced. Addled was briefly here before Silenced erupted from it like an Alien chest-buster. Reraise(d) has taken its spot.

1. Defending --> Currently only used for a few niche things, I'll just copy and paste from the Notepad document: "On the one hand, this seems like too basic a function to get rid of. It also has the "benefit" of potentially being useful for Knight (more & more likely to be Fencer) and/or Paladin abilities, including the historical 'Cover'. On the other hand, it either takes up a support slot or, if innate, is whored idiotically by the AI at every possible opportunity even when they have better options, causing them to waste their action CT. I'm not yet ready to get rid of the CT bonus for not acting (or not moving) like Raven has, but that might really be the only choice if the AI can't be made to learn. That said, much like Invite potentially, it might not need its own slot, at least if it's tired ONLY to the Defend command, even if that/it actually gives a temporary status unlike Invite. Even after (or maybe 'before'), it would need property changes so that it focuses on actual "defense" rather than sheer evasion." At present, I'm honestly just considering replacing it (or Transparent) with Blink status.

2. Reraise(d) (Reraise) --> See this entire post.

3. Transparent --> I'll just copy and paste here as well: "This too has AI issues and nebulous properties like Defending. It quite frankly probably needs an almost complete make over. It probably needs a better/different name too, like the old 'Clear' or [maybe even] 'Vanished'. It could just become "Blink" if Defending doesn't, though if Defending becomes Blink, then this might have to die anyway. I'm not sure." Speaks for itself, really, though if Defending becamse Blink and this died as well, I think I know what I would do now....

4. Stopped (Stop) --> More copy-pasta, though this time with redacting. A rather problematic status at present. It's just something I don't really think makes "sense" rather than out-and-out problematic. It will probably survive, ultimately, but I view as rather expendable, at least at present. I feel like I need to change some property of it beyond making shorter. Maybe I really do just need to [Redacted]."



5. Steel is Better Than Iron: Oh, I guess if we're talking about minor things that I made a list for, I also finally made a list for Steel Will, which I suppose I should point out is Iron Will's new name. I'm just too lazy to change it on the front page yet, partly because I gave myself the excuse that I should wait until I rename all the other RSMs as well. Surprisingly, I actually do kinda know the planned names for most of the Reactions by now--I think I have for at least the past...couple of weeks?--even with all the stuff I still need to code. It's more the Support and Movements that are tripping me up--pun not intended.


So, yeah, I guess that's all I'm really going to say until at least a week from now. Maybe I'll have stopped being a lazy, mongrel idiot and having gotten my shit together and learned how code or at least organize things by then. I doubt it, but please bare with me. Thank you for doing so thus far--I still find it difficult to believe this thread has almost 5,000 views, even if it has languished around for a year.

As for right now, in light of Silenced's return and other things, I'm off to deal with Summon Magick and equipment. Again.

Have a nice weekend.

P.S. I've voted in the poll already under the "crutch" option just to show where I stand, but I'm obviously now counting that in the "final" tally against anyone who wants to try to "save" Reraise. I guess when I say "final", I'll say by the end of, I don't know, April.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Panda_Tar

Voted on your pool that it offers strategies to be used, so keep it.

Mainly to help on your AI battles, I just thought, as innate abilities of certain monsters or bosses, so you cannot abuse using on your team, and you boost AI with a new mechanism of battle. Perhaps use it on the last equip you get, as a very, very rare thing. Another option that comes in mind is that you bring this ability into the depths of REACTION ability, if possible of course, entitled AUTO-PHOENIX, to work as reraise, but spending phoenix downs, perhaps? So you don't have a spell that can bring one from death with random HP, but just a small thing, and also spends your phoenix-down supply. But differently from Reraise, it's a reaction ability, so the character will return immediately, which means that one can be killed again in a row if there are others to take action (differently from Reraise that's always one's turn), or that the reaction might not come at all. So if the fallen target hasn't reacted with auto-phoenix, he won't return anyway.

This is more that I don't fancy the idea of having many classes being able to revive fallen enemies, because imho, it's a very delicate and powerful ability which shall not be spammed, thus given proper value in the ranks of certain specialized jobs. It gives much more meaning also to use items, so if you want backup, carry someone that can use items, or you might end up not using your chemist skills that much. I think this suggestion may help you balance the usefulness throughout the gameplay for some jobs you spoke earlier in this topic. Giving many jobs the ability to revive is either trying to help AI but also helps player, so it's hard to tell appart if Reraise was the problem after all.
  • Modding version: PSX
Always interpreting the foul side of things makes you fouler still.

The Damned

(Long, possibly rambling PM reply sent.)

Hmmm...Auto-Phoenix. I suppose that's an idea, but the thing is, to me, it gives Chemists even more power and they already have way too much still. In an effort to avoid going on a really long-winded rant here, I'll just say that the high amount of revival at present is largely due to Chemist being overpowered still. Being able to spam Phoenix Down and some other healing instantly is pretty dumb, especially when they've basically monopolized resurrection (& healing) since vanilla where literally the only other options were Priest's Raise spells and equally overpowered Monk's close-range, vertical-inept Revive. In spite of its success and acclaim, 1.3 didn't really change this as only revival added was a Summoner's Fairy and a few monster skills, one of them on an otherwise entirely crappy monster with Movement issues, and spamming Phoenix Down to "sandbag" was pretty much necessary.

I guess Auto-Phoenix is something to consider, but, really, if I had my way with regards to how skill sets worked and such, then Chemist would either be nerfed into the ground or be outright gone with Items being for more general use. Alas, though, since every hack that's tried to limit the number of items in-battle is currently completely wonky last I checked.


Unrelated, but I forgot to note in my last posts that Maces have been dead since about December 2011; they got folded into Staves, which, of all things, may currently be slightly overpowered. As such, ignore every instance of them in the redone class list; I'll fix my idiocy later.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Panda_Tar

I see. I might have considered more my play-style than the current use of a chemist (I personally didn't use them past 'auto-potion' mastering). Seeing that this way, yes, sounds fairer having more jobs with raising abilities. Still, would keep reraise, as auto-life or auto-phoenix, more directed for enemy usage. Although I STRONGLY agree that in 1.3 it was rather annoying all monsters having means to return/cure, making battles too long without really any good explanation. I recall a battle where I entered a loop of heal that I couldn't stop...(I had a fire-based sword, with a fire proof shield, against a fire eating dragon against fire eating bombs, so I could never kill them and they couldn't kill me either...)
  • Modding version: PSX
Always interpreting the foul side of things makes you fouler still.

Solifuge

Registered just to post! Let me say that going through the dev logs has been a surprisingly entertaining read so far; I like your style. You ought to mirror your development on ModDB or something for publicity. Though less familiar with the ins and outs of FFT, you might have better luck generating balance discussion and possibly finding other talent to ply where you need it.

Anyway, I found this by looking for FFT mods that emulated more of the cannon FF classes, such as the Blue Mage / Sage, and Red Mage. After playing a few balance mods like FFT 1.3, I figured Blue Mage would make a great replacement for Arithmetician, and using the seldom used Learn-On-Hit mechanic is a great way to handle it. I might suggest limiting the overlap of classes too... default FFT classes were very focused, because you could mix and match abilities. A lot of your proposals sort of functionally bleed into one another; for instance, is a Paladin functionally different enough than a Knight with White Magic on secondary to warrant a new class?

As an aside, if you need a few classes to round out your roster, consider some kind of Templar... with a set of brave-powered MP-costing weapon-strikes, some of which proc secondary effects ala Holy/Dark Sword. For parity, balance it against a Weaponmaster, which has different skills available based on the weapon type(s) they have equipped... a sort of deconstruction of the Samurai class, but one which would wield all weapons. I know conditions can make certain skills available, but am not sure if weapons can... but if not, hidden conditions could be attached to different classes of weapons to handle this.

Also, let me be that one vehemently dissenting voice; I love the PSP translation. As a writer, there is so much more character and emotion there that the Engrish PSX script just maims and leaves bleeding in a gutter. To be fair, I'm kind of in love with writing and language in general, so I might just have enough of a background to be able to appreciate it... but I'd strongly suggest you consider using the PSP script, and writing the new chapters/dialogue in a similar style. The PSP language isn't a thing of pretentiousness; the nobles are all haughty and proper and shit, while the commoners speak in a rougher, at times vulgar, way. I'm all for using the simplest language needed to tell a story and all that, but this story is one of political intrigue and social strife, set in a Late Middle-Ages/Early Renaissance world. Flowery speech is to be expected (and it kicks the pants off of Cyan/Frog's "Thee and Thou" BS).

Lastly, if it wasn't readily apparent, I really like this project. Though I've only dabbled with this brand of modding, I'd like to help out in some capacity, if possible. I do know my way around sprite art and such, but the shear number of sprites used in FFT for poses etc. is daunting, and I don't know if I have the skill for it. I am a pretty talented writer and editor though, and an obsessive study of game mechanics since childhood has rendered me incapable of love, but pretty bitching when it comes to game design. More generally speaking, I've got a knack for pulling in and organizing talent where needed as well. If you're interested, feel free to hit me up via email.

The Damned

(Great. I'm already behind with how I wasted this weekend again, the fact that my computer keeps getting slower & slower for some reason--this should have been posted last night--and I'm probably going to double post just to have all the monster stuff in one post for once. Excellent.)

So, yeah, first things first. Sorry for the delay. I've repeatedly warned you guys I'm a lazy bastard and April being an entirely shitty month, especially this last week, hasn't exactly helped with that. Still, I feel I should have at least taken the time to reply to the last two replies since I saw them basically as soon as they were made. Only I kept making excuses that I wouldn't do it until I also had some actual work to post up alongside...hence why it's taken so inexcusably long.

I'll reply now first and then get into updates before I end up double posting in about an hour or so given how slowly I type. Stupid mere 75 WPM.


Quote from: Panda_Tar on March 31, 2012, 07:59:00 pm
I see. I might have considered more my play-style than the current use of a chemist (I personally didn't use them past 'auto-potion' mastering). Seeing that this way, yes, sounds fairer having more jobs with raising abilities. Still, would keep reraise, as auto-life or auto-phoenix, more directed for enemy usage. Although I STRONGLY agree that in 1.3 it was rather annoying all monsters having means to return/cure, making battles too long without really any good explanation. I recall a battle where I entered a loop of heal that I couldn't stop...(I had a fire-based sword, with a fire proof shield, against a fire eating dragon against fire eating bombs, so I could never kill them and they couldn't kill me either...)


Yeah, Chemist has always bugged me because of range-4, 100%, instant, Faith-obviating healing in addition to also dismissively dealing with a good chunk of negative status and further screwing over already useless (Always) Undead units. Seriously, after the "oriental" classes, barring Oracle, Chemist is easily fourth on my "shitlist" of the problematic classes since pretty much everything abusive was either because of one or two specific abilities (even in the case of Calculator, especially since the class itself had miserable stats).

That said, seeing Zareb's patch with its working universal yet limited item use, makes me consider Auto-Phoenix as a possibility all the more.

As for 1.3., meh. Monsters, outside of their obnoxious ability to OHKO you on top of all the movement (like most of the things in the game at higher levels) and abilities that sometimes ignored evasion (Choco Meteor), weren't really into sandbagging from what little I remember. IIRC, Voldemort didn't give any monsters significant revival outside of Wildbow's Oink and Taiju's Spirit of Life. Humans were far more annoying about that...but that's because there was pretty much always a unit or two with Item (with the complete idiocy of letting them have access to Elixir) or Raise 2, which basically obviated multiple player actions with one action when in most battles you were already outnumbered. But enough about 1.3....

As for elemental stuff, eh. That's kinda what happens if you "buff" monsters but keep the utterly linear. Thankfully, that only really happens with Bombs in most patches. Regardless, I want to give people an "out" to that when it comes,at least (or especially) when it comes to random battles. That's a lot further down the line however and won't exactly help you with being able damage things that would normally absorb that element with a weapon, ability or spell of the same element. Probably.


Quote from: Solifuge on April 20, 2012, 03:15:49 am
Registered just to post! Let me say that going through the dev logs has been a surprisingly entertaining read so far; I like your style. You ought to mirror your development on ModDB or something for publicity. Though less familiar with the ins and outs of FFT, you might have better luck generating balance discussion and possibly finding other talent to ply where you need it.


Before I say anything, I will say the standard FFH welcome of "Welcome to FFH! Where all your dreams come true! ...So long as you're competent enough to make that happen, probably by yourself!"

Additionally, I thank you for signing up just to post in this of all threads. As such, I'll try to disappoint you slightly less than I normally disappoint people.

I've no idea what ModDB is, but I suppose I could learn; I probably could have learned in between the time you posted this if it wasn't my indolence and being "busy". I'm going to wait to generate any additional publicity beyond FFH, if I generate any at all, until I've actually done (a lot) more work and have not only a reasonable beta, but am at least half through doing the upgrade of that beta. I'm a horrible, lazy bastard as it is, so there's no need to string more people along (accidentally) only for this project to end up dead anyway.


Quote from: Solifuge on April 20, 2012, 03:15:49 am
Anyway, I found this by looking for FFT mods that emulated more of the cannon FF classes, such as the Blue Mage / Sage, and Red Mage. After playing a few balance mods like FFT 1.3, I figured Blue Mage would make a great replacement for Arithmetician, and using the seldom used Learn-On-Hit mechanic is a great way to handle it. I might suggest limiting the overlap of classes too... default FFT classes were very focused, because you could mix and match abilities. A lot of your proposals sort of functionally bleed into one another; for instance, is a Paladin functionally different enough than a Knight with White Magic on secondary to warrant a new class?


As I said to RavenofRazgriz (and probably others) when he brought up the overlap thing, I've always intended to at least somewhat cut back on what's presently on the front page ability-wise, at least from certain (mostly magickal) classes. It simply looks a lot more bloated than it actually would be because I haven't been able to run an emulator and thus test things in literally years. (That and, even if I've gotten rid of tiered magick for almost every other class, I can't bring myself to do so for Wizard and, by extension, for Priest.)

That said, I likely won't be going nearly as minimalist as at least RavenofRazgriz and formerdeathcorps intend to go, though I understand and respect their decisions in doing, especially since they're both far better people than I am. I personally don't mind a bit of overlap--and it's not like it was as discrete as you seem to be implying in vanilla--as long a class itself doesn't obviate others completely , which is what ended up happening in vanilla even for classes with minimal overlap: Calculator (read: Math Skill), Summoner and Samurai basically obviated all other magick, Monk could literally do anything & everything, especially on a flat plain, and Chemist dominated healing since it wasn't reliant on Faith. Pretty much every other class was reduced to being good at 1 or 2 things--Time Mages with Haste (if you didn't want to Catch a bunch of Masamune in Deep Dungeon), Oracles with Slow, Priest with Raise 2, etc.--if they were good at anything at all, which classes like Squire, Archer and Wizard...weren't.

When it comes to your legitimate concern and your example of a Knight with White Magick versus a Paladin (with presumably anything but White Magick or Blade Work), off the top of my head, they don't seem to have that much overlap:

Knight with White Magick vs. Paladin with not-White Magick, not-Blade Work:

White Knight Pros:
+ Can resurrect people in two different ways, one of which isn't reliant upon Faith.
+ Can add Protected, Shelled, and Reflective statuses to allies.
+ Can get rid of those same statuses on enemies with Debarrier.
+ Can (currently) add Reraise to allies.
+ Can (currently) get rid of Reraise on enemies with Checkmate.
+ Has non-elemental physical attacks that can't be evaded.
+ Can inflict Sleeping and Oily statuses.

****

Non-White, non-Knight Paladin Pros:
+ Has active access to Regen status, which is still like a mini-Esuna.
+ Has access to Cleanse, which cures things that Esuna can't and that, in combination with Regen, means that Paladin technically heals more negative status than Priest can.
+ The earliest class to get ranged stat drops.
+ Gets a bonus from its innate ability to equip Shields in the form of a physical attack that can't be evaded.
+ Can cause Slowed status that's both distance-based and physically-based.
+ Is the only class besides Thief that can (currently) disarm a human opponent.
+ Doesn't care about Silenced much.
+ Can get around Reflective and still heal even with just Pure Skill by use of Holy Circle and Holy-absorbing gear and monsters.
+ May not have a distance game, but can use a Secondary to get over that problem.
+ Has room for a Secondary still.

****

White Knight Cons:
- Due to the nature of its secondary, is rather reliant on Faith, MA and MP, all things that Knights still tend to not have. Can offset both disadvantages somewhat by using a higher Faith Knight, a female Knight or Faithful status and by wearing Clothing or Robes, respectively. In the case of the former, though, it would mean that Knight is generally more vulnerable to magick--and doesn't get a reaction at all if he has Faithful status--or that the female Knight has weaker physical attacks, potentially significantly so for those that still use quadratic PA. In the case of the latter, the Knight would have less HP than he (or she) normally would and would likely be less protected from status and other non-absorbed elements as well.
- For all its diversity, it still has no answer to distance attacks beyond pressing forward behind a shield and then relying on Nighthawk, which is Wind-element, or Holy, which is...Holy-element (obviously) and subject to Reflective. Both are reliant on MP and can be magickally evaded in a patch where M-EV is going to a lot more widespread (and probably innate). Provided it doesn't want to give up an RSM or two to better deal with such enemies in a game where distance weapons are a lot more numerous.
- Due to nature of secondary, has to actually give a damn about Silenced unless it wants to basically be confined to one skill set.

****

Non-White, Non-Knight Paladin Cons:
- Just because it can take "any" secondary doesn't necessarily mean that it will be good with any secondary, even with some sacrifice.
- Just because Regen is a "mini-Esuna" doesn't mean that it gets rid of everything that Esuna does. Similarly, it's still reliant on Faith and MP on a class that's likely to have less of at least the former, especially compared to Priest.
- Paladin is probably the physical class most reliant on MP, even more so than Acolyte.
- Is generally confined to use of a shield due to appeal of Shield Bash between its sure-hit quality, its non-elemental quality, its non-use of MP and its potential to cause Disabled. As such, can't use Doublehand (Two Hands) or Dual Wield (Two Swords) even if using a secondary that would call for it, like say Berserker. Without a shield, it's basically reduced to just smacking the enemy with its weapon unless a) the enemy doesn't absorb or resist Holy and b) its allies are out of the way or absorb (or resist) Holy given Holy Circle is currently its only other means of physical offense but non-discriminating and still close-range only.
- Confusion Song kinda sucks even more now, especially since it's losing, well has lost, Addled and is currently just Charmed or Confused. Yay.
- Similarly, Weapon Break might be dying and Cleanse might become single-target, perhaps even close-ranged present.


So, yeah, as you can see, they're not really that alike. I'd actually say, at present, due Knight's own shortcomings, partly due to me being conservative in the face of existing formulas, a Knight with fully-mastered White Magick has a hell of lot more to fear from a Paladin with even just Basic Skill than vice-versa.

But, yeah, I don't mind minimizing or killing overlap, otherwise I'd have like a half a dozen Charmed-add technicks still as opposed to a "mere" 3, of which one might still possibly die.


Quote from: Solifuge on April 20, 2012, 03:15:49 am
As an aside, if you need a few classes to round out your roster, consider some kind of Templar... with a set of brave-powered MP-costing weapon-strikes, some of which proc secondary effects ala Holy/Dark Sword. For parity, balance it against a Weaponmaster, which has different skills available based on the weapon type(s) they have equipped... a sort of deconstruction of the Samurai class, but one which would wield all weapons. I know conditions can make certain skills available, but am not sure if weapons can... but if not, hidden conditions could be attached to different classes of weapons to handle this.


I already have a Templar (even ignoring that this is what Acolyte was originally called since it's based on FFT:A's anti-magick Templars), but it's an enemy-only special class because I really don't like Magick Sword-type BS. If we're going to talk about avoiding stepping on other classes toes and avoiding overlap, then including that class as a useable generic is basically the worst way to do that outside of maybe having Red Mage generic; even with a Red Mage generic, though, you have quite a bit more flexibility with which to avoid (direct) overlap as seen in Celdia's patch.

So, yeah, no to Templar. Weaponmaster is something I'd consider--and I've been considering ever since noticing how Eternal248's Freelancer was in Parted Ways-- as a generic a lot more. However, I don't want to rely on that ability restriction Excel sheet too much just yet or do something that could easily screw over the (current) AI. That Soldier can already wield all weapons (if somewhat ineffectively) and that weapon choice is generally a lot more widespread (at present) in Embargo than vanilla (or most other patches) doesn't help either. Equip Change likely dying, partly because it can't be used by the AI at all, also doesn't do this idea any favors.

Still, Weaponmaster is a lot more appealing to me than Templar/Rune Knight/Magic Knight.


Quote from: Solifuge on April 20, 2012, 03:15:49 am
Also, let me be that one vehemently dissenting voice; I love the PSP translation. As a writer, there is so much more character and emotion there that the Engrish PSX script just maims and leaves bleeding in a gutter. To be fair, I'm kind of in love with writing and language in general, so I might just have enough of a background to be able to appreciate it... but I'd strongly suggest you consider using the PSP script, and writing the new chapters/dialogue in a similar style. The PSP language isn't a thing of pretentiousness; the nobles are all haughty and proper and shit, while the commoners speak in a rougher, at times vulgar, way. I'm all for using the simplest language needed to tell a story and all that, but this story is one of political intrigue and social strife, set in a Late Middle-Ages/Early Renaissance world. Flowery speech is to be expected (and it kicks the pants off of Cyan/Frog's "Thee and Thou" BS).


Oh, it's not that anyone here particularly loves the Engrish of the PSX script (AFAIK) sans a few select quotations--"Blame yourself or God!"--that apparently got cut from the PSP version (which I admittedly haven't played and have only seen a few bits and pieces of from Youtube). It's more that quite a few people apparently feel that the PSP translation was needlessly obtuse in its floweriness.

I personally want to strike a middle-ground if so possible, where it's "realistically" ornate in terms of dialogue and diction--"churl"--with modern audiences being able to more or less still understand what the hell people are saying without feeling like its done the way it is--people's ignorance and stupidity aside--just for the sake of being pretentious. If I have to sacrifice delivery of dialogue for clarity of it, then so be it. I'd rather not, but some times it has to happen.

And, yes, as "amusing" as it can be at times, "thee and thou" is BS with how its used most of the time, so I completely intend to try to avoid that.

Quote from: Solifuge on April 20, 2012, 03:15:49 am
Lastly, if it wasn't readily apparent, I really like this project. Though I've only dabbled with this brand of modding, I'd like to help out in some capacity, if possible. I do know my way around sprite art and such, but the shear number of sprites used in FFT for poses etc. is daunting, and I don't know if I have the skill for it. I am a pretty talented writer and editor though, and an obsessive study of game mechanics since childhood has rendered me incapable of love, but pretty bitching when it comes to game design. More generally speaking, I've got a knack for pulling in and organizing talent where needed as well. If you're interested, feel free to hit me up via email.


I see.

Well, I'll keep it in mind. I don't mean to sound as wish-washy or dismissive as I'm perhaps coming off, but I just want to work on this by myself for at least while longer until I feel like I've actually gone a good chunk of the work done before I start burdening other people with my demands and such.

Still, thanks for the comments and the enthusiasm, though.


****


MINIATURE UPDATE


So, with all of that finally addressed, here comes yet another enumerated list--yes, yes, I know...--to show what little I've accomplished in this month's time, at least of things I'm willing to divulge:

1. Monster Mash: As will be seen in the next post I make in an hour or two, I have finally finished giving 6 abilities back to all monsters--damn Chocobos and Panthers--as well as assigning the newer monsters' abilities to slots and making sure that everything was tracked accurately in Excel finally. Similarly, all current status immunities--of all statuses currently programmed--and innate RSMs were evaluated and tracked in Excel and Notepad, though the latter....

2. RSM is for Really Simple Moron: ...Reminded me, in tandem with Pickle Girl Fanboy's thread, that my RSM selection currently is really restrictive, especially for monsters. I mean, I already knew, but I couldn't really think of a way to rectify this. I suppose I'll just have to take Pickle Girl Fanboy's advice and try to be a bit more "adventuresome", even if I'm still completely incompetent at coding (and still owe formerdeathcorps something) and don't want to get my hopes up. As such, I'm probably at least going to "borrow" PGF's Explore & "Stupidity" and more RSMs from FFXII like Warmage, though in the case of the latter, I already was.

3. Summoner Shuffle: So, Summoner has gotten quite a bit of an attention this past month, partly due to plot-related reasons, but also for other reasons. Those other reasons are Summon Magick having entirely flipped in terms of what's Learn via JP and Learn on Hit Only and Summoner and Dimensionalist having switched positions, with Summoner coming after Geomancer and Dimensionalist coming after Illusionist now. The latter should have come forever ago and I'll note it the original post when I get done with my monster post. The former was done partly due to plot-related reasons and partly because of the decision to switch as well as me realizing a couple of other solutions. I should also note here that Hades/Lich is officially dead and will likely remain so. At present, it is now Odin who represents Dark-elemental ala FFXI (apparently), though Slyph technically does as well. (I should probably note this in Summoner section of the jobs section I redid last night since it's not nearly so obvious as the other elementals.)

4. Spell Quotes: I've finally started on these, though it's mostly been for Summon Magick and Fear/Dread skill sets, though a few miscellaneous things like Checkmate (done a while ago like Fear), Cold Flame and Silent Song have been done.

5. Full-dead-All All Chemists: Between Zareb's patch, my rather constant hatred of them (like Monk), and the fact that I have better, less-game-breaking ideas that I could use instead, there's a good chance that Chemist's class will die entirely now. Now, whether that means Item becomes universal or another "support" is something that I'm not entirely sure of yet, though in terms of still having Items be around, at least for the latter, it seems to lean towards the former for now. Possible replacements are four in number presently: Gambler, Ranger, Sage and Scholar; that's in alphabetical order, not order of likelihood, otherwise it would be Scholar, Gambler, Sage and then Ranger.

6. Smoothed-Out Criminal: Similarly, for much less crimes against balance (sans Steal Weapon), Thief perhaps will also end up dying. Unlike Chemist, though, it's guaranteed to at least still show-up as an enemy-only generic and, outside of Steal Weapon, Theft will likely still be available to the player. It's just that right now, even with the other new status that's coming in, it kind steps on the toes of other classes in terms of status AND theft is rather problematic, especially after getting rid of Treasure/Looted. So...yeah. Same possible replacements here, though if Thief dies, then that basically guarantees Gambler getting in to "replace" it.

7. Beowulf or Reis: So, at present, it's rather likely that at least one of them will make it in, though now Beowulf has a greater chance of dying than Reis. That's all I'm going to stay at present, outside of the fact that regardless of which one appears, they'll likely have the same class, though Beowulf's version would be more physical and Reis's would be more magical.

8. Worker Ate Seven: Similarly, due that talk I had with Panda_Tar a while back, I think that I've decided what to do with both Workers, even if it will take a lot more re-working than I had originally planned. As such, I have to remind myself to give credit to him when I post them up.

9. Forgetting Silenced Transitions: Ironically, I've been a bit...addled myself when it comes to switching over most of previous Addled-using skills to Silenced-using ones, including the mention of Confusion Song above. I should mention (and I'll go back and fix this when I do the monster post), that I will, however, be replacing Acolyte's Apostatize with Silent Voice at least, which is basically Silence Song. A Doubtful ability will probably go to Berserker, though whether a magickal version of it still exists as Apostatize is...uncertain.

10. Maces and Greatbows: These types of weapons are both dead now, with Greatbows' demises being far more recent--a couple of weeks ago--than Maces, which were long dead before I posted towards the end of March. They're just becoming more types of other, existent weapons rather than yet another new weapon type, especially since I might kill off a couple more weapon types like, say, Whips, down the line for a couple of reasons.


All that said, I suppose I should start on monsters. I should also note that I'm going to hold off on posting equipment until I've at least had the chance to test most, if not all of them. So sorry about breaking another "promise".
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"


The Damned

(What? Oh, haha. I've done that, at least for absolutely vital stuff. Not as much I should have, but for most things I'd rather not like to lose. It's less that it's going to die--probably, considering I had to have the power source replaced at the beginning of this year--than that it's just fucking ancient. Thanks for the concern, though.)

I should point out here that I won't be updating this thread again until two weeks from now most likely.

That said, I'll begin my non-parenthetical main body by also pointing out (with a list of course) quite a few things would otherwise need to be repeated while doing this list:


1. All monsters have Innate Misty at present. As such (and due to some other factors), Misty ends up becoming 1/16 max-MP regen considering how high I want MP to go and how piss-poor it is in vanilla.

2. Similarly, all monsters are still immune to Silenced, what was previously Addled. This isn't changing even though Addled has. As such, I'm not going to repeat that every monster is immune to Silenced when I can just say that here.
(On the flip side, monsters are no longer all immune to Blood Suck since Vampirism is, you know, dead as a status.)

3. If there is a status that is designated "???", then it means it's a new status that has yet to be programmed rather than an undecided one sans the one that's replacing Chicken; the other one that was previously emulating Stopped has had its properties decided as something else.

4. That said, as more new statuses get decided & created and old ones, like Reraised or Defending or Transparent, potentially leave, status immunities and causes will of course switch around. This goes for humans and equipment as well, though they of course have a lot less immunities than monsters innately do or need.

5. Additionally, if at least some monsters can be made to wear items, then of course those would be the monsters who end up having less innate immunities since they have more options overall.
(I'm not sure if I'll apply the same logic that monsters that might end up potentially mountable, though that's likely literally my least thought about issue in addition to the whole "stepping stone monster" thing. I have a lot more things to worry about than Nelveska.)

6. Every individual monster has at least one additional status immunity that differs from their familial ones that I'm not going to report right now, like say Feywood being immune to Stopped, for various reasons. That individual status might not necessarily to be something negative though, such as Ochu still being immune to Floating while Common Malboro and Greater Malboro no longer are, though in cases like that, they're probably individually immune to two more negative statuses as well. Probably.

7. Finally, I'm not going to be posting (all of) the RSMs or even the basic (move) stats for any of these monsters. For the former, see the RSM problems above which means that they're doubtless changing. For the latter, I still need to go over growths and stuff and just posting move and jump like last time is fairly pointless.

8. Also, no, I'm not pointing out Blue Magick this time. It will mostly likely say in game what is Blue Magick, though. So get ready to use that Select button (or purposely get by anything and everything to try to find out the less obvious ones).



All that said, I'll note that, in having gone over elemental absorptions and such more than a month ago, Water no longer kills the hell out of everything, every element is strong against at least 8 monsters (with some possible overlap) and at least five monsters absorb and resist, separately, all eight elements. Additionally, there was supposed to only be 8 monsters who didn't absorb anything and thus had minimal weaknesses and resists, but there are currently 9 as I realized yesterday. The ninth might stay or get some absorption at the cost.


Silent EDIT: (There was monster-related post here. It's a gone now, replaced, "ironically", by a "hole".)

....

(Actually, no, I'll just mass spoiler everything here for now.)


Chocobos:

Notes:
1. Since this is only generic monsters, I'm not including Boco here this time like an idiot.

2. I'm currently considering making Black Chocobos the "strongest"/Class A Chocobo, even if Class C, Class B and Class A designations won't be nearly as restrictive as in vanilla and some other patches.

3. Despite Defending still being iffy, I already have a replacement for the returned Choco Guard in mind.

4. Minor aside, but due to historical convention, Chocobos are now the only monsters who be entirely going off the rather boring [Insert Color Here] [Monster Name] naming scheme. They shall remain as such.


Elemental Affinities:
1. Yellow Chocobos: Resist Ice, Weak Dark.
2. Black Chocobos: Resist Earth, Weak Wind.
3. Blue Chocobos: Resist Water, Weak Dark.


Shared Immunities: Blind, Oily (they're doubtless getting more)

Shared Abilities:
1. Choco Cure: Much the same in its instant healing. It might become somewhat stronger, though at the cost of probably using up MP.

2. Choco Esuna: Currently like my original proposal for ARENA's Stigma Magic in that its a range-2, single-target Esuna that is instant and relies only PA, not Faith. Currently doesn't use MP, but it is the most likely to of all shared technicks.

3. Choco Barrier: No longer Blue Chocobo's unique move, it now only adds Protected or Shelled randomly in an Auto/Self-AoE of 1. Likely to end up costing some MP, if only to prevent it from obviating Protect or Shell, though those are still pretty cheap and reliable, so it might just get a CT.

Yellow Chocobos (YC): The "sharing" ones, they have innate Distribute and are the first monster you're likely to get that can resurrect with their Choco Revive, a close-range, instant, but not all that restorative skill.

Black Chocobos (BC): The "surly" ones, they retain their signature Flight and are the only Chocobos to get an offensive unique, keeping Choco Ball, which also happens to the only distance ability that generic Chocobos have now.

Blue Chocobos (UC): The "skittish" ones, they are the only mountable monster at present that can walk on water despite my making it so that very monsters are disadvantaged by water. They have Choco Guard instead of Choco Barrier now, which is now the only active skill to make use of Defending alongside Regening in a Self-AoE of 1.



Goblins:

Notes:
1. No longer quite monster Monks, they're more like monster Soldiers than pugilists since they are now modeled a lot more on their Baknamy "ancestors" from FFXII like they should have been from the beginning.

2. As such, "Blaknamy" might simply change to "Baknamy" eventually.

3. These guys would be somewhat affected by Thief "dying", though it would be more Steal Weapon dying that causes them parity problems than anything else.
Elemental Affinities:
1. Red Caps: Resist Fire, Weak Ice.
2. Blaknamy: Resist Lightning, Weak Ice.
3. Gobbledeguck: Absorb Ice, Weak Fire.


Shared Immunities: Poisoned, Charmed, Doubtful. (Might get one more shared immunity.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Dash: The same skill as the hume Dash.

2. Goblin Punch: Currently a range 3, physical ability that deals semi-random damage and is Wind element.

3. Eye Gouge: Currently still adds Blind & Confused in 1.3, though it might lose Confused, at least for a while....


Red Caps (RC): The red-topped, most common of Goblins is capable of using the hume spell Fire, capable of forcefully putting others to sleep (especially from behind) with its Sleeper Hold and adept at Steal Shield like hume Thieves.

Blaknamy (BY): The black-topped Goblins tend to thieve wholesale from humes, being quite good at using their Cure and Bolt spells and their ability to Steal Helms.

Gobbledeguck (GB): A goblin who tried to overcome its aversion to Ice and end up becoming absorption of at the cost of shivering and chattering all the time it, its skin it hardened by ice crystals and it is quite good at using Ice to heal itself and hurt others. Additionally, its greater strength allows it to punch hard enough to rend the earth in line with its Ogre Run and allow it to Steal Weapons with ease.



Bombs:

Notes:
1. Drench is probably dying, eventually.

2. Yeah, I decided to go with Balloon over Red Bomb even since even as silly as Balloon sounds--sorry, Karnov--and may be something of anachronism, it at least has quite a bit of historical precedence and I was sick of having "Red" [whatever].

3. It needs repeating that Bombs aren't going to show up early on even as much as I want to try to balance monsters to be useful through the game. Them showing up at Sweegy Woods in that story battle would mean that you wouldn't get past that point.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Bombs: Absorb Fire, Resist Lightning, Weak Water, Immune Earth (by virtue of Floating) 
2. Balloons: Resist Dark, Weak Ice
3. Grenades: Resist Wind, Weak Holy
4. Explosives: Resist Dark, Weak Holy


Shared Immunities: ???, Undead, Petrified, Poisoned, Regening, Oily, Immobilized, Reflective. (Reraised would still be here if it wasn't likely dying.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Fiery Emission: Currently a range 5, magickal Fire-element attack meant more to cause a "spark" than to do impressive damage. It will probably lessen its range when/if its power increases.

2. Drench: Still currently attempts to cover a too wide area--AoE 3, really?--in Disabling Oil at Range 2, its AoE will at the very least be reduced if it doesn't outright die.

3. Self-Destruct: Currently still only "Shock"-based attack in Embargo, it is also still a Self-AoE of 2, though it's now Critical Only. It may change to single-target, though, or be lessened in some other way.


Balloons (BA): Bright red orbs of death, it doesn't take 99 of these to kill you, even with that has from their self-healing Spark ability, which sprays themselves and the area around them with indiscriminate Fire damage.

Grenades (GR): Heavily armored Bombs, they are sometimes to said to still be employed by inquisitors for the strength of their three-directional Blast Furnace, sometimes called Hell's Furnace, against unbelievers.

Explosive (EX): Bombs made from the darkest, most sinister flames, they harness fiery power that cannot be held at bay with Fire proof means: the dreaded Flare spell.



Panthers:

Notes:
1. Vampire Cats are now special monsters, so, like Boco, they're not getting mention here beyond this sentence.

2. Catnip and Cat Kick are now dead. It would have liked to test the former, but...meh. Just clarify, Blood Suck does still exist, though it too has a changed a bit in that it not longer causes Undead (since that's self-defeating).

3. In talking with Panda_Tar in that same short back and forth that brought up the Workers, I somewhat agree with him that panther sprites would have larger whiskers at least. For my own purposes, a more squid-like head as with FFXII would also be beneficial, especially due to the Wolves I'm using and obvious similarities between them. Hardly a pressing matter, though.

4. Speaking of which, I admit that I'm not really sure what color Grimalkin and possibly even Ose should be. Couerl is staying the same golden color though.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Panthers: Absorb Lightning.
2. Oses: Weak Earth.
3. Couerls: Resist Ice & Water, Weak Fire & Earth. (Aside: It's always bugged the hell out of me how, in FFXII, an entire species that supposedly survived an Ice Age is weak to Ice. What.)
4. Grimalkins: Resist Water, Weak Fire.


Shared Immunities: Cursed, Slowed, Disabled, Doomed.

Shared Abilities:
1. Poison Claw: A single-target, range-3, pouncing ability much like 1.3, except that it does damage and slightly drains health while Poisoning.

2. Hastebreak: A stronger, close-range only physical ability that has a chance to inflict Slow.

3. Blaster: Previously the signature of Couerls, it is now a familial ability. It has also changed in that while it is still Lightning element and single target, it now inflicts damage and 100% Silenced, Slowed, Disabled or Doomed.

Oses (OS): Long thought to stalking, servants of Hell, these large cats can actually be quite flashy with their Lightning-based Discharge ability, which electrifies everyone unfortunate enough to be in close-proximity to them and not absorb Lightning.

Couerls (CU): Still thought to be some bizarre experimentation of those hellish, elusive beings known as Illithids, they share the Mindflayer's ability to Mind Blast targets, sending them into doomed confusion and damning rage.

Grimalkins (GK): Thought increasingly to be familiars of witches who would hide from the Church's eyes, these cats can blasphemously walk on water and even more queerly generate water from nowhere, shooting in a line for their Big Wave attacks.



Lamias:

Notes:
1. Lamias now "replace" Illithids instead of outright replacing Uribos, which is now Cactuars's "job".

2. Lamias are intentionally weaker against monsters than they are other humans.

3. Innocence and Fire Kiss are now dead.

4. I am extremely wary of Poison Frog, but since Lamias tend to historically have it, I decided to let Blank Lamia have it, if only at close-range and with dubious accuracy. None of this distance or multi-target Frogging BS.

5. Not really sure about the colors of these gals, though Blank Lamia is probably an icy blue, Lilith the more normal red and Morrigan is probably greenish.

Elemental Affinities:
1. All Lamias: Weak Earth.
2. Blank Lamias: Absorb Holy, Resist Ice.
3. Liliths & Morrigans: Absorb Fire, Resist Holy.


Shared Affinities: Confused, Oily, Doubtful, Charmed.

Shared Abilities:
1. Captivate: Shared with Vampires and the Assassins, the snake-women of Ivalice entice man and woman alike with their alluring hypnotism into Charmed from up to three panels away. Other monsters of Ivalice immune to this type of allure.

2. Snake Dance:  Disarming dance that currently potentially affects those in Self-AoE of 2, regardless of allegiance, with Slowed, Immobilized and/or Disabled if they don't look away.

3. Dark: Being monsters oddly concerned with the hearts of things, Lamias share an odd connection with Ivalice's Skeletons in their ability to tap into the heart of darkness, even though it's for the exact opposite reasons.


Blank Lamias (BL): Lamias with cold, dead eyes, they are theorized to have burnt out any capacity to feel emotion long ago. It is said that some have been seen with a smirk as the listen to the pained croaks of those they have turned into Poison Frogs, but this has never been confirmed.

Liliths (LI): Lamias especially attracted to displays of emotions, they easily shed false tears, using their infamous Chronos Tears to stop all the most steel-willed or...monstrous in their tracks as they overcome by waves of guilt and remorse.

Morrigans (MO): Conjectured to be something like Lamia royalty, these green-framed serpentine mistresses are masters of generous healing White Wind. It is said that they have spoken to some, offering the gift for the mere price of bondage....



Flans:

Notes:
1. These overachieving desserts are still pretty damn lazy. The only reason that I got away with giving monsters back 6 skills is because these guys (and Goblins) steal from everyone else. Goblins at least have their own unique skills; Flans stole theirs from the Dragons.

2. Similarly, Flans are the only monster who has only one shared ability...which is Common Malboro's "unique" ability "Goo". Or was, at least. Whether they keep "Goo" and Malboro gets something else or vice versa is something I'm not entirely sure of yet.

3. Previously held Aqualung before thieving from Dragons instead of Illithids.

4. Oh, right. These are Skeletons' "replacements".

5. Iced Flan is lighter blue in color. Flaming Pudding is a light red, maybe even orange. Shock Jelly is a bright yellow.


Elemental Affinities:
1. Iced Flan: Absorb Ice, Resist Water, Weak Fire.
2. Flaming Pudding: Absorb Fire, Resist Water, Weak Ice.
3. Shock Jelly: Absorb Lightning, Resist Wind, Weak Earth.


Shared Affinities: Undead, Berserk, Frogged, Reflective, Disabled. (They used to have way more than this, but this is more than fine and fair; they might become immune to Petrified again, though. Not sure.)

Shared Ability: Goo - Range 3 ability that can cause Poisoned, Immobilized or Disabled randomly.

Iced Flans (IF): These even harder than normal monstrous desserts are masters of Ice magick, capable of casting Ice, Ice II and Ice III in addition to what is arguably the pinnacle of Ice magick with their Freeze spell, which will encase an entire area in its icy ire. Despite the many cracks in their shell should one be unfortunate enough to come upon one or more of them, they undergo a quite constant state of regeneration that demands Fire be used to soften them.

Flaming Pudding (FP): These more runny, red globs reduce all to ash and slag should they remain for long enough, fueled by powerful flames of madness. More akin to Bombs in this sense than their fellow Flans, they are still more solid than they look and rather likely to make things combust even before they begin slinging around Fire magick. Fire magick lie Fire, Fire II or Fire III or its pinnacle of Ardor, a magick with wide, explosive range.

3. Shock Jellies (SJ): Rubbery yellow slime encases hard yellow eyes full of loathing, ready to electrocute any that fall in range of its powerful Lightning magick. Whether emitting Bolt, Bolt II or Bolt III or its single-target, but quick and powerful Burst, it is best to keep one's distance from it or else one is in for a nasty, potentially fatal shock.



Wolves:

Notes:
1. These are Ghosts' "replacements".

2. They are meant to parallel Panthers in being group and pack hunters compared to the more solitary hunters that the big cats are. As such, they are weaker individually than them and thus the new enemy most likely to show up first (probably as soon as the Sweegy Woods battle, if not sooner), but faster than the big cats.

3. Not really sure on the colors of these guys. White Fang is likely a pale blueish rather than pure white, though. Maybe. It depends significantly on if Alpha Wolf is a gray or a brown color. Hellhound is probably a red, though it might be a black, however unlikely that ends up being.

4. I may[/b] make Alpha Wolf its own special monster and name the class C Wolves something else due to plans with Wishing Star....

Elemental Affinities:
1. All Wolves: Resist Dark
2. Alpha Wolves: Weak Wind.
3. White Fang: Absorb Ice, Weak Fire.
4. Hellhound: Absorb Fire, Weak Holy.


Shared Immunities: Blind, Disabled, Doomed. (Will probably get at least one more.)

Shared Abilities:[/b]
1. Screech: A direct, sonic wave at range 3 that is generally unable to avoided.

2. Blood Fang: A close-range, physical life-draining move, it drains more than a cat's claws, but can still be evaded and thus carries a greater risk.

3. Eerie Soundwave: Producing sound akin to an Illithid, the monster wolf releases an eerie howl that destroys all of the enemies' buffs within a self-AoE of 2.


Alpha Wolves (AW): Supposed leaders of wolves, despite the contested nature between the cold climes of White Fang's preferred territory and the harsh reality of Hellhound's volatile nature, they alone able to rally all wolves under the range-4, resurrecting power of the Wishing Star.

White Fang (WF): Seeming silver shadows of the snow, they quite easily can catch even the most aware of the north by surprise with how well they can blend in and how swiftly they can attack. To complement their ghostly nature, their Frost is said to be able to chill the very spirit.

Hellhounds (HL): More direct than either of its counterparts, red eyes peek out from burning environs before its dread, poisonous Bushfire sprays out, making its target in venomous, burning oil.



Flying Eyes:

Notes:
1. Still not entirely sure why Floating Eye wouldn't Float while it had Fly the last time I tested things, though I finally realized that apparently it had Starting Floating status rather than Innate Floating status or Self-Levitate (Float movement) like it should have.

2. I might change Doomgaze's name back to Plague or just to something else.

3. Part of me feels like Flying Eyes should be weak to Water still as they initially were given that they're one of the few monsters that still can't enter water at all now. However, enough things are already weak to Water that I'm wary of doing that simply to be "coherent". As long as I'm coherent with most things, I figure a few exceptions won't matter all that much.

4. At present, all Gazes are still Direct and affected by Steel Will.

Elemental Affinities:
1. All Flying Eyes: Weak Wind.
2. Floating Eyes: Absorb Dark, Resist Holy, Weak Lightning, Immune Earth (by virtue of Floating).
3. Ahrimans: Absorb Dark, Resist Earth & Holy.
4. Doomgazes: Absorb Holy, Resist Earth & Dark.


Shared Immunities: Blind, Frogged, Immobilized. (Actually might not get anymore since they're the one of only two families to all have two individually different immunities as well.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Piercing Gaze: A wicked light linearly cuts and pierces through flesh and barrier alike within a range of 3, somehow being of the Holy element despite being used by such fiends.

2. Reflect: The same as used by Priests.

3. Charm Gaze/Hypnosis: Direct stare that can put the weak-willed into a state of Charmed servitude or deep Sleeping.


Floating Eyes (FE): Prying eyes of prurient indolence, they bob up and down, fleeing quickly when damaged after they use their Disabling, Slowing and Immobilizing Stun Gaze to prevent pursuers.

Ahrimans (AH): Eyes of evil malice, they do the devil's work, transfixing to the spot any poor soul unfortunate to meet eyes with it, blinding them to life and to God with its Blinding, Cursed and Doubtful Devil's Gaze.

Doomgazes (DG): Said to the eyes of death itself and hence why images of the reaper have only hollow sockets, these demons unblinking gaze dooms those it falls upon. The skin crawling before it begins to tear and bleed is the only warning that one gets that they have been affected by Doom's Gaze.[/b]



Aevises:

Note:
1. Steel Aevis was initially weak to Lightning before trading that to Snowtuar for weakness to Dark instead.

2. Of the monsters currently without absorptions, Steel Aevis ties for first with...Blue Chocobo for which one of the might possibly get one.

3. With the changes I plan to make to Petrified, these will be the monsters most affected by that.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Aevises: Resist Earth.
2. Axebeaks and Cockatrices: Weak Wind.
3. Steel Aevises: Weak Dark.


Shared Immunities: ???, Petrified, Poisoned, Oily. (Won't get anymore considering their ability to Fly and the fact that I remembered to add ??? just now. It might lose that ??? though, but it probably wouldn't get more than one still.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Shine Lover: Being lovers of beauty, these avions take quite good care of themselves, able to meticulously clean their feathers to gain Hasted and Regening. Will probably gain a CT.

2. Hawk Glare: Direct glare that can be evaded like a physical attack due to the sheer weight it of predation behind, it Disables prey from a range of 4 before the aevis swoops in.

3. Beak: The Cockatrice does not possess a monopoly on among its kin ability to petrify, though the others must rely upon a virulent beak to do so. This is not say that Cockatrices cannot use their beak to create Petrified victims so shiny as to be Reflective.


Axebeaks (AX): The most aggressive of the aevises, it is now surprise that it much enjoys divebombing down upon its prey, with such speed and ferocity as to cause heavy damage and any number of maladies with its infamous Brain Crush.

Steel Aevises (SA): The heaviest of the birds is not markedly less aggressive, preferring to snipe at its prey with its hardened, electrified feathers that explode with such force as to be called Feather Bombs.

Cockatrices (CC): The most poisonous of aevises, its very breath can fell almost instantly. Run or hold your breath if it unleashes its Stone Breath, lest your body be your own tomb before it dines upon you.



Cactuars:

Notes:
1. These are now Uribo's replacements instead of Lamias.

2. Yes, I know the names are kinda lackluster--pfft, Snowtuar--and everything, but I really don't have much to go off here even historically. So unless people want me to just name them "Cactuar" phonetically all with some spelling variation or go with Spanish--which I know almost nothing of, as amusing as "Cactuar Bandito" would be--or want to off their own suggestions, then this is probably what they'll remain named. I suppose, thinking on it now, that I could have gone with "Cactrot, Cactuar and Cactoids", but that's not realy better and Cactoids are techinically different. Anyway....

3. Not yet sure how I'm going to address the issue of 1000 Needles only doing 100, but there's no way in hell it's going to 1,000 (read: 999) damage.

4. Rather needless to say, even outside of Snowtuars obviously being in the north, these little guys aren't going to be confined only to desert areas. They'll be more spread out, though perhaps not that much more, especially if they have to cross large bodies of water.

5. As mentioned before, Snowtuars were weak to Dark until they traded that to Steel Aevises for a Lightning weakness.

6. Color-wise, whenever/if-ever the sprites for the guys are made, Cactuar Rogues would be the normal green, Snowtuars would be the normal white (or light blue) and Flowering Cactuars would be a flowery pink.


Elemental Affinities:
1. Cactuar Rogues: Absorb Earth, Resist Holy, Weak Water.
2. Snowtuars: Absorb Ice, Resist Wind, Weak Lightning.
3. Flowering Cactuars: Absorb Wind, Resist Holy, Weak Water.


Shared Immunities: Undead, Petrified, Blind, ???, Charmed, Doomed. (Might lose immunity to Charmed, even if that ??? is arguably a positive one.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Sandstorm: Mischievous green bodies ever in motion, even before their link to the earth as with most plant-based monstrosities, they are good a kick up Blinding, even damaging clouds of dust and earth around themselves to aid in escape.

2. 100(0) Needles: Taking the more direct approach, a Cactuar will frantically strip itself of all its needles in an effort to ward off any who chase after it. A few have reported counting as many 1,000 needles fired in this manner, though on average its far fewer, numbering in the 100s.

3. Steal Accessory: The same as Thief.


Cactuar Rogues (CR): As with human Thiefs, this green-clothed desert-dweller delights in more abstract aspects of thievery, using Belief Theft strip of their Faith and voice. It is unknown what they do with this belief, only that in their avarice they tend to target those with more Faith rather than less.

Snowtuars (ST): Like the Ochu to their Malboro cousins, these miniature snowmen of the north are quite different from the cousins who dwell in more temperate climes, if only in temperament in and directness. More akin to ambush predators despite no known carnivorous habits, they enjoy sending miniature but highly dangerous Snowstorms towards people who stumble over their territories or whom they actively stalk.

Flowering Cactuar (FC): More akin to the Treefolk of the forests, the Flowering Cactuar is ever-covered in blooms and quite passive. However, its passivity belies its utter willingness to follow and protect its fellow monsters or even other monsters or humans it has befriended, protecting them even from death with its resurrecting, blooming Budding.



Treefolk:

Notes:
1. I'm not entirely sure whether to go with Treefolk over Woodfolk as the family name, but it is far more amusing to use that. (Damn, I'm going to have remember to name at least one of these guys Doran....)

2. Not really sure if Dryad or Treant need an "s" to be plural, but right now I'm pretending they don't.

3. Sap Spirit is now dead, especially since Treefolk kinda "stole" Pearl Wight's "Mighty Guard".


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Treefolk: Absorb Wind, Weak Dark.
2. Dryad & Treant: Absorb Water, Resist Earth, Weak Lightning.
3. Feywood: Absorb Holy, Resist Fire, Weak Ice.


Shared Immunities: Undead, Petrified, Floating, Frogged, ???.

Shared Abilities:
1. Leaf Dance: An Self-AoE 2 of magickal nature, it may be somewhat weak, but its Wind-elemental quality makes it rather difficult to dodge, especially when it blankets the area after repeated uses. (I'm really tempted to name this "Petal Dance".)

2. Mighty Guard: A single-target ability that bestows Protected, Shelled & Hasted upon a single target. (That Hasted aspect might become something else given how...obsessed the AI is with applying to Hasted.)

3. Rootgrapple: Using the power of the earth, Treefolk are capable of using roots from the ground to Immobilize and/or Slow enemies in a wide area of AoE 2 at range 3.


Dryad (DY): Fledgling wood golems, despite what is arguably a more obvious anger at man's world compared to the other Treefolk, they still possess a Spirit of Care that Cleanses in a wide area around the Dryad's self.

Treant (TR): More mellow than what are believed to be their beginning forms, their Spirit of Calm transcends fixing mere physical ailments, focusing on temporal ones as it Returns spatial and temporal oddities to their normal order.

Feywood (FY): Elderly yet perhaps eternal guardians of the woods they are a part of, through the use of their discriminating Spirit of Life to restore the fallen, they prove that any life is precious...so long as it protects nature.



Bull Demons:

Notes:
1. Not much to say about these guys outside of the fact that they were the first to make me aware of the Monster Talk issue, which as now been addressed, and they share perhaps too much with Orator now.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Bull Demons: Absorb Earth, Resist Fire, Weak Water.
2. Minotaurs & Bull Devils: Absorb Dark, Weak Holy.
3. Sacreds: Absorb Holy, Weak Lightning.


Shared Immunities: Confused, ??? (Chicken's replacement), Sleeping, Immobilized. (They are now no longer immune to Floating, though since that's arguably a bad thing, they might get one more immunity even though like Flying Eyes they also have two individual ones. It partly depends on the severity of Chicken's replacement.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Wave Around: Charging their axe with lightning, they then swipe around their bodies, creating an unavoidable field of lightning that shocks their enemies.

2. Intimidate: Same as the Orator's.


Minotaurs (MU): Despite having an apparently brilliant mind for puzzles such as mazes, they are easily angered, lashing out with Rejections and Insults that would make even the most surly Mediator blush. They will even thrash like petulant yet dangerous child, shattering the ground in their pale mimicry of Titan with their Earth Shaker.

Bull Devils (BD): Channeling the anger that so steers the minotaur to ever fouler ends, Bull Devils utilizing a Curse of Rage that caused afflicted to become Cursed and Berserk, losing one's head before literally losing to the blade of the Bull Devil's acts. Even when not dabbling in Black Magicks, they possess an eloquence to both Praise and Undermine as any silver-tongued devil, which is precisely why they shouldn't be listened to.

Sacreds (SC): Demons would openly mock Ajora more than just by their mere presence, they claim to know the "truth" behind Ajora, saying that they can Preach and Pacify better than any benighted human preacher. Their blasphemy goes deeper still, as they are able to utilize not only Raise, but the fabled Holy to smite previous true believers.



Malboros:

Notes:
1. Yes, I am aware that Ochus aren't really related to Malboros, at least outside of FFT. As much space as it might potentially save me (compared to other monsters), I'm going to continue to run with it rather than replace it with another Malboro.

2. Ochus still have starting status Sleeping at present, if only because I still haven't been able to test that out, particularly how the (allied) AI reacts to it. (I'll have to remind myself to not put them with any Lancers....)

3. As mention under Flans, Common Malboros currently share "Goo" with the deadly desserts, though Goo will probably change to something different on the Common Malboro end. Something deadlier.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Malboros: Absorb Water, Resist Wind, Absorb Fire.
2. Common Malboros & Greater Malboros: Absorb Dark, Weak Holy.
3. Ochus: Absorb Earth, Weak Ice.


Shared Immunities: Blind, Confused, Poisoned, Charmed, Doomed.

Shared Abilities:
1. Constrict: Whether with green tentacle or thorny vine, those within the Malboro family are able to Immobilize and Disable any prey they get close-enough to catch, tenderizing them before consumption. Despite their multitude of limbs and eyes, though, they tend to focus on victim at a time.

2. Bad Breath: Infamous for its detrimental effects, this breath is more than just "bad", even if very few other words would do it much justice in so succinct a space. Capable of causing Blindness, hysterical Confusion, Poisoning, Silence through throat swelling and even Charmed delusions or immediate deep Sleeping, it is best to never get close enough to partake of it.

3. Cloying Breath: Shared only the Common Malboro and the Greater Malboro, this sweet breath is distilled from its more foul breath above, it is used for alluring prey...and mates alike into, inducing a Charmed, Sleeping state in its non-Malboro targets.


Common Malboros (CM): These plant-animal hybrids are fond of swamps, but picky neither about environment or food. They will gladly sling around Poisonous Goo to Immobilize and Disable fleeing targets.

Ochus (OC): Fond of sleeping more than 12 hours a day, they differ greatly from their Malboro cousins, being decidedly more plant-like in their physiology. It is guessed that they use photosynthesis for much of their energy despite their size given how quickly they can heal when they Rest. However, they are also decidedly carnivorious and violent if awoken, thrashing about violently with an Earth Shaker that puts the Minotaur's to shame. It is even capable of twisting the ether and mist into Aqua somehow. Let sleeping Ochus lie.

Greater Malboros (GM): Older in age than the Common Malboro, their goo production has most dried up. As such, in dire straits, they will exhale a wretched, Putrid Breath capable of felling even the heartiest man.



Behemoths:

Notes:
1. Still somewhat pondering making Dark Behemoth a special-only, Always Undead monster, but I already have enough of those and I can't really think of another "disaster" type ability anyway. That or a name. I suppose, thinking about it, I could use "Humbaba" though....

2. Disaster Warning is dead, replaced by "Luck's Nadir".

3. Cursed Wail is similarly dead, though that's been "replaced" by the common Comet at present.

4. Speaking of which, due Behemoths, something like "Counter Comet/Meteor" will probably end up existing when/if I start changing RSMs. Counter Magick might end up dying somewhat because of that, though.

5. Currently still the only monster (family) to still resist more than two elements.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Behemoths: Resist Fire & Lightning & Ice, Weak Water.
2. Lesser Behemoths: Absorb Wind.
3. King Behemoths: Absorb Earth.
4. Dark Behemoths: Absorb Dark, Weak Holy.


Shared Immunities: Confused, Cursed, Floating, Charmed, Disabled. (Probably not getting more than this.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Comet: Same as the (current) Dimensionalist spell.

2. Mark of the Beast: Marking the target through sheer magickal force of will now rather than needing proximity or physical contact, this cuts through all barriers at range 3 to make its target Cursed. (Perhaps needs more than that given Curse of Rage.)

3. Luck's Nadir: Taking immediate advantage of that curse to do ill-will, the Behemoth wills Lightning to strike the target, cutting away a third of their life, perhaps more.


Lesser Behemoths (LB): Even the least of these beasts are capable of turning the very area into calamity, creating a Tornado of such wide-berth that it is difficult to escape its AoE of 3 even with the length of time that it takes to create.

King Behemoths (KB): Cursed beasts of burden that spread that curse through the very earth they tread upon, they can create devestating Quakes to ravage the landscape if given enough time.

Dark Behemoths (DB): Huge, shadowy creatures that seem to bleed out of the very night itself, it seems to drag the very sense of Night's Dread with it as it covers everything in darkest shadow.



Dragons

Notes:
1. I can't remember if I mentioned this month ago, but "Green Dragons" have been "Common Dragons" for a while. I might change the Common here to some else since it and Malboros sharing that slightly irks me, but it's far better than "Green". Can't really use "Lesser" here either.

2. Still not sure as to the fate of Dragoons or Dragoners ultimately, but all the stuff that Dragons lost to Flan will go to good use. Besides, Frost Dragon at least got Aqualung out of the deal, even if that's still shared with Illithids.

3. At present these all have initial Reraised due to Dragon Spirit, but since Reraised is probably dying....


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Dragons: Resist Earth. (I still need to check if Fly even works for them, though. I still can't remember.)
2. Common Dragon: Absorb Lightning, Resist Fire, Weak Wind.
3. Frost Dragon: Absorb Ice, Resist Water, Weak Fire & Lightning.
4. Flame Dragon: Absorb Fire, Resist Lightning, Weak Ice & Water.


Shared Immunities: Floating, Poisoned, Doomed, Petrified. (That might be more than enough.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Dragon Roar: Releasing a defeaning roar in front or around it, a dragon can Slow, Immobilize or even Stop any who are unfortunate enough to hear it.

2. Tail Swing: An close-range ability of varying power, it is nigh impossible to avoid. Should one be unfortunate enough to in the tail's path, they can only hope that its more softly than usual.


Common Dragon (CD): The common dragon of Ivalice is rather attuned to the element of Lightning, breathing its terribly swift Light Breath upon foes faster than they can react. It also uses its Lightning-affinity to shred a particularly hated target to bit with a Gil Storm fashioned from the coins it loses to hoard, though this tends to take all of its concentration.

Frost Dragon (OD): As with many Ice-favoring monsters this dragon is more frequently encountered in the north, its Ice Breath carrying with it the cutting fatal chill of winter. However, it also is known to make its den near large bodies of water, seemingly having been the source of Illithids' ability to use the explosive bubbles known as Aqualung though perhaps the opposite is true. Regardless, as such it is frequently seen near coasts as well.

Flame Dragon (LD): On the other hand, this dragon is rather peculiar about its habitats, tendy to not venture far from Bervenia Volcano, where most them nest. When and where it does, its devestating Flame Breath is sure to leave a trial of destruction as it rains from the sky. Even the very Wind from its wings is a Choking Gust akin the Poisoning, sulfurous gasses of that troublesome volcano.



Tonberries:

Notes:
1. These are perhaps the most difficult monster to balance after maybe Behemoths and perhaps Malboros since all three of these monster families need to be tougher than average due to historical "weight", but not so much that they obviate other monsters even despite different affinities and immunities. Ignoring the fact that Nietzsche would bitch at me for being so bound to history (and also for not being his sister), I'm leaning towards being "historically" conservative with these guys being (rather) stronger than the average. I'll try to temper that more later on as statuses, RSMs and formulas as well as stats settle.

2. Related to that notion, Holy Tonberry is the only monster to have no elemental weaknesses. This despite the fact that it absorbs Holy (obviously) and that the other two Tonberries are weak to something. Even in light of what was said above, this might remain so.

3. Similarly, at present, Tonberry Guard is the only generic monster that can still Teleport.

4. They got Dispel Magic over Debarrier, though that's still kind...meh.

5. Finally, yes, I'm aware that my Tonberries suck quite hard--they're basically porn stars right now--compared to everyone else's Tonberries presently in terms of power. I'm trying to rectify that without having them being kill-everything, instant-death machines.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Tonberries: Absorb Holy.
2. Pug Tonberry: Resist Dark, Weak Lightning.
3. Tonberry Guard: Resist Lightning & Dark, Weak Ice & Earth.


Shared Immunities: Undead, Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Slowed, Disabled, Doomed. (Yeah...they have a bit much, though like Flan [and Bombs], they were sadly worse once upon a time. They're losing Undead already and they might lose Doomed, but I can't see them losing more than that to be honest, especially if they're not getting Petrified back. They might get immunity to Immobilized over Disabled or Cursed, though.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Chef's Knife: Unavoidable, knife-stabbing attack with rather varying power and the ability to cause ??, it's best to not let Tonberries near you in the first place.

2. Devil's Candle: Icy-chill of a cold flame marking its victim, it makes it more difficult for a selected target to escape, especially with the less Faith it has.

3. Dispel Magic: The same as Acolyte's spell.


Pug Tonberry (PT): With its ability to reportedly swim for days in purpose of its target, it is no surprise that it will aggressively stalk its target over land as well. For what reasons it stalks its victims so aggressively to trap them in Poisoned, waking nightmares whether they are Immobilized and Disabled and unable to scream is unknown. To add its probable sadism, the word Karma has been found corpses of those thought to be so targeted. What it means is unknown.


Tonberry Guard (TG): Despite rumors of a Tonberry King, these creatures are so named because one must be ever vigilant due to their ability to teleport. These wordless cowards are fond of teleporting behind their victims, fatally stabbing in the back. Though they speak no words, those who have encountered these creatures and survived without falling into madness have heard repeated whispers of "Everyone hates you!" and "Everyone's Grudge" before suffering through a bout of many maladies that arise from seemingly nowhere. Whether this is from the Tonberry itself or some ghostly, frequent companions have to be accurately determined.


Holy Tonberry (HT): Another mockery of Ajora's religion that befouls Ivalice, it is so-named not because it speaks of religion like its bullish counterpart the Sacred, but because it is said to be capable of smiting with a power equal to God with its Ray Bomb. Utter blasphemy and hyperbole aside, an increasing number of cults have popped up to pay homage to its silent, terrible glory and it has been said to be able to bless its followers with magick such as Reraise, though this has yet to be confirmed by captured, tortured cultists.



...Fffff....

I always underestimate how terribly slow I am, though me deciding to do flavor text for things spur of the moment because I didn't want to post formulas that are subject to great change didn't help.

Sigh. I wonder if this will even post as one post or if I'll need to post yet again....

I'll rest for an hour or so before updating the original post; I'll look over this for typos more reliably in about 30 minutes or so.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Solifuge

I don't get it. You keep calling yourself lazy, a bad designer, and so on, yet have been consistently churning out detailed posts with a pretty good amount of well-thought-out design material. If it's your subconscious fishing for compliments via self-deprecation, I'm not going to argue with your own self-criticism... been there, done that, and it's a bit exhausting. Still, you'd do well to stop being your own worst enemy, to hate/disparage yourself less, and not disable yourself and your potential with nonsense self-insults and criticism.

Anyway, this is a pretty good looking plan, and makes for an entertaining read... I really hope you keep at it, and it sees full development some day. Try Google Docs for backing things up, if you want things out in the cloud where you can retrieve them on any machine. Also, ModDB is here. They have a tab for PS1 modding, and it's still active.