Final Fantasy Hacktics

Projects => New Project Ideas => Topic started by: on December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 pm

Poll
Question: Who should live? (Keep in mind, if Reis lives, she WON'T be a Dragoner.)
Option 1: Reis
Option 2: Beowulf
Title: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on February 21, 2011, 08:06:11 pm
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: EMBARGO


Salutations. It is I, The Damned, using my 1000th post (like that means anything) to finally making a thread for that patch I keep mentioning incessantly like an annoying bastard.

Anyway, due to philsov, RavenofRazgriz and a few others re-igniting my interest in FFH, I figured that I would have another try at doing something productive with a patch that I feel is actually quite doable compared to the absurdly lofty one I wanted to do with "On the Skulls of Dragons".

EMBARGO OVERVIEW


Embargo is (tentatively) named so because along with calls for "balance" and "change", one of the calling cards of this patch will be excising most foreign elements. Conceptually, it's the polar opposite of Lydyn's Shuushin patch.

I think that the concept not only allows more focus on Ivalice's internal politics and workings, which are rather hazy throughout vanilla, but also conveniently removes three of the most problematic generic classes. Monk, Ninja and Samurai all die because of this, with Oracle being an unfortunate casualty, though I figure that very few people will miss Oracle more than I.

(Chemist is also currently dead, partly because it's problematic as well; like the above, only its skill set, Item, might return. Thief and, technically, Knight are now enemy-only classes. You'll still be able to Steal and Break most things with generics, though.)

With that said, the game will be much the same for Chapter 1, though moderate changes have already been planned. Major changes are planned for Chapters 2 and 4, though the endgame result will likely be familiar. Chapter 3 is a rather...iffy area between the whole Rafa & Malak storyline, so I'm not sure about that; the beginning of Chapter 3 will be changed if I can, though.

Inspiration-wise, beyond the removal of most foreign elements, the patch will take many cues and references from past (and future) Final Fantasy games. It takes the most from Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy XII at present.

EMBARGO CHANGES


While things will constantly change, I can list the things that I've generally planned that more or less are going to happen before jumping into any rather specific details about anything.

1. All elements will generally be a lot more numerous than in vanilla and be more important. All Elemental absorption is resisted at present. (However, I plan to, whenever mechanically feasibly, reduce halving to a .75 resistance and weakness to a 1.5 boost.)

2. Zodiac signs will, on the flip-side, generally be less important. 25% difference will only apply with Best and Worst; 12.5% difference will apply for Good and Bad. However, zodiac sign diversity will be more important--Virgo isn't going to be so damn prevalent throughout the game now, even if it is Altima's/Ultima's sign. This applies to both enemies and allies.

3. Gil won't be thrown at the player (as much as I'd like a "Gil Toss" ability). It will be A LOT more scarce.

4. A lot more abilities, mostly spells, will be learnable via Learn on Hit. Many abilities besides Blue Magick are Learn on Hit Only.

5. The level 4 versions of elemental spells and level 2 versions of most status spells have been replaced.

6. Monsters are buffed to hell with innates in exchange for generally having their stats lowered closer to humans and will now differ more even within families. Monster Skill is dead and monsters will show up at least slightly more in storyline battles now. They won't be able to breed, though.

7. Lucavi are similarly buffed in addition to having been buffed in a more...indirect way. They all have signature attacks and are more like their FFXII selves. Fear/Dread has been overhauled.

8. Berserker replaces Monk, Illusionist replaces Oracle, Paladin replaces Ninja and Acolyte replaces Samurai. Calculator is now Dimensionalist, while Animist (Blue Mage), which Calculator used to be, now takes Thief's spot. Scholar takes Chemist's spot. Squire is overhauled into Soldier; Mediator, Archer and Time Mage have been changed to Orator, Marksman and Temporalist respectively.

9. I generally want characters to do less damage at higher levels, so that damage isn't so OHKO-crazy and there should be less need for revival sandbagging. At the same time, more skill sets will have (expensive) revival options so that it isn't monopolized by just 4 skillsets. At present, no less than 7 human generic classes have definite revival options and 1 or 2 more might get them.

10. Equipment will generally not completely obviate another piece within the same category. Most things will more or less be of use throughout the game.

11. Ninja Swords have, with Greatbows' deaths, become just misc. weapons like how Bags did; all characters can equip Clothing and, as of June 2012, Shields; all accessories generally give some type of evasion; magic Guns are dead at present and the other Guns aren't usable by generics. Shuriken and Bombs are dead because Throw is (presently) dead. As of the latest update, Chemist Items are currently dead.

12. Status effects interact more and have generally been "buffed". There also many new ones planned--at least five--that have let to some dying like Treasure, Blood Suck & Confusion. Wall and Dark/Evil-Looking now show up in-game as Mist(y) & Curse(d) statuses, respectively, and will stay unless they cause massive AI problems. There are two other key status changes at present: Invite is only available through Train; Silence was changed to Addled, but is now back a more forgiving yet dangerous form of itself in "Silenced".

13. Like other Orator (Mediator) abilities, I've attempted to buff Finger Guard, now called Steel Will, rather significantly. We'll see how that goes.

14. Finally, special characters are getting changed. At least three 3 new ones are planned, with there possibly being at least 3 more.


1. Death Sentence ("Doomed" here) ignores "Cancel: Dead".

2. 46 Undead Oracle is mountable. (Guess what class Boco is replacing.)

3. AI attacks Transparent units.

4. Defending reduces physical damage by 25%.

5. JP scroll glitch fix.

6. Mighty Sword ignores equipment presence and hits monsters.

7. Buying items at Fur Shops cost 1 x normal price.

8. Poison damage from 1/8 * Max HP to 1/4 * Cur HP. (Might be slightly lessened due to likely increase in difficulty of Queklain/Cuchuulain and Balk.)

9. Change Demi and Drain formulas to use CurHP.

10. Performing gains evasion and receives 150% damage from physical attack. (Charging will no longer receive 150% damage, though it will lack evasion.)

11. Undead units ignore Phoenix Down. (Keeping this even if Phoenix Downs don't exist anymore.)

12. Soldier Office can rename any units (including humans and special characters).

13. Oil takes 2x damage from Fire; Blind takes 2x damage from Dark. (I'm still unsure if this works.)


1. Attack UP bonus becomes 25%.

2. Magic(k) Attack UP bonus becomes 25%.

3. Defense UP bonus becomes 25%.

4. Magic(k) Defense UP bonus becomes 25%.

5. Crossbow formula becomes WP*WP.

6. Rod formula becomes MA*WP. (I'll likely keep this one now, even if I don't want magical classes to have formidable weapons like Oracle's being able to OHKO people with Two Hands in vanilla and such. Still, what I've done with Tomes is questionable enough....)

7. Pole/Stick formula becomes PA*WP. (For the exact above reason, this one will likely stay.)

8. Instruments, Tomes (Books) and Cloths become MA*WP. (This may or may not stay. I'm not sure. Cloths are kinda dead now.)


1. Sets the title screens default option from "New Game" to "Continue".

2. Removal of permanent Brave(ry) alternation.

3. Removal of permanent Faith alternation.

4. Spell quotes always pops up. (At least for testing purposes when I start changing a lot of text.)

5. Forces any unit to automatically recover HP/MP when it steps on a crystal. (Given all the Learn on Hit stuff I'm using, I don't see any other choice. I can't just get rid of Crystallized period as I considered given that Treasure/Looted is dead now....)

6. Generic Skillset ability fix.

7. Weapon Guard innate all.

8. Converts Knight Sword formula to PA*WP. (Might go back to use Brave.)

9. Axes & Flail damage becomes (Rdm{0..PA-1}+PA)*WP.

10. Weapon Strike Fix.

11. Global C-EV.

12. (#+1%) chance of Critical Hit.

13. (#+1%) chance of Knockback for Dash/Throw Stone.

14. Selling Items at 1/4 Price.

15. Constant Brave/"Fury"/[Redacted]. (I appear to have lost the code for this again. Oh bother.)


1. Formulas that use (MA+X)% become (MA*2+X)%.

2. Silent Walk becomes Flee - Adds XX move when unit is in critical. (That "XX" will probably be 02, maybe 03 though I'm pretty sure I'm going to kill Move +2.)

3. Haste is 25% Speed bonus. (This might not be necessary, especially since I'm letting Slow go back to 50% Speed penalty for now.)

4. Throw Item Range edit. (Drops down from 4 range to 3 range; keeping this for now even though Throw Item is currently dead.)

5. Support 1/2 spaces below Non-Charge increase/decrease damage/healing done by/to unit by XX/ZZ. (Will probably be 20% and be named Overwhelm & Unyielding like in ARENA.)

6. Units with reaction between Counter and Distribute have front evasion for sides and back. (As in ARENA, this will be named Alertness or Awareness.)

7. Wall does "nothing" and AI attacks units with Wall status. (I think I need this for Mist[y] to not break the game/AI.)

8. Damage Split returns 25% instead of 50%. (Currently a possible "placeholder", but a great one.)

9. Minimum Brave and Maximum Brave for all units. (Just increasing Minimum from 00 to 01.)

10. Minimum Faith and Maximum Faith for all units. (Just increasing Minimum from 00 to 01.)


1. Untruth bug fix. (Since Faith[ful] could stand to actually be, you know, usable.)

2. Work formula can take elemental and status assignments. (Dark Knight suddenly becomes a lot easier to do, even if the AI is rather dumb with these types of abilities....)

3. 0 Gil for Level Bonus after battles.

4. Individual weapon proc percentages.

5. Formula 13 becomes Heal HP (Attacker's Current HP) Hit F_(MA+X)%.

6. Formula 2D becomes (PA + Y)*XX/ZZ*WP.

7. Formula 28 (Steal Exp) becomes (100 - Target Faith)*(MA*Y). (This probably needs to be toned down.)

8. Formula 5E becomes (PA+Y)/2*PA Hit_(1+X). (Unsure of what to use it for still.)

9. Wall becomes "Mist" ("Misty" here) or MP Regen that restores 1/4 of Max MP. (I'll probably want this as 1/8 by time everything is said and done.)

10. Elemental Weakness reduced to 3/2.

11. Formula 11 becomes Damage = Y.

12. Constant Faith. (Even more necessary than the Fury hack, in my eyes.)

13. MP Switch Overflows Damage to HP.

14. Remove Female-Only Equipment. (Probably not necessary since already done manually.


1. Change brave gain by chickened units. (Changed to +5.)

2. Change brave gain by Brave Up. (Similarly changed to +5 for now.)

3. Change faith gain of Face Up. (Similarly changed to +5 for now.)

4. Blind and Confuse overrides concentrate/transparent accuracy bonus and now divides accuracy by 2 (v3).  Will affect monsters and humans equally. (Seems to obviate FFMaster's Blind hack, at least if Blind was to 50% accuracy loss. Haven't decided as to whether this will transfer to Imperiled in Confuse's case.)

5. Guns take bow accuracy penalty at night.

6. Don't Act/Deep Water cancels W/S-EV.  Don't Move cancels C/A-EV. This is only the physical half for now.

7. Abandon sets C-EV to 60% instead of 2x.  Intended to work with Xif's global C-EV hack and the above DM hack.

8. Remove Item Duplication (v1).

9. Defend is +25% to A-EV during Battle. (A "start", but that's more because of what I intend to do with Defend now.)

10.De-hardcoding of Chemist through <Default>.


EMBARGO PLANS


Using spoilers for this because it'll save space.

Let us first look at the job tree:

1. Soldier (Squire) (all generics start as a Soldier).

2. Soldier leads to Fencer (Knight), Marksman (Archer), Orator (Mediator), Wizard and Priest.

3. Marksman (Archer's new name since my original Marksman class is no longer around and this is consistent with 1.3), as the main class, leads to Berserker, which are Axe-toting Monks that I hope will be a lot less overpowered than the class they're replacing.

4. Fencer, as the main class, leads to Paladin, currently a sort of preventative tank, thanks in part to losing much of its healing. It's still trying to find its place, especially now that it comes much earlier (when it used to be the female-only class) and yet still has to be balanced against Agrias's Queensguard class in some aspects.

5. Orator (consistent with PSP), as the main class, leads either to Animist, which can gain certain monster abilities on hit, or to Scholar, which is pretty much support-only class like Chemist, except it can't directly heal but it can actually attack things that aren't Undead.

6. Wizard, as the main class, leads to Geomancer, which is decidedly less physical than vanilla as its more interested in using the elements that Wizard never got around to. All their Geomancy (Elemental) abilities actually having elements now, have been condensed into 6 attacks and are only available through the reaction Gaia Revenge (Counter Flood).

7. Priest, as the main class, leads to Illusionist, a class that has finally found its place as supportive status-based class with a few nasty directly damaging, if conditional, skills.

8. Berserker, as the main class, leads to Dragoon, which is just a renamed Lancer due Jump's uniqueness being unable to be replicated at present.

9. Paladin, as the main class, leads to Acolyte, the primary anti-magic class in the game now.

10. Geomancer, as the main class, now leads to the "newest" class, Dimensionalist, which basically took all of Vanilla Time Mage's damaging abilities & offensive statuses, invented some more and teleported ran off.

11. Illusionist, as the main class, now leads to the "newest" Temporalist (Time Mage), which like Illusionist and Acolyte is trying to pick up Oracle's lost slack when it comes to inflicting status on people. It's arguable more supportive/"toothless" than Scholar, though the two damaging abilities has aren't to be trifled with.

12. Mime is much easier to open as it is now the opposite of Summoner, which has become a lot like its FFV and FFX selves when it comes to gaining half of its Summon Magick through "trials"; Mime used to be opposite Animist. Mime thus no longer is the end-all, be-all class that only really gets used for stats grinding and, maybe, for completely obviating Oracle by giving negative statuses the finger ala 1.3. Presently, Mime can't mimic Summon Magick, Bardic Song or Battle Dance because of this; it can mimic Blue Magick now though.

13. Bard and Dancer round out the class by remaining as the sex-separated classes. Bard will actually focus on magick, MA and support now, while Dancer will still support somewhat, but be aggressive about and focus on PA & physical ability.


Next is a list of RSMs removed from generics. I'm still unsure about ALMA, but I hope I can "save" more than just Finger Guard without it. At present, all classes have about three RSMs on average outside of Bard & Dancer, which share the same five.


1. Blade Grasp.

2. Gained JP UP.

3. Move +2.

4. Move +3.

5. Teleport.

6. Move-Get Jp.

7. Gilgame Heart (in terms of getting money they aren't supposed to & being readily abusable while being completely worthless to the AI).



1. Ignore Height.

2. Jump +1.

3. Jump +2.

4. Move in Water

5. Move on Lava.

6. Weapon Guard. (Now innate on everyone.)

7. Catch.

8. Equip Shield. (Now innate on everyone.)

9. Auto Potion. (Currently no such thing as Items.)

10. Throw Item. (Currently no such thing as Items.)


Let's talk about monsters, the Lucavi and their potential changes. Since Lucavi are the game's bosses, I don't want to give too much away:

1. All monster families at least one elemental weakness and one elemental resistances; some have two of one or both, though those are usually are the ones that have two Absorbs. Speaking of Absorb, of the 48 normal monsters, 40 absorb an element, with each element being absorbed by at least 5 different monsters. The only immunities to element of Earth, which occur for the few Always: Floating monsters (read: Bombs & Floating Eye).

2. All monsters will have their stats decreased to help balance Animist (Blue Mage), though they should all be better than Animist with the ability that Animists take from them, at least in most instances.

3. To make up for the above, most monsters have four (or more) innates and some number of status immunity as well as possible starting status or even innate status.

4. Chocobos have changed a bit beyond being loaded with innates. They've arguably gotten at least a bit weaker between gaining an elemental weakness, possibly losing Choco Meteor (to Boco) and generally having to compete with a suped-up, actually special Boco. They did, however, gain some differing resistances and all have some innates that Boco doesn't have.

5. Goblins are monster pugilists now. The closest thing that game will see to generic Monks, though with recent changes, they're more like monster Soldiers. (They still don't have Martial Arts, though; least at present.)

6. Bombs are possibly still overpowered between new resistances both status-wise and element-wise and new abilities, which make use of the fixed Oil status. They probably won't show up early game because they'd kick your ass rather effortlessly, especially with the Gil issue.

7. Panthers are speedy, status-based bastards who have effectively killed off the need for Ignore Height with their absurd Jump stat and show you why most big cats don't hunt in "packs".

8. Flying Eyes are basically the Acolyte of monsters when it comes to being anti-magic...or should be according to plot. At present, they're just focused on direct-status gazes.

9. Aevises are, like Bombs, possibly still overpowered at present between their range and unavoidable signature moves. However, they'll be on the slower end of monster families now.

10. Treefolk are still guardians of the forest, though at present they can actually kick your ass rather than just being lumber fodder even if they are still largely clerical units.

11. Bull Demons were originally like Skeletons something of a failure, though I've managed to "salvage" them by having them be more than brute-force. They're now more like monster Orators...that can cave your head in. This should make something I'm going to do in Chapter 3 more interesting....

12. Malboros are still fouled-mouth tanks that you don't want to get close to, though you won't have much choice now; Animist at least gets rewarded for it, though. The Ochu is something of an experimental narcoleptic tank, though, to prove a reprise from the onslaught of halitosis; it might even lose access to Bad Breath eventually, even if Bad Breath isn't going be a potential auto-Game Over--multi-target, instant Petrified is dumb.

14. Behemoths are, comparatively, cursed tanks that bring elemental disaster like Absol from Pokemon. They need more Draco Meteor, though.

15. Given my plans for Dragon type creatures and the likely absence of Reis, all three generic Dragon creatures are quite varied at present, being threats on both physical and magical fronts.


1. Uribos were initially replaced replaced by Lamias, half-snake women-looking monsters who use lust and other emotions to beguile their prey. Uribos are pretty much entirely excised from the game by this point, though their sprites are...well, see below.

2. Hydras will likely be getting combined into one monster or two monsters--one of them at least being Tiamat--since getting replaced by Tonberries, knife-wielding stalkers of the dark who creep slowly towards their doomed, immobilized victims.

3. Wolves join the fray as the first newest replacement after the Undead and Squid defection. They are planned to be the weakest of the newest monsters and thus appear early on since they appear in large numbers, meaning they're mostly going to be stuck with single-target attacks. They're going to be rather quick, though.

4. Flans join the fray as the second newest replacement. These overachieving desserts are basically the sturdy monster version of Wizard now that Skeletons are special monsters; oddly, they arguably still have more in common with Dragons at present, which has led to some design conflict.... (They will currently be represented by Tortoise sprites.)

3. Cactuars join the fray as third and last of newest replacements. These spiny little bandits will likely retain their crowns as the most evasive monsters in FF's lore. Be grateful that they'll mostly be restricted to deserts. Mostly. (They will currently be represented by Uribo sprites.)



1. Byblos and Apanda Demons will likely be merged into one class, though Byblos might still show up as a named boss; I'll probably use the appropriate name of "Reaver" overall.

2. Archaic Demons and Ultima Demons will no longer be merged into one class as originally planned.

3. Steel Giant, like everything, is still in the process of being changed. It's become even more tanky to make up for losing most of its elemental immunities.

4. Holy Dragon class will most likely still be used even though I'm planning to most likely get rid of Reis (and/or Beowulf).

5. Boco has become a special Chocobo, though I'm not sure whether to make him a White one like everyone else or use a Red palette since I've replaced the Red ones with (light) Blue Chocobos.

6. Illithids (the "correct" name for Squidlarkin) are the first "new" Special monster. These mental monsters who are quite hardy because of their deep-sea capabilities, though they're still frail up-close. At present, I'm still unsure if I might combine them all into one special-type monster, though I've at least decided on the special issue given something I wanted to do in Chapter 4.

7. Skeletons are the second "new" Special monster given that they are supposed to be more human-esque and are now the magicians of the monsters. They also will get back up if you drag the battle on long enough.

8. Ghosts are the third and last "new" Special monster since they have also become more human-esque, though they're less decided than Skeletons in that department. They remain hard to-hit and even harder to put to rest because they will get back up if you drag the battle on long enough, but they'll have the lowest HP of all monsters because of this.


1. All fights against them will be rather different outside of maybe Hashmal(um) and Altima/Ultima. Let's just say there's a balance reason they're going to generally have lower stats beyond planning to have everything do lower damage....

2. Relatedly, all Lucavi will have their genders be uniformly "Monster" and not randomly be that or male or whatever. There's a couple of reasons for this that I won't be getting into just yet.

3. They will generally be slightly more susceptible to status, though you may pay dearly for inflicting certain status on them....

4. All Fear abilities are now no longer just basic 100% guaranteed to hit if they're not prevented and they will cost MP now. However, in exchange for this, they will generally destroy you even worse now if they hit; they are still instant presently. I should point out here they are part of my attempt to buff Finger Guard, now called Steel Will: Steel Will/Finger Guard weakens all Fear abilities.

5. Fear will no longer have its own skill sets--ugh, there are so many wasted skill sets, it's absurd--and Lucavi will generally have much more skills available to them.

6. In addition to being more like their FFXII selves and the other numerous changes, they will be using their FFXII names, sans maybe Altima; I feel "Ultima" as a name and both a spell could create confusion, even if the shared name makes sense here.

7. Not much else I can say that won't spoil my plans, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt much to tell you that Velius/Belias and Queklain/Cuchuulain are going to have sub-par Speed (for) now, with Belias planned on being the slowest of the bunch as well as possibly being able to be Slowed. It won't help you.

8. Given what I plan to do with the story, including with Elidibis and another NPC, it's quite likely that you will face up to an additional two Lucavi in-game outside of Deep Dungeon. At least one of them is definitely going to be a mandatory, in-story battle if I make the change.


With that said, all that's left is special character changes. I'll include Deep Dungeon here just because:


1. At present, I'm considering reducing the special character space to 12 characters so that the player can keep 4 generics if they want. I'm not sure about that, but personally it's always been something that's annoyed me since I tend not to use special characters that much outside of vanilla. The recent 20-character allotment hasn't swayed me to bring back special characters either.

2. I still want special characters to be better than generics, but I don't want them to blow generics away, at least by a large, obviating margin.

3. Additionally, I'm going to try to have more magically-based specials this time around, just because I've always found swords rather boring and, outside of the unreliable Wonder Twins, Reis (somewhat), and arguably Byblos, every single special character is physically based. Beowulf I'd argue is more in the middle since even though his skillset is entirely MA-based sans Shock, he still needs a freaking sword to do them. At least two of the already selected replacement special characters will be magicians.

4. Ramza: I've been rather annoyed trying to think up his new set given the complete overhaul to Soldier and the lack of room for any more moves in it. I think I've decided on a viable route rather recently, though.

5. Roderick (Rad): Ah, yes, the first of three "special characters" you get before Agrias and Mustadio who are just glorified generics. First and for most, Rad's name is being changed to Rod(erick) because the "correct" name of "Ladd" is stupid. Rod will not only be getting his own unique class (Red Mage), but he will be a lot more pivotal to Chapter 2 and actually have his own personality rather than just being "there".

6. Alicia & Lavian: The other two generic special characters aren't as lucky as Rad to understate things. I've already decided on their replacements, though they aren't entirely removed from the game....

7. Boco: As aforementioned, he will be made into a special Chocobo, which means that at least the first fight against Wiegraf will likely be a bit more difficult. Alternatively, he might not join you in Araguay Forest and instead be replaced by Alicia's replacement there, though she might not join you there either.

8. Agrias: Still around. As also aforementioned, she needs to be balanced against Paladin and vice versa, which is rather annoying even though Paladin's skillset is less all over the place than it used to be.

9. Mustadio: He is getting an entirely new skillset given that Marksman now has his abilities of Aim: Leg & Aim: Arm and Acolyte has Seal Evil.

10. Rafa & Malak: They will have a completely different moveset now, which they currently share for the most part. They need something to differentiate them without being as overpowered as their 1.3 counterparts, though they'll be more useful than the vanilla versions of themselves.

11. Orlandu: Rather recently, I've humored perhaps killing him off, but for now he'll live since I don't want to change too wildly from the main game and Delita sparing Orlandu is one of the (few) things that proves that the Once and Future King hasn't become a complete bastard after Teta's death.

12. Meliadoul: I haven't any plans for her beyond "must be able to hit monsters". I'm still too busy trying to think about how to make Zalera really dangerous without verging into 1.3 or invincible territory. She has seen some change, though how takes is largely still dependent on how her father, Agrias and Orlandu develop.

13. Beowulf: I'm currently waffling on whether I want to get rid of Beowulf completely or not. He has three potential replacement characters already lined up, but at the same time I sort of like the idea of exploring Beowulf as a broken man because he wasn't able to save Reis this time around.

14. Reis: She too likely is beyond saving, though she might still show up as an enemy. Please deal. If she shows up as an ally, then it is Beowulf who will likely be beyond saving.

15. Worker 8: As aforementioned, he will be more tanky at the cost of being more elementally vulnerable and more specialized. Thanks goes to Panda_Tar for the idea.

16. Cloud: I've already decided on a replacement for him, which is definite now that Blue is no longer a candidate.

17. Byblos: He/it is similarly gone, with no decided replacement at present. Even if Byblos does get a replacement, you'll get your last special character well before you ever reach END and probably before you (can) even open the Deep Dungeon.

18. Deep Dungeon: It is more of intended to be a den of bosses from previous Final Fantasy games than strictly uber teams. It won't be as difficult as 1.3, though the things I've planned (if I still have the space) will generally kick your ass the around first couple of times and still be challenging enough afterwards I would hope. There will still be teams, though, given that a bunch of 5 vs. 1 would eventually be boring after all while, even if...heh, almost gave something away. Anyway, Elidibus is no longer the end boss of this place, but instead there now resides another.... Here's a hint: It's not Omega.

19. Elidibus: I intend for him to have a much more active role in the game rather than meditate at the bottom of the Deep Dungeon and then try to kill you for intruding on his solitude. At the very least, he'll be extremely interested in the character slated to be Cloud's replacement and actively show up at around that time of the game, which is before Deep Dungeon. He'll probably be in the shadows before then, though....


EMBARGO MISCELLANY


Okay, we're coming to the end now. Thank you for reading this far. All that's left is a list of potential things that I want to do that I haven't done/begun implementing myself and potential problems I see.

Let's talk about the potential things I want to do first since additional problems might stem from that:


1. I want Brave(ry) and Faith extremes to be detrimental. As such, I want 90-100 Brave and 90-100 Faith to be BAD things, even without permanent Faith and Brave alteration. I plan to try to do this by having those extremes trigger (neutral) status, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing, especially if Brave and Faith can't be made to "tick down" like minimum Brave ticks up. Also, even if I can have things tick down, then that might mean that separate statuses themselves might be tied those extremes and ONLY those extremes, which...isn't good.

2. Similarly, I want Brave and Faith to only be go as low as 01 and not 00. Innocent/Atheism (now "Doubtful") status completely negating most magic is stupid. At least with 01, it would mean that magic can still potentially hit and affect the "atheist", though Doubtful status would probably be better served at 10 Faith now. I'd want minimum Faith to "tick up" below 10 Faith like how Brave currently does.

3. Related to the above, I want to fix that damn glitch that makes it so that the Untruth formula think that 100 Faith is 0 Faith. (It would appear that Pride has already fixed this. Everyone say "thank you" to Pride.)

4. When it comes to statuses causing weakness to a certain element, I'd much rather have negative statuses furthered as negative aspects rather than a detriment be attached to a positive status already doesn't see use like Float(ing). I still might tie some elemental aspect to Floating, though....

5. I want to add a couple more in-story battles and fiddle around with the script quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I've the room. (I still haven't looked. Sigh.)

6. Additionally, want to make use of all skill sets and ability slots, though with changing generic monsters like that, I might have a lot less room than I planned to, though that will affect Deep Dungeon plans more than anything else. (Currently already having space issues. Sigh.)

7. As aforementioned, I want to add at least one other Zodiac battle, especially given that it will take the place of at least one other boss battle thankfully--Chapter 4 is already loaded with boss battles though, so....

8. Speaking of the glut in Chapter 4, I want to make Chapter 3 have more of...everything, somehow. At present, outside of Rafa & Malak and two "you can't leave" gauntlets, it's pretty lacking on both attainable special characters and bosses.

9. Finally, I want to learn how to hack and use ARH and such so I can do most stuff myself. I'm not sure about sprites, though, because I've always sucked at art. Sprites are pretty much the last priority for me as such.


Of course, nothing good can ever last:


1. Balancing this game is going to freaking atrocious between wanting to keep most equipment relevant, wanting to add more elements and have more element interaction, wanting to add more status and have more status interaction, probably allowing for Lucavi to be Demi'd and Life Drain'd, wanting lower speed, wanting lower damage, making it so that magic-users being mid-charged doesn't mean an sure OHKO, changing Silence to Addled and then back to Silenced and other things. It's like...balance itself is an eldritch abomination, but I already knew that.

2. Similarly, having all classes and equipment stay relevant is easier said than done, especially when trying to balance them against special characters.

3. I might still have too many immunities on things (both equipment-wise and class-wise) to the point where, even having made Ribbon one-of, I might have still obviated a lot statuses and elements ultimately. In redoing my equipment around December 2011, I think I've fixed most of these issues, but it still is a potential worry.

4. The elemental thing might have been gone overboard with regards to what has it weapon-wise and directly offensively ability-wise to point where things might be obnoxiously difficult to attack. While I want damage to be lower, I don't want battles to drag on forever or, worse, become Sisyphean. See above in addition to the recent monster elemental simplification in March 2012.

5. Despite all the reuse and consolidation of ability, job and skill set, I might still run out of changeable space, at least for the things I want to do with random battles and DD. That would be...annoying.

6. Finally, there's perhaps the chance that I'm still being too ambitious about this, especially since I want to do it by myself. Even having had such free time (unfortunately), I simply might not actually be capable of such still.


Thank you for your time.

To make navigation easier:


  • Generic Human Classes: Part 1 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140447#msg140447) & Part 2 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140448#msg140448)

  • Status Effects: The only part so far (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140688#msg140688)

  • (Newest) Generic Monster Classes: Now a single new post. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.120)

  • (Current) Generic Stat Growths: Will probably get its own post later. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg177370#msg177370)



03/11/2011 EDIT: Much thanks to RavenofRazgriz for trimming things down initially.

05/21/2011 EDIT: Typos completely eliminated. Some restructuring and clarification.

07/07/2011 EDIT: Excel "Class Tracker Ver. 1" attached.

07/10/2011 EDIT: Fixing of more typos and more restructuring.

09/25/2011 EDIT: Fixed yet more typos and updated some obviated things.

09/27/2011 EDIT: Added navigation given how messy this thread is. Might run out of room soon.

10/14/2011 EDIT: Added another redacted spread sheet to show horrible my weapons where.

12/03/2011 EDIT: Added redacted spread sheet of all old/initial equipment to show horrible that was.

03/18/2012 EDIT: Redid entire beginning to make note of changes to generics, both human and monster.

04/30/2012 EDIT: Linked to the new monster list that is one part rather than two, as here with Part 1 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg141973#msg141973) & Part 2 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg156257#msg156257). Similarly edited a few other things like monster and job order and updated some other misc. things like special plans.

07/08/2012-07/09/2012 EDIT: Updated everything, though mostly class and ASM stuff. Then added "stat" after a bit of failure on the 9th.

04/21/2013 EDIT: Finally updated monsters, again, from this post. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.100#msg172891) Now let's do some actual work next time.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 21, 2011, 09:01:38 pm
Your hints are hintier than hinted hints.

Good to see you finally motivated enough to get something out there, my friend.  I'm putting that equipment list back on query of things to do ASAP, since I've finally got the most important thing on it nearly finished and decided to allow the other two to overlap a lot for various reasons.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 21, 2011, 11:08:06 pm
I fixed some typos and decided to manually enumerate everything after Eternal pointed out that there wasn't space enough. The list function on this new forum is pretty...meh.

I'm not going to complain about that, though.

(Bold EDIT: There might still be too much use of bold, though, so anyone feel free to let me know. Beyond that, the Job Tree part is still quite a bit messier than I would like, but I'll let it stay that way until I actually post more specific class information. I hope I can do that by the end of this weekend.)

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on February 21, 2011, 09:01:38 pm
Your hints are hintier than hinted hints.

Good to see you finally motivated enough to get something out there, my friend.  I'm putting that equipment list back on query of things to do ASAP, since I've finally got the most important thing on it nearly finished and decided to allow the other two to overlap a lot for various reasons.


I could do a bigger hint, but technically it might just confuse people more unless I just gave it away. As such, I'm being comfortable being vague as shit. I do that--outside of being an asshole--because I hope it really pays off given the character seemed well received enough given the game in which said character appeared as the final hidden boss. (Yay, it's a coherent sentence now.)

Thanks for the support, though.

As far as looking at the equipment list, like I said, it's no rush. Let me at least send you a new version of it that isn't typo'd to Hell and back. Said version might actually have more redone WPs and no Ammo at all depending.

TOO LONG EDIT (II): I still find hilarious that I hit the word limit in the original post before Raven stepped in around March. Despite now editing this edit from three months ago, I've decided to leave what was excised from the original post untouched--for now--below even though it's outdated--it was originally (and pointlessly) in quotations before of RavenofRazgriz asked me to remove them in March:


Finally, we can now get to the miscellaneous things.

EMBARGO MISCELLANY


Okay, we're coming to the end now. Thank you for reading this far (even if you skipped over some things). All that's left is a list of potential things that I want to do (myself) that I haven't done/begun implementing myself and potential problems I see. I'm not going to post all the things I've seen between this being off the top of my head and the fact that such a thing would both give away somethings as well be incredibly boring. (Well, even more so.)

Also, for now I'll leave out lists of specifics, because I do have an equipment list [as RavenofRazgriz can attest] and abilities list already generated.

Let's talk about the potential things I want to do first since additional problems might stem from that:


1. I want Brave and Faith extremes to detrimental. As such, I want 100 Brave and 100 Faith to be BAD things, even without permanent Faith and Brave alternation. I plan to try to do this by having those extremes trigger status, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing when Brave and Faith won't "tick down" like minimum Brave will. Also, even if I can have things get ticked down, then that might mean that separate statuses themselves might be tied those extremes and usable, which...isn't good. I guess if Wall goes belly-up idea-wise I can use that for...something.

2. Similarly, I want Brave and Faith to only be go as low as 01 and not 00. Like turning Lucavi into monsters, this might seem weird and like it should be of too minimal interest to mention. However, it's quite important given the way that Faith currently works (and probably will still work, at least for a while): Atheist/Innocent/Apostate status completely negating most magic is stupid. At least with 01, it would mean that magic can still potentially hit and affect the "atheist".

3. Related to the above, I want to fix that damn glitch that makes it so that Untruth spells think that 100 Faith is 0 Faith, which completely obviates part of the point of Faith in the first place. Given the slight nerf I gave to Faith (given how early you get it and what skill set it's a part of now), I want to fix this even more now.

4. When it comes to statuses causing weakness to a certain element, I'd much rather have Don't Move be furthered as a negative status than a negative aspect be attached to Float; it would further make Don't Move and Float the opposites that I've intended them to be.

5. I want to add a couple of more in-story battles and fiddle around with the script quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I've the room.

6. Additionally, want to make use of all skill sets, though with changing generic monsters like that, I might have a lot less than I planned to.

7. As aforementioned, I want to add at least one other Zodiac battle, especially given that it will take the place of at least one other boss battle thankfully--Chapter 4 is already loaded with boss battles, so....

8. Speaking of the glut in Chapter 4, I want to make Chapter 3 have more of...everything, somehow. At present, outside of Rafa & Malak and some gauntlets, it's pretty lacking on both attainable special characters and bosses.

9. I've considered wanting weaknesses to only do 1.5 damage rather than straight double damage.

10. Finally, I want to learn how to hack and use ARH and such so I can do most the stuff myself. I'm not sure about sprites, though, because I've always sucked at art. Sprites are pretty much the last priority to me as such.


Of course, nothing good can ever last:


1. Balancing this game is going to freaking atrocious between wanting to keep most equipment relevant (much easier said than done, especially when it comes to weapons), wanting to add more elements and have more element interaction, wanting to add more status and have more status interaction, probably allowing for Lucavi to be Demi'd and Life Drain'd (though Life Drain might just die/be removed from player use), wanting lower speed, wanting lower damage, making it so that magic-users being mid-charged doesn't mean much, changing Silence to Addle and other things. It's like...balance itself is an eldritch abomination.

2. Similarly, having all classes stay relevant is easier said than done, especially when trying to balance them against special characters.

3. I might have too many immunities on things (both equipment-wise and class-wise) to the point where, even having made Ribbon one-of (I was just going to completely kill it), I might have still obviated a lot statuses.

4. The elemental thing might have been gone overboard with regards to what has it weapon-wise and directly offensively ability-wise to point where things might be obnoxiously difficult to attack. While I want damage to be lower, I don't want battles to drag on forever or, worse, become Sisyphean.

5. Despite all the reuse of ability-space (and reinstatement of Jump as well as still using Draw Out and Elemental, Item, Throw) and no longer having the foolish desire to attempt to give every generic class 14+ abilities, I might still run out of changeable ability space, at least for the things I want to do with random battles and DD. That would be...annoying.

6. Finally, there's perhaps the chance that I'm still being too ambitious about this, especially since I want to do it by myself. Even having had such free time (unfortunately), I simply might not actually be capable of such still.



With all that said, I'm still trying to give myself a deadline for at least being done with the most basic changes up to Chapter 2:

1. Midway point/Possibly early release: March 10, 2011. (One-year anniversary of when I started).

2. Strict deadline of at least most basic Chapter 2 changes: March 31, 2011. (More likely date.)


Thank you for your time.


3. Knight, as the main class, leads to Templar, the primary anti-magic class in the game. (Knight has a lot more sword-related skills and what's essentially a lesser Revive with Monks' horrible, horrible death. For people coming off 1.3, I should point out here that these Knights don't have 1.3 Ruins, which have been given to Templar and Paladin.)

4. Archer, as the main class, leads to Marksman, who are at present just renamed Ninja who use Bows and can't equip Two Swords. (Archer has an entirely new skillset; Charge has died.)

5. Mediator, as the main class, leads either to Thief or to Chemist. (It was originally going to lead to Chemist, which led to Thief, but it's the asymmetrical class already, so allowing Thief to open up earlier should be fine. I also feel it makes more sense thematically.)

6. Priest, as the main class, leads to Illusionist, something of an amalgam between Calculator/ARENA's Sage and the "deceased" Oracle class. (Priest is basically a Barrier Maiden now what with having Reflect as well as Protect and Shell now, though it has a couple of status-based offensive options that aren't limited to Undead enemies, at present. Due to an idea given to me indirectly by RavenofRazgriz, Holy is learn on hit only now.)

7. Wizard, as the main class, leads to Geomancer, which is decidedly less physical than before in exchange for still not using MP (since we're still unable to enforce MP costs on them) and all their Elemental abilities actually have elements now. (The elementals have changed and are all drastically different from each other now. Wizards have gained condensed Bio spells [of varying elements of Water, Dark and Earth] and as such have lost Poison & Death, which are just dead at present. They also Frog, which has been given to Time Mage, in exchange for taking something akin to Time Mage's Meteor as a Learn on Hit ability ala FFIX. They have, at present, also gained Life Drain and a Debarrier ability.)

8. Templar, as the main class, leads to Dragoon, which is just a renamed Lancer given that we can't yet use the unique Jump in any other class and that was too much to lose. (It going back to boring old Jump did, however, give me back even more ability space than I already have to still use and many of the abilities that Dragoon was planned to have been given Templar, which desperately needed more physical abilities.)

9. Marksmen, as the main class, leads to Gunner, which is the class mostly likely to die given how focused it is on exactly one weapon--Mythril Gun is the Materia Blade now for all intents and purposes--and how relatively boring it is. (In the increasingly likely event that it dies, Guns will become completely unequippable for generics; whatever replaces it will still be a distant/Archer-esque class, though.)

10. Illusionist, as the main class, leads to Summoner, which has been become a lot like its FFV and FFX self when it comes to gaining half of its Summoner magic. (I suppose I should mention here that Golem is somewhat dead and all of these abilities won't be "one time" only affairs. In fact, at least one of them is going assuredly show up in a non-Zodiac story event now, even if it is all the way in Chapter 4. They have a new Summon--based on an old FFVI one--using an old sprite/animation that I hope fits.)

11. Geomancer, as the main class, leads to Time Mage, which, like Illusionist and Templar, is trying to pick up Oracle's lost slack when it comes to status the hell out of people. (It's much less of a damage dealer now with Demi 2 and Meteor not existing and its Comet-based spells being...iffy. It's arguably more dangerous beyond that now between having an instant-kill spell with set-up and several crippling status spells that hit over wide areas.)


All of these are Razele's.

2. No starting items. (I'd rather learn how to change the starting items than have their be none at all.)

9. Selling items at (Fur) Shops costs 1/4 normal price.

13. Equip Change innate all. (Pretty much definitely no longer using this one, though Soldier and Ramza will have Innate Equip Change at present.)

14. Defend innate all v1.1. (Not use this one either anymore because the AI is too stupid about wasting turns with Defend. Ramza will have Defend innately, though.)

15. Monster Skill innate all. (Given that Monster Skill is pointless now, this is also pointless to use.)

16. Undead units receive 25% max HP damage from Phoenix Down. (This will have to be changed to Undead units just ignoring Phoenix Down due to Zalera and a couple of other things.)

19. Katana chance to break. (I don't really need this anymore either since already know how to have something break 100% of the time like I want.)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 21, 2011, 11:30:03 pm
Alright then.  Send me a new one whenever you're satisfied and I'll look over it when I have some time since my number of commitments is steadily thinning out as I begin finishing things up.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: philsov on February 22, 2011, 10:06:20 am
byah!

1) Cool, I'll wait until it's a bit more indepth before messing with it
2) Fun twist, but JP should be taken into account with them system, imo, or flag a majority of the skills as ally/enemy only.  Otherwise as soon as I learn the spell with one person, he'll teach it to the rest.  Extrapoloate over a large army and I'll have a lot unlocked very quickly.  Unless that's your goal, of course.
3) Cool
4/5) *hi-five*
6) Good spread.  I'm a bit concerned about marksman redundancy with archer, but we'll see what you can pull off first.
7) that sounds familiar!  minus the pally thing, of course.
8) Spreading around revival can prove to be interesting.  I can assume you'll still mix things up with range/vert tol/% HP/etc?  Any plans for an AoE rez or two?
9-end) Can't wait to see.

job tree:

Is Elemental adopting a pure MA (ie, [(MA + Y) / 2] * MA damage formula (akin to its FF5 self)?

QuoteIt's like...balance itself is an eldritch abomination.


Oh, indeed :)

One solution to the midchargey death is simply to remove either or both the 150% damage debuff and the evasion loss debuff currently associated with charging.  iirc FFM has cracked both of those.  In my patch (man, role reversal!) chargers lost the damage debuff but retain the lack of evasion.  Lower speed I can regale you with, and reduced damage isn't too hard to muster -- in general just reduce growths for PA/MA and increase HP growth.  Most of the multipliers and pre-raw stats are fine as-is, imo. 

What makes the so-called "problematic" classes thusly?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 22, 2011, 02:47:47 pm
Thank you for the expressed interest, philsov. I feel that's high praise coming from you. I'll try to live up to it.

Now, I'm going to assume that you're referring to the first list with those numbers given that it's kind of difficult to tell, so please forgive me if my replies don't exactly illuminate anything:

1. Thanks. I just hope that I can make something more of the element stuff beyond "it's super effective!", but I don't think I can do that without turning to one of the programs, which...bugs me. That's just one of the problems beyond potentially overdoing it, though.

2-a. Oh, I'm aware of that. Given the nature of Summons, that's already taken care for all Summon Magic outside of one of the new Summons, which is in direct competition with Titan, which is also now Learn on Hit only at present. So, of 16 Summons, 15 will only affect a specific side and 1 will probably be stronger in exchange for potentially killing any allies in the area. However, that restriction might not be as disadvantageous as I want to given absorb, it being Earth-element and such....

2-b. As for Blue Magic, it's less figured out. I'm technically fine with a lot of skills being able to hit allies that can also hit enemies, though a few probably will be more difficult to get. At present, the only real notable ones will always hit allies and enemies are Choco Cure and Bad Breath. Yes, I'm giving Bad Breath to my Blue Mages; don't worry, it's been nerfed and there's a price for using it if you're not of the Marlboro family. (No, I'm not giving Blue Mages Self-Destruct. That would be stupid given what I want to do.)

3. Wait. Didn't this say something besides "cool"? Assuming I'm not horribly hallucinating (again), to answer the previous question that I thought was there, all Level 4 elementals and all Level 2 status stuff has already been purposed as different abilities for generics, mainly Illusionist; all Bio spells besides the condensed three that Wizard has have similarly already been used up for generics. The only things that haven't been so used are Haste 2, Slow 2 and Demi 2, but that's just because I only decided to nix those like three or four days ago. Haste 2 and Slow 2 will probably replace Illusionist skills so that the original skills of what were used can come back as boss versions with names that are easier to keep track of. Not sure what the hell Demi 2 will become, though. It might not change and just become boss-only.

4/5. Hi-fives are...lame, but it's okay, I'm lamer than lame, so it's still too-cool for me. *hi-fives*

6. Yeah, I'm worried about that too. Marksman's Throw abilities are also problematic because with both SP, WP and movement decreasing, they become even worse, especially since a lot of more equipment has elemental stuff attached to it now and more or less similar weapon power. Increasingly, it seems like they've just retained those abilities because of wanting to keep Catch around; I already feel like I've gotten rid of too many RSMs, even as worthless or broken as a lot of them are. Well that and because, when I started this, we (as in FFH, not as in my other personalities...which I don't have) still thought we couldn't change Ninja's skill set without it going into seizures. Not that I could think of what to give another Archery-based class right now between Archer still being my least favorite Tier 1 class ability-wise, current formulaic restrictions and Gunner's possible replacement.

7. Yeah. I've had those replacements in place for like a year though, so I guess a bunch of people around here think alike or we all just really hate Dancer in addition to realizing that Calculator is obviously broken.

8. Yes, there are differences. At present, Summoner retains its AoE revival (which isn't Learn on Hit because well, yeah) and Minstrel is getting AoE revival, where as Summoner is still distant (it's basically Fairy but nerfed HP-wise as with most revival) and Minstrel's is Self-AoE. Knight's is basically a lesser Monk's Revive, but with 1 or 2 panels of vertical tolerance to compensate; Soldier's is the same technique. Chemist still has the only revival technique that doesn't take MP at present, though Phoenix Downs at present have been further nerfed and will only bring you back to a maximum of 10 HP at best; Throw Range will also be nerfed to a range of 3 now that I know we can do that. Priest's Raise is much the same other than a boost in accuracy to compensate for it costing more and healing less. The same goes for Paladin's revival.

End. As aforementioned, I'll try to live up to it.


As for Elemental, I've considered that, but at present, it just uses the same formula because I still can't attach a CT or a MP cost to it. I've been more trying to mess with what Elemental stuff does, but given that I'm an idiot, I only just realized after starting this back up two weeks how much that will mess with Counter Flood. So, now I'm thinking of just turning into ARENA's Elemental beyond adding element to everything and nerfing Carve Model while boosting the rarer Elemental attacks like Blizzard and Lava Ball. It's just one of the many things I'm still not sure about.

As for Charging, I'm already doing that. I suppose I should note that somewhere above, but I couldn't remember what ASM it was since my ASM list is so old....

As for problem classes, it's probably best if I use spoilers here:

The problem with Gunner is two-fold. The first problem is that it is really boring as a class. It's basically just "pick elemental ammo and shoot"...when I already have a bunch of classes that have a bunch of elemental attacks. I mean, it IS the only generic class besides Blue Mage to get all Element as attacks--actually, Blue Magic might not have Dark, I forget--and all, but the formulas that can be associated with Guns (or, rather, WP*WP) weapons and not break are...fewer than I would like.

Additionally, just the Guns itself is a problem. At present, due it relying entirely ON the Gun, even with getting Weapon Break so late in the game, I still have to give them innate Maintenance to prevent Thieves and Paladins from owning them. Furthermore, since there's only two guns in the game now, of which only one is buyable, and gun uses the Materia Blade boolean that Gunners need, I've ended up with a class that I always need to set in the ENTD and becomes useless if it's picked as a Secondary. Even keeping Equip Gun around (which is honestly wasted as such) doesn't mitigate that.

There's two lesser problems due to the fact that we're still unable to manipulate the store in selling things that normally aren't on sell, so the last two, non-elemental pieces of ammo can't be bought easily, even if I made them poachable and the only Move-Find Item rewards in the entire game. The second minor problem is that any non-Gun based skills I've been thinking about kind of cuts into my design plans for Mustadio's new skill set, so it's just a huge pain in the ass.

I'm thinking about getting rid of guns from generics entirely and just having them be able to be equipped by special characters like Mustadio, Chapter 3 and 4 Ramza, Balk and a few others. It might free Equip Gun for use as well, though what that means when I'd have entirely replace an Archer class when the Archer tree is already pressed for skills is difficult to say.


It's a much simpler problem of having it currently fall into the same trap of Dancer. To open Dancer's spot (like in vanilla), you choose to use a bunch of sub-optimal (if barely) physical classes for your female units only to get the "ultimate physical class that only females can attain"...which has nothing to do with physical abilities at all.

No, this isn't to say that Paladin is completely devoid of PA-based abilities like Dancer (technically) was. It has Weapon Break and an attacks that's much like ARENA's Grand Cross, but always Holy element at present (if you're not using a weapon with another element). However, even with just those two, I feel like it's already eating into Agrias's area and all its other abilities are either magical or Undead-hate, which is becoming magical anyway. So...yeah. It needs more weapon-based skills like Knight and Templar have now, but I'm kind of drawing blanks, especially since I want to do the special characters after I go over all the generics, meaning that I haven't figured out Agrias's actual area yet.


I hope that answers everything. If not, I'll be back in like an hour.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on February 21, 2011, 11:30:03 pm
Alright then.  Send me a new one whenever you're satisfied and I'll look over it when I have some time since my number of commitments is steadily thinning out as I begin finishing things up.


That's good. I'll probably be done with it by time the weekend ends...if I can get enough room back on this computer to get ePsXe (or whatever I was using) working again. Then again, I might just number-crunch the hell out of things.

At the very least, it will not have as many typos in it as it did last time. It was...embarrassing realizing the amount.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: philsov on February 22, 2011, 04:14:01 pm
My #3 response asked what your plans were for the ability slots, if anything, but that was later answered in your OP post and then further with the latest one.

If markmen are retaining throw that should suffice.  So... if biggest difference between marksman and ninja is (lack of) innate two swords and general facelift?  Should suffice, until you fiddle with throw anyways.

QuoteAs for problem classes, it's probably best if I use spoilers here:


nono.  Monk, Ninja, Samurai, and somehow Oracle :).  I mean, I'm half-aware of your viewpoint but it isn't something I'd call problematic about them.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 22, 2011, 04:51:54 pm
Oh, those problematic classes. Well, let's see I can make this concise for once:

1. Monk: We all know that it's broken as hell. The only thing that limits it is something as capricious as verticals, which tends not to matter on most maps, and a vague limitation of proximity, at least if you make Earth Slash avoidable since it was guaranteed to hit in vanilla. Even then, they still have more range than other physical classes, even freaking Archers a lot of the time due to Earth Slash hitting under/through objects; Wave Fist is a lesser, but similar problem.

Outside of Spin Fist, all their skills are similarly pretty buff even before the stupidity that is Martial Arts barges in and beats everyone up. Repeating Fist either does colossal damage or becomes unavoidable if it's to be used at all. Secret Fist allows them to generally take down the few things that they can't already OHKO that aren't bosses and works much better than other death-dealing abilities. Chakra is the only healing move that heals both HP and MP simultaneously and it does it instantly AND to multiple units along with the user. Stigma Magic is instant, free Esuna that multi-targets. Revive is an instant, if lesser, Raise that isn't nearly as iffy on low-Faith units.

Martial Arts just magnifies the problem at least two-fold and since removing it from the game (or, at least, player use outside of maybe Mime innate) would mean having to rework Monks anyway, I figured they can go to hell since I don't care about them and they'd probably still end up being OP. That it has Hamedo (and HP Restore and Move-HP Up) just furthers this.


2. Samurai: This one is more of "Blade Grasp is problematic" then anything else. This isn't to say that Draw Out isn't overpowered. It definitely is. It basically obviates all Faith-based damage magic, especially late game. There's no real reason to have a caster not using Draw Out (or Summon Magic) if you want guaranteed damage without getting your frail face caved in and getting dropped, even in 1.3. That it doesn't even take CT or MP is more insult to injury and that it originally discriminated between ally and enemies is rather absurd. At least Geomancer's Elemental and Counter Flood is limited by terrain and hits allies if you're not careful.

Even with my plans to make magic generally more usable throughout the game, get rid of mid-Charge damage boost stupidity and the ability to make Draw Out M-evadable or hit allies or have katanas always break, Draw Out as instant AoE attacks would still be OP IMO. There's a reason that Gunner is really boring and single target outside of the two ammunition clips that can't be bought in shops and that's because it can't be "trusted" given the limitation and the nature of Draw Out.


3. Ninja: This is was more a case of "innate Two Swords is bad (at least with vanilla's damage) and Throw being based on movement is kind of stupid" than actual brokenness. I was going to get rid of Two Swords, originally, but getting rid of Martial Arts and Concentrate and making sure that Marksman can't equip Two Swords innately anymore (though this means they can't equip it at all...) prevented that. Additionally, Two Swords works on a lot fewer weapons now as does Throw, actually; you can't throw Flails or Knight Swords anymore, for example, though they've been replaced by Rods and Staves.

I might still get rid of Throw since it's just kind of there to give Catch something to do and because I can't think of anything Archer based due to the limitation of Weapon Range and not knowing how to use the ARH yet. (Even then, so far, I only have like five or six abilities that actually need the ARH and one of those is going to Archer anyway.) At present, the whole Archer tree is doomed by a lack of inspiration to get around the limitations of current formulas.


4. Oracle: Like I said, it wasn't a problem, it was a casualty, like Fighter against Sarda. I really liked Oracle and probably used it more than most people--hell, I'm probably the only person on FFH to use Dispel Magic with some regularity (read: seldom as opposed to never).

I mean, sure, it did have Life Drain versus Lucavi, but I'm capping the damage on such spells anyway and Wizard has it now; I'm fine with percentage spells on the Lucavi, though I might get rid of it on Wizard (and for generics) anyway for another ability since Priest might have too strong a status at present. (For the record, Templar has Spell Absorb and rather a decent amount of Oracle's old spells; other classes with Oracle's old spells include Priest, Time Mage and, somewhat, Illusionist.)


I'm hoping that answers everything. I hope that I can get done with going over human generics by tonight so that I can get to monsters given how I just realized I need to fix at least a quarter of them in addition to skill set stuff. After that, special characters and then...stuff.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: philsov on February 23, 2011, 01:45:36 pm
stuff is good.

Speaking of ARH, you can employ it to fix your gunner class.  Rather than cannibalize a lesser weapon class, just change that weapon class to be gunner-friendly and flag its skills as "X weapon class only" instead of "X item only".  This'll allow you to have a spread of weaponry instead of just one.

QuoteI'm fine with percentage spells on the Lucavi


You are including Raz's ASM on the matter (ie, ceiling of 999), right?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 23, 2011, 01:51:45 pm
Yes, I need to update that ASM list desperately. The ceiling probably won't even be as high as 999, even though it's looking like more and more the only percentage spell that the player will actually have access to is Time Mage's Demi/Quarter spell. Lich and Death died strange aeons ago, Demi 2 met a recent demise and Wizard is currently pissing me off because I'm trying to think what would actually be useful for it to have if it loses Life Drain; Life Drain will still be around, it's just that Queklain/Cuchuulain and perhaps that master magician will have it instead of generics.

Also, is there a tutorial for the ARH or something? Because I still have no idea how to use that thing and using the search function doesn't even turn up something that I'm very likely over-looking. It would probably help me finish up human generics if I knew what I could actually do with it since right now I'm running straight into a wall called "Archer path is being an asshole".
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: philsov on February 23, 2011, 01:58:49 pm
no tutorial that I'm aware of.  Seemed pretty intuitive to me, at least until the patching step.  But the spreadsheet itself is fine.

Create the restriction (ie, must be equipped with X weapon class, or be X status, or be X, class, or whatever).  Use that restriction (let's say 02) and then go over into the next sheet and assign 02 to whatever ability should have that restriction.  afaik the text/name sheets allow you to change the names, much like resources, so you can better keep track of stuff you've changed.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 25, 2011, 09:51:48 pm
Quote from: The Damned on February 24, 2011, 08:09:36 pm
Ugh, it took forever just to update the vagueness of the Soldier and Tier 1 classes.

When will I ever learn to be concise? (I should ask the same of my apparent abuse of bold and spoiler.)

I'll try to update the ASM list by tonight too.


Try and fail apparently. Just like how I failed to notice thrice that I had hit the word limit (or left certain "list" functions in).

I really need to be more concise.

Anyway, posts separated for now. ASM list updated, including giving credit to the hackers.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 26, 2011, 05:44:20 pm
You... hit the word limit?

You really do need to go through and trim this baby down then.  I'm sure you can do it, hell, maybe I'll do it in the next couple days if I'm bored since I tend to be that guy who helps everyone write descriptions anyway. 

Soldier is... different, and not the kind of class design I approve of.  (See: the whole Red Mage thing in ASM'd and 1.4.)  In this case it at least serves a purpose in that the unit sampling everything is a flavored apprentice to all, but it's still not something I can endorse.  Also, you should describe the moves this class shares under both this class and the class its borrowing from.  It's annoying to need to go back and forth all the time.

Archer's Aim - Vital's should probably just Separate Inflict Poison and Blind for a net ~75% rate I think.  Death Sentence is really annoying to mess with unless you set it to be 0 or 1 counter.  Is there a reason you're murdering Equip Katana instead of just loading up Equip Crossbow?

I see you took my offhanded suggestion from 1.4 with moving Knight around.  (If you can't tell, I also did the same.)  Lol'd at "ghetto Take Aim" hard for some reason.  You messed your bold up hard here, I think.  Also, leave the -Speed dead.

Mediators, Re: Steal Heart - even Tiamats like them some titty.  For Scream: use a different MA+Y formula for it, since it's not technically meant to follow Talk Skill convention anyway.  I don't see why you'd have Mimic Daravon hit caster if the other's don't, you're not about to talk yourself to sleep.  See: Filibuster.

Priests, Eh.  That Pray spell seems like it could just be Cure 1 itself.  You should probably toss Slumber from Priest to remove the redundancy between them and Mediator altogether.

Wizards. So. Many. Spells.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 26, 2011, 07:18:33 pm
Yeah, I need learn how to be concise. I've gotten slightly better about not going off on tangents as of late, but...yeah.

I'll fix Soldier when I move it from the first post after I finish all the classes tonight. (Yes, I mean it this time.) And, yeah, I don't approve of it either, but it's really there to just fulfill a purpose without being as lazily Red Mage as possible since it will still have some use as a Secondary without obviating either White Magic or Black Magic (or being obviated by either).

The Aim: Vitals thing seems like a fair enough improvement. To be honest, Poison and Death Sentence was only there because Death Sentence is always bundled with Poison in my patch at present since you know how the AI is about Death Sentence.

Knight being based off FFTA Fencer happened in March 2010, well before I was even aware of 1.4. So...no. Just a welcome coincidence since Knight being Sir Breaks Shit is boring, especially if you used the enhanced Maintenance.

Take Aim vs. Featherblow is another thing I'm not proud of.

Mediator's Mimic Daravon hitting the user is just a piss-poor attempt to not have it be abused up-close, though it's not really necessary. (I've seen people talk themselves to sleep with boring stories, though.)

You're perhaps right about Priest. I'm just not sure what the hell Slumber would go to if I take it away from Priest since giving it to Wizard is just the same problem. I might just make it single-target.

Bushido EDIT: Equip Katana is dying because Katana are all dead already, being foreign weapons and all.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 26, 2011, 07:26:02 pm
Quote from: The Damned on February 26, 2011, 07:18:33 pmKnight being based off FFTA Fencer happened last year in March, well before I was even aware of 1.4. So...no. Just a welcome coincidence since Knight being Sir Breaks Shit is boring, especially if you used the enhanced Maintenance.


I meant flipping Knight into the Calculator slot to avoid slowdown.

My Knight is also Sir Breaks Shit technically, I think he's just kinda doomed to that role by everyone.  Mine just also has a habit of breaking peoples' kneecaps like a gangsta and enjoying the fact Maintenance got deleted.

Quote from: The Damned on February 11, 1974, 11:49:51 pmTake Aim vs. Featherblow is another thing I'm not proud of.


You really should merge them into a single Weapon Range skill.

Quote from: The Damned on February 11, 1974, 11:49:51 pm(I've seen people talk themselves to sleep with boring stories, though.)


Maybe if you're 60.

Quote from: The Damned on February 11, 1974, 11:49:51 pmYou're perhaps right about Priest. I'm just not sure what the hell Slumber would go to if I take a way from Priest since giving it to Wizard is just the same problem. I might just make it single-target.


Simple solution: Give it to nobody.  Use the space for something else.  Ability slots can get pretty precious depending on your plans.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 26, 2011, 07:35:43 pm
Well, I suppose that's fair enough, though getting rid of Featherblow means having to think up something else for Knight when I'm already kind of "meh" on ideas for them. Getting rid of Slumber is a much less problem given that at least two or three other classes will have Sleep-inducing abilities.

(Also, don't be ageist.)

Regardless, interesting to know you're getting rid of Maintenance entirely. I wouldn't have guessed, even with how problematic it is. (Or did you just mean that it's not going to be available to generics when you said "deleted"?)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 26, 2011, 07:42:25 pm
I'LL BE AGEIST IF I DAMN WELL WANT TO BE GRRRRR [/sarcasmthatissomehowundetectedovertheinternet]

I mean it's dead, as are most of the protections of the Immortal "status."  I'm going to write over it with something once I know how to disable its code.  All Maintenance does is give the player an easy out to Divine Knights and Knights/Thieves without actually making the game more complex or interesting, so I don't feel bad.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 26, 2011, 07:45:20 pm
Ah, I agree with you there, though given that I'm far inferior to you and FDC when it comes to working with code (though to be honest, I haven't even tried), I'm going the opposite route in much the same way I'm trying with Iron Will/Finger Guard: Give the classes that Maintenance currently obviates things to get around it rather than removing it completely.

I respect your decision, though, and look forward to how it turns out.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on February 28, 2011, 04:24:11 am
Ugh. 13 hours between this and fixing just four classes in FFTPatcher. FML. I'll fix the boundless typos later.

I'm so tired that I'm actually going to double post for once, but here's all the human generic classes.

A Class Of Its Own:


Soldier
Formerly called "Squire" (which is a name reserved for Algus & Chapter 1 Ramza now), Soldiers are those who are trained in the most basic of battle competence. Jacks of all trades and masters of none, a soldier's position is nonetheless most people's starting points for many of Ivalice's basic trades both on and off the battlefield.

Equipment: Daggers, Swords, Axes & Hammers, Rods, Staves, Crossbows, Longbows, Instruments, Tomes, Polearms, Poles, Shields, Toques, Helms, Hats, Armor, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 05 Basic Skill

Innate Abilities: Equip Change - They doubtless will well lose this, though.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Soldier has 15 Active Abilities, though none are truly their own. Given the nature of "their" class, outside of their RSMs, any change in their active abilities is entirely dependent on changes in Tier 1 classes:

1. Dash (from Fencer) - Has been upped in power and I want to up the Knockback to 100%.

2. Revive (from Fencer) - Much the same as Monk's old Revive, except with an added vertical and increased chance to hit in exchange for now having an MP cost; it has returned to be instant.

3. Shield Break (from Fencer) - A replacement both here and in Fencer with Fencer having gotten Shield Break back from Berserker.

4. Blinding Bomb (from Marksman) - Replaces shared Take Aim, which is now dead.

5. Oily Bomb (from Marksman) - Replaces shared Charge, which is now dead.

6. Aim: Leg (from Marksman) - Lifted from Mustadio and uses PA now. Otherwise the same.

7. Converse (from Orator) - The replacement of its third shared skill with Mediator given that Scream is dead now, though that could go to Mediator's Befriend instead.

8. Praise (from Orator) - Will probably stay at +10 Brave/Fury.

9. Preach (from Orator) - Will probably stay at +10 Faith.

10. Fire (from Wizard) - Now the least damaging of three main Black Magic elements, it has the most AoE and the quickest CT/speed with AoE 2.

11. Blizzard (from Wizard) - The closest to vanilla and thus middle of the road in Black Magic damage and having AoE 1. It is the cheapest of the three in terms of MP.

12. Thunder (from Wizard) - Currently the opposite of its initial self in that its the slowest and avoidable in exchange for having the most range and power. Still single-targeting.

13. Cure (from Priest) - AoE of 2 now. Otherwise the same.

14. Protect (from Priest) - Ignores Reflective status now. Otherwise the same.

15. Shell (from Priest) - Ignores Reflective status now. Otherwise the same.

Reaction Abilities: None.

Support Abilities: Soldier has 3 Support abilities.

1. Defend - Still considering making this innate on everyone.

2. Equip Change - Soldier will probably lose this innately. Likely to end up getting removed from the game entirely, at least as a Support.

3. Gained EXP Up - Will stay around for a while, if only because of the Soldier office.

Movement Abilities: Soldier has 1 Movement ability.

Move-Get EXP - Likely to follow Move-Get JP and end up removed from the game completely or, at least, not be its own separate movement.


Those First Stepping Stones:



Fencer
More noble than the mere Soldier (though not of noble enough birth to be an actual Knight), these sons and daughters of Ivalice take up sword, mace, axe and other hardened steel alongside their shields in order to do away with foes in honorable close-combat. They now focus far more on swordplay like the Fencer class of FFTA as opposed to just breaking everything in their path like the brutes of vanilla, though they can still do that pretty well too.

Equipment: Daggers?, Swords, Knightswords, Axes & Hammers, Polearms, Poles, Shields, Helms, Armor, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 07 Blade Work - No longer must be switched with Calculator's Math Skill for that to avoid slowdown for Animist/Blue Magick.

Innate Abilities: None.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Knight has 8 abilities, half of which will focus more on sword-play now as opposed to just breaking things. Lost Blade Dance and got back Shield Break:

1. Dash - Shared with a few other classes, it will be stronger now and unavoidable. The knockback will probably end up being 100%.

2. Revive - Basically Monk's old Revive, except weakened and no longer instance in exchange for having actual vertical reach now. Might become instant at the cost of healing less and costing MP.

3. Shield Break - Since Berserker is now an entirely different beast and all generics can currently equip Shields, this can come much earlier now.

4. Magic Ruin - Taken from Acolyte since Berserker took all Knight's break skills.

5. Debarrier - Taken from Wizard and now back to being the "swordskill" it started out as. Rather changed. Weapon range ability that cuts through Protect and Shell, but takes MP and can't get past Reflective.

6. Checkmate - Somewhat changed as well. Close-range "swordskill" attack that does normal damage and cancels Reflective & Misty now that Reraise is currently "dead".

7. Featherblow - A lesser damage, more accurate attack that has can add Slow since it needs to better than Take Aim as it's close-range only; it is generally more powerful than Take Aim in terms of straight damage. Or, it was, until Take Aim died.

8. Nighthawk - Like Featherblow, it has to be balanced against a certain Marksman ability, in this instance Sonic Boom, though there's additional "pressure" because it's a single-target Wind attack and the only distance attack that Knights have. Its ARH limitations will basically be the exact opposite of Sonic Boom when it comes to weapons.

Reaction Abilities: Fencer has 2 Reaction abilities at present.

1. Cover (Caution) - Might become an Auto-Protect reaction, but then it would go to Priest most likely....

2. Pushback (Counter Tackle) - Not much to say here.

Support Abilities: Fencer has 2 Support abilities at present.

1. Defense UP - Back from Orator after Orator returned Marksman's spot. Reduced to 25%, though that is likely to change. Might go to the Tier 2 Knight path class, Paladin.

2. Equip Sword - Might include Knight's Swords/Knightswords. Not sure of any other changes. Otherwise the same.

Movement Abilities: None.



Marksman
Masters of the perhaps antiquated bow, they are still the primary marksmen of Ivalice even with much advancements and rumors of discovery hidden treasure in Goug. So skilled are Marksmen that they can hit specific parts of a target and disable them without causing much pain.

Equipment: Crossbows, Longbows, Shields, Hats, Clothings, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 08 Marksmanship - This takes the place of Charge and is a <Default> skill set. Selected over "Target" given the coherence I'm trying to go for naming-wise.

Innate Abilities: None.

Status Immunity: None. - Lost immunity to Confused due to the back and forth switching with Orator and the lesser stats that come with leading into Thief & Chemist--well, now Scholar & Animist--because of it.

Active Abilities: Marksman now has 9 Active abilities. Latest causalities, after Cupid, Salve and Aim: Vitals died, are Take Aim & Charge, which died both because they are 'inevitably" redundant and because would have had targeting problems:


1. Blinding Bomb - Lifted from RavenofRazgriz since Aim: Vitals is dead. Three-range, single-target, Direct attempt to add Blind.

2. Oily Bomb - Lifted from RavenofRazgriz since Cupid is dead. Three-range, single-target, Direct attempt to add Oily.

3. Aim: Leg - Lifted from Mustadio and uses PA now. Otherwise the same.

4. Poisonous Bomb - Lifted from RavenofRazgriz since Salve is dead. Three-range, single-target, Direct attempt to add Poisoned.

5. Sonic Boom - Rather changed from before. Now an Auto AoE 1 Wind element attack around the user.

6. Aim: Arm - Lifted from Mustadio and uses PA now. Otherwise the same.

7. Arrow Deluge - An AoE 1 (currently) magickal Water attack that can be used from a distance, but is somewhat random.

8. Helm Break - Got this from Berserker.

9. Armor Break - Got this from Berserker.

Reaction Abilities: Marksman has only 1 Reaction ability.

Arrow Guard - With the increased chance that the few guns in the games won't even be able to be equipped by generics and already took a power and range nerf, this very likely still WON'T affect Guns. It might, though, now that Equip Ranged exists in Embargo

Support Abilities: Marksman has 2 Support abilities.

1. Attack UP - Now that Marksman and its "upgrades", Berserk & Dragoon, are the path of PA unlike Knight, this goes to them. Reduced to 25%, which is likely to change. Might go to the Tier 2 class, Berserker.

2. Equip Ranged (Equip Crossbow) - Allows on to equip Longbows, Crossbows & Guns. Marksman won't be able to use Guns otherwise still, though.

Movement Abilities: Marksman has only 1 Movement ability.

Explore (Move-Find Item) - Still considering to make this innate on Marksman now that Chemist is totally dead and no one has it innately at present.



Orator
Some Soldiers grow weary of battle and instead largely give up arms to help with diplomatic matters or even the non-violent taming of the wild. Do not mistake their reluctance to fight for cowardice as many Orators have a more solid, ironclad will than most common men. They can still fight if pressed, though they rely more on their words to disorient and sway their enemies than the largely hidden or inconspicuous weapons most Orators carry.

Equipment: Daggers, Rods, Staves, Instruments, Tomes, Shields, Toques, Hats, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0F Speechcraft - Funny how I switched from "Oratory Skill" to that now that I'm actually using Orator as the name.

Innate Abilities: Monster Talk.

Status Immunity: Charmed - It might seem a bit overpowering, especially for so early a class, but I feel that it at once allows for me to give them slightly lower stats overall than the four other Tier 1 classes and make up for them inevitably having lower stats anyway.

Active Abilities: Orator has 10 active abilities now that Provoke went to Berserker. It's probably the most stable of the Tier 1 classes, though it may get an 11th skill again. I should note here that the only Speechcraft that can hit its user now is Drone and that's single-targeting now:

1. Befriend - "Invitation" is now temporary and only causes Charm. This would be the unisex Charm to Steal Heart's sexy charm (that somehow works on all manners of beasts, but not the same-sex...)...if Steal Heart was still available to the player.

2. Converse - Just a renamed Persuade at this point, though it has a lowered chance to hit. I have an idea about how to make this less broken than sending CT to 00.

3. Praise - This has dropped to +8 "Brave". It will probably stay there.

4. Undermine/Caution - Just a renamed Threaten. This has dropped to -10 "Brave" again.

5. Preach - This has dropped to at +8 Faith. It will probably there.

6. Reject - Just a renamed Solution. This has dropped to -10 Faith again.

7. Intimidate - Death Sentence's Disabling replacement. Was originally called "Threaten", but I didn't want to create confusion with the vanilla skill.

8. Drone - Just a renamed Mimic Daravon. It's single-target now, though only recently, which is why it can still target the user--I doubt I'll change that just because I find it amusing. Single-target because an instant, no MP, multi-target Sleeping that can't be dodged and only cares about the user's stats is rather dumb, even if Steel Will/Finger Guard should be actually usable now.

10. Refute - One of the newest Orator ability (and now renamed from "Pacify"), it is a necessary cure of Berserk. It also cancels Charmed. It is one of only two things able to either and both, sharing the distinct with Basuna, which can also heal Charmed without damage. Refute, unlike Basuna, doesn't self target anything self-targeting canceling Charmed is BS given the AI always self-targets itself out of Charmed; Basuna, unlike Refute, costs MP. With Confused "dead", now cancels Faithful & Doubtful as well.

11. Mixed Message - Orator's sole directly attacking ability. It has weapon range and a 100% chance of randomly causing one of 9 different statuses akin to any of Orator's other abilities (including vanilla's Death Sentence): Cautious, Silenced, Slowed, Faithful, Doubtful, Charmed, Sleeping, Disabled or Immobilized. It's...a necessary evil to get around Steel Will, though it cost 20 MP, is physical evadeable, lose Berserk, Doomed & Hasted and will probably end up further weakened later.

Reaction Abilities: Orator has 1 Reaction ability now that Gilgame Heart/Reimburse is dead.

Steel Will - A renamed Finger Guard that I hope is much more useful given that it works against much more than just Speechcraft. I still need to make a list for what this blocks.

Support Abilities: Orator has only 2 Support abilities now with Focus [Support] dead.

1. Monster Talk - Necessary evil unlike Monster Skill.

2. Train - The only source of Invite in the game now at present.

Movement Abilities: Orator now has 1 Movement Ability.

Sprint (Move +1) - This might come too early now given that it was all the way in Bard & Dancer territory until 07/08/2012.



Wizard
Despite the name of their destructive arts, Wizards who wield Ivalice's Black Magic can just as soon rain down Heaven's thunderous wrath as cause chilling blades to fall from the sky or generate fiery explosions. They can also generate clouds of poisons and thick patches of oil.

Equipment: Knives, Rods, Tomes, Shields, Toques, Hats, Robes, Clothing, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0B Black Magick - Now with seemingly pretentious "k", as is the fate of all "magicks" since almost no one spoke up.

Innate Abilities: None.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: At present, Wizard has now 13 active abilities (again) like Priest since I loathe asymmetry, though Priest technically was the asymmetric one for a bit when I gave Unction to Wizard after combining all the Bio spells into one Miasma spell...which Wizard now no longer has:

1. Fire - Now the least damaging of three main Black Magic elements, it has the most AoE and the quickest CT/speed with AoE 2.

2. Blizzard - The closest to vanilla and thus middle of the road in Black Magic damage and having AoE 1. It is the cheapest of the three in terms of MP.

3. Thunder - Currently the opposite of its initial self in that its the slowest and avoidable in exchange for having the most range and power. Still single-targeting.

4. Leaf - Say hello to weakest attacking spell in the entire game. It's a necessary "evil", though, given that it's non-elemental. It has AoE 2 and bypasses Reflective status at least, among a few other things....

5. Fira - Stronger version of Fire that's slower & has less range and has a 19% chance to cause Immobilized, but is AoE 1. This remains quickest of second tier.

6. Blizzara - Stronger version of Blizzard that's slower & has less range and has a 19% chance to cause ???. This remains AoE 1 and cheapest in MP cost.

7. Thundara - Stronger version of Bolt that's slower & has less range and has a 19% chance to cause Silenced. This remains AoE 0 and single-target.

8. Unction - Taken from Priest since Wizard can use Oily status a hell of a lot better even I plan for there to be more to it than creating a weakness to Fire. Now AoE 2, this now also bypasses Reflective, but can still be magickally evaded.

9. Firaga - Strongest, slowest generic version of Fire that's currently still the fastest among the third tier, which are all single-target and can't be evaded, though they are subject to Reflective.

10. Blizzaga - Strongest, slowest generic version of Blizzard that's currently still the cheapest in MP among the third tier.

11. Thundaga - Strongest, slowest generic version of Thunder that currently still has the greatest range and power among the third tier.

12. Curse - An AoE 0 Dark element status spell that adds All Cursed to a target. It cannot be magickally evaded at present, only Reflected or Silenced.

13. Flare - Still considering making it Fire-element. It's Learn on Hit Only now, but otherwise it's more or less the same; it's no longer decidedly inferior to Holy, though.

Reaction Abilities: Wizard has 1 Reaction ability.

MP Restore - I still think I've finally decided how to "fix" this. Now I just need to learn how to code it.

Support Abilities: Wizard has 1 Support ability.

Magick Attack UP - Reduced to 25%, which is likely to change now. Might be moved up to Tier 2 Wizard path class Geomancer.

Movement Abilities: Wizard has 1 Movement ability.

Any Weather - Still kind of sucks, but Wizard is pretty much the only class that can get some use out of it (mostly for Fire spells) and it has to be used early to have any potential use at all (outside of on Bombs, hurray), so....



Priest
Those of the Priestly caste follow Saint Ajora's will to heal the world rather than destroy it. Like Orators, Priests tend to passive-aggressively deal with foes in battles while mending and protecting their allies, though woe be unto any of the wretched undead that shambles their paths.

Equipment: Staves, Axes & Hammers?, Tomes, Shields, Toques, Hats, Robes, Clothing, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0A White Magick - Now with seemingly pretentious "k", as is the fate of all "magicks" since almost no one spoke up.

Innate Abilities: None.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Priest has 13 active abilities still. Its skills, once having the illusion of stability, widely fluctuated with in the past month. It has lost Repose, Regen, Unction, Reflect and Might and generally gotten an order overhaul to what it did get to replace those:

1. Cure - An AoE 2 healing spell that now ignores Reflective.

2. Protect - As aforementioned, no longer subject to Reflective status. Has a slightly increased vertical, but otherwise the same.

3. Shell - As aforementioned, no longer subject to Reflective status. Has a slightly  increased vertical, but otherwise the same.

4. Blindna - A single-target, currently direct, short-range healing spell that both restores sight by canceling Blind and some minor HP. This ignores Reflective.

5. Cura - This is back to an AoE 1 ability so as to differ the Cures from each other more.

6. Recharge - Basically Ether's replacement with Items currently dead. It restores 30 MP at the cost of 20 MP and being unable to hit the user.

7. Poisona - A single-target, slightly-more-ranged-than-Blindna, not-Direct healing spell that cures Poison and any initial Poisoning damage. This is the last White Magick spell to ignore Reflective.

8. Curaga - Still a single-target healing spell that heals for a large amount.

9. Arise - A renamed Raise 2 that's still only single-target. Having it gotten it back from Paladin months ago, it was reduced from that silly 100% to a mere 50%. However, I've now decided to let it restore 66% HP, but that's as high as I'm willing to go; it will still be rather slow and costly too.

10. Bless - A single-target add All Blessed ability.

11. Esuna - An AoE 1 healing spell that has been significantly changed for the second time in the past few months as to what it heals. It now cures Blind, Poisoned, Doubtful, Disabled & Sleep and only those five statuses, down from an already lessened six. The rest will force Priest either to get creative or to look outside White Magick to cure them (if they can be cured at all).

12. Charm - An AoE 0 add All Charmed spell that's honestly still kinda iffy, especially since Befriend is right next to it Tier-wise; this has Range 5, goes off Faith, generally is more likely to hit (for "normal" Faith) and ignores Steel Will, though. You don't want to know how many times I went back and forth between giving Priest this or letting it keep Repose (or letting it keep both).

13. Holy - I've decided that this will be Learn on Hit Only now. Besides that and being weaker & quicker than its vanilla counterpart at present and eschewing counters, it's otherwise the same; no longer obviates Flare as it did in vanilla. (See Miscellany.)

Reaction Abilities: Priest only has 1 Reaction ability now that Regenerator is gone.

Share Blessings (Distribute) - I'd be up for making this activate off of self-healing if we could do it, though that might screw over the AI since it might ultimately be too abusive for players.

Support Abilities: Priest has 1 Support ability.

Magick Def. UP - Reduced to 25%, which is likely to change now. Might be moved up to the Tier 2 Priest path class, Illusionist.

Movement Abilities: Priest has 1 Movement ability.

Any Ground - Somewhat fitting that a pitiful RSM gets used a pity RSM after Priest loses Regenerator. Likely to die.




Paladin
The purest of the soldierly swordsman class, these often celibate heroes travel the land defending others and actively preventing evil and mishap through both force and seemingly gentle yet firm means. (Finally a different intro than its old female-only one talking about Sword Saint and eunuchs.)

Equipment: Daggers?, Swords, Axes & Hammers, Polearms?, Poles?, Shields, Helms, Armor, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 13 Pure Skill - Much better than that "Geass" name I was originally thinking of.

Innate Abilities: None - Used to be Defend.

Starting Status: None - Maybe innate Defend to start, though....

Status Immunity: None - Had Poison immunity way before Chemist, and then gained Charm immunity when Orator lost it, though then Orator promptly got it back when. Used to have Curse and Charm immunity before it lost its spot to Slayer/Vanquisher and became a unisex class.

Active Abilities: Paladin now "only" has 10 active abilities with all the trading and trying to narrow down its focus, especially given its lost Regen, Confusion Song, Cleanse (sort of), Mind Ruin and Cover (active ability). It could probably still use some more physical abilities:


1. Shield Bash - No longer a Spin Fist-esque move, it is instead single-target and has a chance to cause Disabled now. Still requires a Shield, which is hardly asking much now that every generic can equip them, which is why it's now evadeable.

2. Basuna - A close-range-only, single-target healing ability that heals more than Esuna despite the name. It cures Poisoned, Sleeping, Charmed, Oily, Berserk, ??? & Immobilized. Can, unlike Refute, target the self at present. Yes, you can "touch" yourself with Basuna if you really must.

3. Speed Ruin - Its 1.3 range 3, single-target Add All Slow self except with infinite height. Probably nixing said height.

4. Weapon Break - Unchanged and, unlike Steal Weapon, probably not dying, especially since Martial Arts is back. Still needs a better name....

5. Raise - It was going to only resurrect with 25% HP, but at present it will probably remain at 33% HP recovery. Otherwise the same outside of planning to need more MP and maybe hitting a bit less.

6. Power Ruin - Its 1.3 range 3, single-target self except with infinite height and "only" -2 PA. Probably nixing said height.

7. Nurse - Basically Chakra at present, though bound to Rng 1 and using up 6 MP. Will likely change at least a bit later on.

8. Silent Voice - Basically ARENA's Oracle's Silence Song in that it adds All Silenced in AoE 1 and is quite quick.

9. Saint Cross - Same as ARENA's Grand Cross in that it's a range 1, AoE 1 physical attack that can take weapon element, causes Bln and hits the user.

10. Holy Circle - Still a self-AoE 1 Holy-element attack that discriminates.

Reaction Abilities: Paladin has 2 Reaction abilities.

1. Brave Up - I think I've finally thought of a way to ultimately improve it regardless of whether I use the Fury hack initially or not. For now, though, will add +5 Brave.

2. Counter - Taken from Acolyte. Weird how something so plain is rather difficult to balance Counter Tackle and Meatbone Slash against.

Support Abilities: Paladin has 1 new Support ability to replace Equip Shield's becoming useless.

Unyielding - ARENA ability that reduces damage done to and healing done by unit by 20%.

Movement Abilities: None.



Berserker
Wild-eyed men of Ivalice, these fierce and feral creatures are known for theft in the heat of the movement though are not so greedy as even lesser thieves. If it wasn't the power this way of training brought, they would not be tolerated in Ivalice. (I guess 2020 came a bit earlier than I expected if this has a description now.)

Equipment: Daggers, Swords, Maces, Axes & Hammers, Shields, Hats, Clothes and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 09 Frenzy - Takes the places of Monks now instead of Acolytes.

Innate Abilities: None.

Status Immunity: None

Active Abilities: Completely overhauled. They're basically Thief mixed with Viking under the name Berserker with a few FFX-2 influences. They're still dedicated to destroying people, though:


1. Steal Accessory - Guess what it does.

2. Mug - Steal Gil + dmg.

3. Steal Helm - Guess what it does.

4. Steal Shield - Guess what it does.

5. Provoke - Taken from Orator. Adds All Berserk at Range 3, Vertical 3. Unlike most of Speechcraft, this can target the user. One of only 2 Frenzy abilities subject to Silenced.

6. Scream - Auto AoE 1 lesser Dispel that doesn't discriminate, hits the user and cancels Floating, Transparent, Regening, Protected, Shelled, Hasted, Misty & Reflective. Also costs 15 MP, but at least it's instant and can't be evaded. The second of only 2 Frenzy abilities subject to Silenced.

7. Envenom - Physical blow that adds 100% Poisoned or ???. This costs 15 MP

8. Rippler - Currently possibly busted, but eh, its effect is currently a placeholder of sorts. This is a range 3, AoE 0, Direct, Water element physical attack costs 20 MP because it currently adds Imperiled at 100%.

9. Mighty Thunder - A linear range 3 Lightning element  instant magickal attack that costs 10 MP.

10. Slash All/Omnislash - An Auto AoE 2 physical attack that hits everyone in range except for the user. Yes, this doesn't discriminate at all.

Reaction Abilities: Berserker has 1 Reaction ability.

Adrenaline - Renamed Speed Save. It's getting a nerf to use +CT instead of the idiocy that is +Spd.

Support Abilities: Berserker has 2 support ability.

Equip Axe - Taken from Soldier. Still not quite sure what this will include.

Overwhelm - The same as the ARENA support deals out 20% more damage and 20% more healing.

Movement Abilities: None.



Scholar
Although they prefer to toil away in secluded libraries and archives studying Black and White Magick, due to the war that has ravaged Ivalice for these many years, Scholars have more and more been dragged to the battlefield medics, much to the lament of many Scholars themselves. Though able to analyze the weaknesses of their enemies and even defend themselves with Holy and Dark magick if need be, they are still the most frail soldier Ivalice has to offer.

Equipment: Daggers?, Rods, Staves, Tomes, Shields, Toques, Hats, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 06 Lore - I'm actually not satisfied with just Lore.

Innate Abilities: None - They don't have Chemist's innates (at present).

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: Sleeping - Lost Chemist's immunity to Poisoned for what's arguably just as good an immunity.

Active Abilities: Compared to Chemist's 14 ones, Scholar "only" has a mere 8, which 6 of which are entirely new and one of which has been buffed. All pseudo-correspond to an element, but that's not important at present:


1. Wall - Adds All Protected & Shelled to a single target. Ignores Reflective status. ("Earth".)

2. ??? - Adds All ??? to a single (enemy) target. ("Wind".)

3. Cleanse - Despite the name, not nearly as similar to Paladin's old Cleanse. Now an AoE 2 healing spell that cancels ???, Undead, Oily (maybe), Cursed, Silenced & Imperiled. ("Water".)

4. Hold - Inspired by that PSP-only cut scene with Kletian/Cleitenne at Dorter II (?), this adds All Immobilized and Slowed to a single target. ("Lightning".)

5. Undeath - Guess what this adds to a single target. It really needs a better name, but it will probably end up with "Zombify" given Acolyte's Zombify now. Has an experimental nature.... ("Ice".)

6. Libra - Adds All Imperiled to a single target. Currently Direct though, partly because it's the fastest spell and Imperiled is rather strong, even if Libra itself is subject to Reflective like all Lore except for Wall and ???. ("Fire".)

7. Dia - For once, not wholesale ripping from ARENA since while this is single-target and Holy element, it's twice as strong as ARENA's Dia, doesn't trigger counters and doesn't cause Blind.

8. Dark - Single-target Dark element spell that's slightly stronger and slightly faster than Dia, but more expensive and vulnerable to counters.

Reaction Abilities: Scholar appropriately has none.

Support Abilities: Scholar has 2 support abilities.

1. Maintenance - Got this back from Gunner/Arbalist/Reliquarian's spot...forever ago. With Chemist dead, this goes here. Probably going to use Xifanie's hack related to stats here.

2. Equip Magegear (Equip Katana) - This is to allow Rods, Tomes & Instruments to be equipped.

Movement Abilities: Scholar has 1 Movement ability.

Flee - This may switch with Orator since I'm not sure if Move +1 comes too earlier. This technically gives more Move though with Move +2, though only when in Critical at present.



Animist
Curious mages who could be said to study Ivalice's more esoteric magicks with far more hands on approaches. Risking their bodies and often their minds as well, they can learn many attacks from monsters through analysis...if they survive....

Equipment: Daggers, Swords, Rods, Staves, Shields, Toques?, Hats, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0E Blue Magick

Innate Abilities: None - Wasn't going to get Thief's Two Swords, since generic Thief was going to lose that anyway.

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: Imperiled - Technically just the inheriting of the Confused immunity generic Thief had. I'm rather unsure about this given Imperiled's power, but Animists all start "naked", so they might need some help.

Active Abilities: Animist has a full 16 abilities...that you don't get to know about here anymore. The Select button in-game will be kind enough to tell you. Probably.

Reaction Abilities: Animist has 1 Reaction Ability.

Share Pains (Damage Split) - Still a bit worried about this coming so "early" even with the reduction to 25% since Animist is now accessible a lot earlier and still has probably the most HP for a "mage". It doesn't help that AI still can't see Reactions.

Support Abilities: Animist has 2 Support abilities.

1. Brawler (Martial Arts) - This has returned to Embargo and will probably be reduced to 25% even if other things, like the UPs, go back to being higher than that.

2. Secret Hunt - Currently shared with the now non-generic Thief.

Movement Ability: Animist has none, having lost Fly. No way that was coming this early now.



Geomancer
Wizards who have shown sufficient mastery of the more easily manipulated elements begin to able to manipulate the more common but more capricious elements that make up the world. Wizards who start to focus on Wind, Earth & Water are called Geomancers and some become skilled enough to cause Ivalice itself to lash at those who attack them.

Equipment: Rods, Staves, Instruments, Tomes, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 11 Terrain Magick - "Geomancy" is now only accessible through Gaia Revenge.

Innate Abilities: Any Ground, Move on Lava and Walk on Water. - Probably the most buff set of innates for a generic outside of Mime. Likely not changing anytime soon.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Geomancer now has 11 active abilities that are extremely different from its typical abilities, being akin more typical magick:

1. Aero - AoE 2 Wind element spell that is weak and magickally evadeable, but quick and gets around Reflective status.

2. Stone - AoE 1 Earth element spell that is strong and can't be avoided, but can be Reflected.

3. Water - AoE 3 Water element spell that is only slightly weaker than Aero since it hits such a wide area.

4. Leafra - AoE 1 non-elemental spell barely stronger than Stone, but with a trick up its sleaves. (...Sorry.)

5. Aera/Aerora - AoE 1 Wind element spell that can't be Reflected and has a 19% chance of causing Floating.

6. Stonera - AoE 0 Earth element spell that can't be magickally evaded and has a 19% chance of Slowed; I may lower that chance or remove it entirely.

7. Miasma - Poison by a less generic name, though it may go back to that. This is AoE 2 Add All Poisoned now, which no longer does initial (Dark) damage. This currently ignores Reflective, but it might become affected by it again even though it is magickally evaded.

8. Leafga - AoE 0 non-elemental that is barely stronger than Stonera, but it ignores both Reflective and M-EV.

9. Aeroga - AoE 0 Wind element spell that is the only elemental -ga spell to ignore Reflective, but also the only one to still be subject to M-Ev at present.

10. Bio - AoE 0 12% HP damaging ability that adds 100% Poisoned if it hits.

11. Might - Adds +1 PA to any target except the self. I may reverse that and lessen the presently steep MP cost, even though I'll be using Xifanie's limiting hack.

Reaction Abilities: Geomancer now has 2  reaction abilities.

1. Absorb Used MP - Still rather weak, but I'd rather not get rid of another RSM just for weakness at this point. I may now have a solution.

2. Gaia Revenge (Counter Flood) - Since it's a free "magical" reaction now (as opposed to Counter Magic), it reacts purely to directly damaging magical attacks, ignoring everything else (except for the physical attacks that I can't make it ignore unfortunately). It now is the only way to access the now condensed 6 Geomancy abilities (that I'll have to remember to include its in-game description):

- Stormsurge/Plasma: Lightning element that has a very minor chance of Slowed.
- Water Ball: Water element that causes 19% ???.
- Tanglevine: Earth element that causes 19% Oily.
- Icestorm: Ice element that causes 19% Blind.
- Will'o'wisp: Fire element that causes 19% Silenced.
- Wind Slash: Wind element that randomly causes 19% Disabled or Immobilized.

Support Abilities: None.

Movement Abilities: Geomancer only has 1 movement ability now.

Walk on Water - I'm still thinking of taking it away from Geomancer innately, but most movements tend to be so weak as it is.....



Illusionist
Sticking to their principles to (generally) not hurt the living (directly), Priests who become Illusionists create illusions that allow their enemies guilt to do away with them. The arm of guilt is far-reaching, though Illusionists tend to have problems against those who are devoid of guilt or can't even see their illusions....

Equipment: Daggers?, Rods, Staves, Instruments, Tomes, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 10 Illusion Magick - Pretty obvious and it's not like it could keep Yin-Yang Magic. Might change to "Phantasm Magick".

Innate Abilities: Nothing.

Status Immunity: Nothing.

Active Abilities: Illusionist now has 11 active abilities, up from 10, and is now at its most stable after all the changes. It may still lose Vanish, though that's more dependent on what happens to Transparent status as a whole. It lost the Aero spells to Geomancer and Mesmerzing Lights, which just died:


1. Flash - Used to be a slightly stronger Holy-based "Lore" that has a chance of causing Blind & Atheist. Now just causes Blind non-discriminating AoE 2 since Priest's "Umbra" is (long) gone.

2. Cold Flame - A slightly stronger, slightly faster, Ice version of Fire. May seem unnecessary. Perhaps is (now). Can no longer go back to being non-elemental since Leaf now exists and is intentionally, literally, half as strong as Cold Flame.

3. ??? - Adds All ??? in AoE 2.

4. Repose - Adds All Sleeping in AoE 1. Illusionist ultimately got this over Charm because I realized, after I killed Mesmerizing Lights, that they needed something to trigger Night Terror. That and Priest was getting obnoxiously powerful.

5. Proselytize - Renamed Oracle's Pray Faith. Probably still needs to not be able to target self, even though I nerfed Faithful status a bit. (Now if only I could nerf Innocent/Doubtful status as easily.)

6. ??? - Adds All ??? to AoE 0. Cannot self-target.

7. Terrorize - Single target add All Poisoned, Immobilized & Disabled. Still might be a bit OP....

8. Night Terror - Single-target, Dark element spell that cancels Sleeping at the cost of 66% HP. It can only affect the Sleeping.

9. Refresh - Adds All Misty in AoE 1. The only Illusion Magick spell at present to entirely ignore Reflective.

10. Vanish - Single-targeting Transparent-granter that can target the user...for now.

11. Focus - Adds +1 MA to any target except the self. I may reverse that and lessen the presently steep MP cost, even though I'll be using Xifanie's limiting hack.

Reaction Abilities: Illusionist has 3 Reaction abilities.

1. Abandon - Currently adds 60% C-EV rather than its original 100%. Currently still a reaction rather than a support.

2. Faith Up (Face Up) - Unlike Brave Up, this is actually still useful, even if still somewhat weak. Like Bravery Up, I've recently thought of a way to make it even more useful, theoretically. Presently will add +5 Faith.

3. Hide (Sunken State) - I figure that they might as well get this if they're going to keep Vanish (for now) even if it's kinda useless to mages.

Support Abilities: None.

Movement Abilities: None.





Acolyte
Called "witch-hunters" by some, Acolytes and their betters, (Knight) Templars, are warriors of Ivalice who have decided to focus on fighting magic and similar supernatural threats with spells as much as weapon-play. Wherever the might of mages runs rampant, Acolytes and Templars are sure to appear.

Equipment: Swords, Axes & Hammers, Polearms, Poles, Shields, Helms, Armor, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 14 Binding Art - Since Punch Art wouldn't really make sense, though this actually replaces Throw now, so....

Innate Abilites: None. - Lost Martial Arts (now Two Swords) and wouldn't be able to equip it manually even if it still existed for generics. (See above about how this replaces Ninja now).

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Acolyte still has 11 abilities now despite all the change over. They lost Return, Soul Sphere and Rain of Lances, with only Return still existing. Like Paladin, it probably needs more physical attacks still:


1. Rapid Strike - Akin to vanilla Repeating Fist, but with a weapon. This still desperately needs more definition.

2. Impale - A linear AoE of 2 attack. Still likely to be restricted by the ARH somehow. There's still a decent change that this may go to Marksman.

3. Osmose - Acolyte gets its MP Drain back in renamed "Spell Absorb", especially now that Soul Sphere is dead. Technically shared with Thief.

4. Apostatize - Renamed Oracle's "Doubt Faith". I'm still rather hesitant to have it come this early due to Doubtful still screwing over mages.

5. Mind Ruin - Its 1.3 range 3, single-target self except with infinite height and "only" -2 MA. Probably nixing said height.

6. Dispel - Now extremely fast (CT 1) and accurate in addition to being unevadable and cancels Reflective, Cursed, Faithful & Doubtful in addition to all positive statuses except for Hasted.

7. Zombify - Still adds All Undead and Slowed to a single-target, but now physically-based and close-range, so it's likely to be named "Zombie Powder".

8. Blind Rage - Still adds all Berserk & Blind to a single target and still magickal.

9. Seal Evil - I was finally able to devise a solution to Petrified that was at once both threatening and yet didn't completely obviate Always: Undead units who were vulnerable to it. This now adds All Sleeping & Silenced to a single Undead unit.

10. Northern Cross - Same as ARENA's newly proposed Paladin ability in that it's a range 1, AoE 1 physical attack that can take weapon element and doesn't hit the user.

11. Sight Unseeing - A physical, weapon range attack that causes Blind at 100% but can only be used while Blind, it is now physically evadeable, initially Dark element and generally more powerful.

Reaction Abilities: Acolyte has 1 Reaction ability.

Meatbone Slash - Still haven't figured out quite what I was going to do this. Have a feeling that I forgot....

Support Abilities: Acolyte has 2 Support abilities.

1. Equip Armor - Seriously considering having it be independent of Helms. Might trade Dragoon this for Equip Polearms since Dragoon now ends the branch of HP and Acolyte now has Two Hands.

2. Dual Wield (Two Swords) - Rather appropriate that Acolyte got this (back) since it's in Ninja's spot. Will eventually get weakened a bit in damage & accuracy.

Movement Abilities: None.



Dragoon
[Just a renamed Lancer again. I'm sorry, but it's still tough to BS a majestic description for something that still just Jumps, especially after having typed for literally hours straight. Argh....]

Equipment: Swords?, Polearms, Poles, Shields, Helms, Armor, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories. - They have gained Swords and Poles (Sticks), though Swords may still only be for trial purposes of the abilities I made that Require Sword.

Skill Set: 12 Jump - Sigh. As opposed to the planned "Draconic Lance".

Innate Ability: None.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: ...It's just Jump. Just Jump. *cries*

Reaction Abilities: Dragoon no longer has a Reaction ability.

Support Abilities: Dragoon now has 2 Support abilities.

1. Equip Polearms -  Has long since been intended to be Equip Polearms, which would include Poles. I suppose I should point out here that Polearms = Spears for anyone wasn't already sure. Still might trade with Acolyte for Equip Armor. Staves are probably becoming part of this.

2. Two Hands - Needs to be less than 2x boost. 1.5? 1.8? Also needs to be greater than Two Swords arguably.

Movement Abilties: Dragoon has 1 Movement ability.

Jump +3 - Since Jump +1 and Jump +2 are weak and Ignore Height is still inferior to Fly and an actual high Jump stat. As of 07/08/2012, I think I actually have a solution as to how to "fix" that though.



Dimensionalist
Those who further hone their elemental abilities begin to be able to shape even more basic aspects of reality. It is that said master Dimensionalists have abilities that begin to rival those legendary abilities of mythical Holy Stones. (Now comes after Illusionist, not Geomancer.) [Don't feel like differing Dimensionalist's and Temporalist's (old) description at present.]

Equipment: Rods, Staves, Tomes, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 15 Dimension Magick. - Still, an obvious change from "Time Magic" and one that has been used before in FF history.

Innate Abilities: Teleport - Only as a test with Move 1 from way back. It's going to change back to nothing.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Dimensionalist "only" has 10 spells after its split from Time Mage, now officially Temporalist (rather than Dimensionalist). Dimensionalist focuses on spatial spells and they're technically all new:


1. Levitate - Renamed Float; has now been further buffed beyond the buffs that Floating status got, though it's back to being AoE 1.

2. Immobilize - Renamed Don't Move; will become an AoE of 2 for testing purposes.

3. Disable - Renamed Oracle's Paralyze; otherwise the same since making this AoE 2 would be OP. I'm still considering making it single-target, but for now AoE 1.

4. Gravity - Renamed "Demi" cancels Float (only 19% of the time at present) and only shaves 25% off of current HP now; I may yet change the formulas and hacks regarding it, but it's still not Dark element because of that, so it will be usable against the Lucavi. Probably.

5. Reflect - This is back from Priest and basically unchanged from vanilla still.

6. Polymorph - Renamed Frog; otherwise same. I need to remember to test something. Might up its hit rate a bit since Frogged is now canceled upon death.

7. Gravira - Renamed "Demi 2" that also cancels Float only 19% of the time. More importantly, its becomes AoE 0, quicker and cheaper due to  shaving 50% off of "only" current HP.

8. Break - Still iffy about this, but at present it's an Earth element AoE 0 spell that causes 6% damage and, more importantly, 25% Petrified. It is currently unavoidable, though that may change even with Earth element's "focus".

9. Comet - Former Choco Meteor; single-target moderate non-elemental damage; might still get rid of it. Incredibly iffy right now.

10. Doomsday - Renamed Meteor that's returned from Wizard and is Dark-elemental and Learn on Hit only. Still up in the air like Comet, but not as unsure.

Reaction Abilities: Dimensionalist has none.

Support Abilities: Dimensionalist has 1 Support ability.

Half of MP - Will almost certainly only reduce MP by 75% or 80%, but get some other "buff" to make up for that.

Movement Abilities: Dimensionalist has 2 Movement abilities.

1. Fly - Still considering making this unavailable to generics.

2. Self-Levitate - Renamed Float movement. Not as different a name from the renamed Float spell as I would like, but it should work and it's better than "Airwalking" or anything as such.



Temporalist (Time Mage)
Those who further hone their elemental abilities begin to be able to shape even more basic aspects of reality. It is that said master Dimensionalists have abilities that begin to rival those legendary abilities of mythical Holy Stones. (Now comes after Illusionist, not Geomancer.) [Don't feel like differing Dimensionalist's and Temporalist's at present.]

Equipment: Rods, Staves, Tomes, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0C Time Magick.

Innate Abilities: None - Testing Teleport is now Dimensionalist's job.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Temporalist also "only" has 10 abilities after its split with Dimensionalist. Temporalist obviously focuses on the temporal side of Time Mage:

1. Regen - Add All Regening in AoE 1. Taken from Paladin.

2. Bleed - One of Temporalist's two direct attacks, even though its only does 1% damage, it adds 100% Poisoned & ??? in AoE 1. Currently Dark element.

3. Hasten - This is still AoE 2 for testing purposes. Finally decided on a name for this.

4. Slow - This is still AoE 2 for testing purposes.

5. Return - The "necessary" temporal cure spell to Dimensionalist's abilities, it removes Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Slowed, Stopped, Immobilized & Disabled...and Petrified. Yeah. Even as a single-target spell and taken from Acolyte, it's probably still overpowered right now.

6. Undo - Still experimental revival. Still somewhat likely to end up dying, especially since I have enough revival as it is; perhaps too much despite not wanting it to be monopolized again.

7. Quicken - Renamed Quick; otherwise the same...outside of triggering Counter Magick like it did in vanilla.

8. "Stop" - At present, still AoE 1, but it may become AoE 0, especially since I've figured out what I want to do with Stop. (Previously said "see miscellany"; that no longer really applies.)

9. Drain - Hesitantly given, generics now have access to HP Drain, though it's now evadeable and "only" drains 20% of current HP. It may end up Dark element.

9. Doom - Previously Poisoned & Doomed (Death Sentence) to one target. Now still ??? & Doomed to one target, though it may return to Poisoned. Previously named "Countdown", which it may similarly return to. Now Learn on Hit Only.

Reaction Abilities: Temporalist has 2 Reaction ability.

1. Critical Quicken - Renamed Critical Quick; otherwise the same.

2. Regenerator - All the way up here because Regen's a lot stronger than vanilla (at present) and because, well, Temporalist actually has Regen.

Support Abilities: Temporalist has 1 Support ability.

Short Charge - Will possibly end up weaker ...somehow.

Movement Abilities: None




07/14/2011 EDIT: Now updated with the skills in the first version of Class Tracker and the classes of (unisex) Paladin, Berserker and Acolyte/Templar.

09/26/2011 EDIT: Now updated with the latest skills for Orator, Priest, Wizard, Paladin, Illusionist & Acolyte alongside some other various changes, fixing of typos and such.

03/18/2012 EDIT: Finally see and fix the format problems caused by the switch-over to the new forum. Update Marksmen, Orator, Priest, Wizard, Paladin, Berserker, Chemist, Illusionist, Acolyte, Summoner and Dimensionalist. ...Now has proper equipment updates too. Sigh.

04/29/2012 EDIT: Fixed got rid of all those instances of "Maces" as those had been dead for months before my last edit. I also got rid of, sigh, "Greatbows" under Marksmen. I rearranged Summoner's Summon Magick as well as noting here as well that Summoner and Dimensionalist were switched.

07/08/2012-07/09/2012 EDIT: Instead of doing work I should have actually done, I redid all the classes and abilities here, adding Temporalist, Scholar, Animist and "new" Dimensionalist and excising a bunch of other things among other things. Other other things await, like fixing most typos and making sure Shields were on everyone and every instance of Whip was dead on the 9th.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on February 28, 2011, 04:32:37 am
Or, rather, above are 16 classes because the freaking limit kicked again without telling me AFTER I PREVIEWED IT. I'd be pretty livid right now if I hadn't backed this up. As it is, it's still pretty damn annoying that the limit doesn't pop like every other forum I post on. (This should tell you how long-winded I am.)

(And now I am forced to triple post. The shame.)

Here are the four, final complex classes:



Mime
....

Equipment: None.

Skill Set: 18 Mimicry - Slightly changed to make it a noun.

Innate Abilities: Alertness, Counter, Gaia Revenge, Move-HP Up - No longer has both Defense UP and Magic Def. UP together innately since I long realized that's mostly rather pointless. Gaia Revenge is "iffy".

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: ???, Silenced, ???, Oily, Berserk & Poisoned - Mime is no longer immune to almost every negative (and neutral) status under the sun; it hasn't been for months. It's even less immune to things as of 07/08/2012, having lost immunity to Frogged, Undead, Cursed and Blind. It might get Blind back, though not if it gets Concentrate innately. Also, it currently gets to keep immunity to Silenced even though Bard also has that.

Active Abilities: It's Mime. There are none (yet). See Miscellany.

Reaction Abilities: It's Mime...so, as of 07/08/2012, I'm going to experiment to see if it can take any now. Mime now has 2 Reaction Ability.

1. Alertness - Causes C-EV & W-EV of the front to be applied to sides and back as well.

2. Dragon Spirit - Taken from Dragoon, which took it back from Animist (Blue Mage) a while ago since Animist still has Damage Split. Needs to go somewhere since Reraised is likely dying, possibly for good, so this is effectively just a placeholder.

Support Abilities: Mime now has 1 Support Ability.

Concentrate - This is back and it's rather likely that this is going to go to Mime innately over Gaia Revenge. That would prevent it from getting Blind immunity back, though, since Concentrate now being taken out by Blind is the only reason I'm allowing it back.

Movement Abilities: Mime now has 1 Movement ability.

Move-HP Up - This had to go somewhere toward the end and it would make no sense on Summoner, I didn't want to put it on Temporalist and Bard & Dancer already have too many Movements.




Summoner
Priests Wizards Mages who give themselves over and offer themselves up as tools for celestial beings become Summoners. Often, they undergo tests of Faith when trying to contact new beings, though one should be cautioned that they may be Faran and thus infernal.... (Now has the spot of the "ultimate" mage, rather appropriately, instead of coming after Illusionist and then Geomancer.)

Equipment: Rods, Staves, Instruments?, Tomes, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0D Summon Magick - Almost forgot the seemingly pretentious "k".

Innate Abilities: None.

Status Immunity: None.

Active Abilities: Summoner had 16 active abilities, half of which were Learn on Hit Only. It  now it "only" has 13 due to deciding to kill some in effort to both scale down and keep pace with the plot changes and such; 4 Learn on Hit only Summons "died", a new one was created and two old Learn via JP summons are now Learn on Hit only. I'll still separate the two types and for now I'll still keep what the Learn on Hit Only ones do "secret". As of mid-April 2012, these have completely changed around. As of 07/07/2012, they have changed around yet again, I would "hope" for the final time:


1. Titan - Relatively weak Auto-AoE 2, instant Earth element attack Summon that's actually avoidable. (Miscellany for Titan vs. Midgarzolom no longer valid.)

2. Ifrit - AoE 2 Fire element Summon that has a 19% chance of adding Cursed.

3. ??? - (Minor surprise.)

4. Sylph - No longer an attacking summon, this now adds Shelled & Regening to one ally at Rng 6.

5. Seraph(im) - Renamed Fairy; revives AoE 1 at 25% HP, discriminating.

6. ???? - (It's a surprise.)

Learn on Hit ONLY:

1. Carbunkle - This now become Learn on Hit Only, ironically after I finally just decided to forego all the "random" crap to make sure it wasn't obviating (what is now Dimensionalist's) Reflect. So this is still AoE 2.

2. ???? - (Minor surprise.)

3. Leviathan - ????

4. Shiva - ????

5. Ramuh - ????

6. Odin - ????

7. Bahamut - ????


Reaction Abilities: Summoner now has 2 Reaction ability.

1. Counter Magick - Will return all non-positive magic. This is rather likely to die, actually.

2. Mana Shield (MP Switch) - Yes, I am aware that both this and Move-MP Up are on the same set. Considering I'm using Pride's hack that allows overflow damage, even with the larger MP pools, it will likely need that just to be useful (to mages).

Support Abilities: Summoner has none anymore.

Movement Abilities: Summoner has 1 Movement ability.

Move-MP Up - The same as it was before currently for now.



Bard
Free-roaming, Bards traverse Ivalice in an attempt to spread joy and entertainment to the people of the warring nation. Their performances tend to be hard to forget, though one might mistakenly forget their capability in battle. This will often be the last mistake one makes.

Equipment: Daggers, Swords, Rods, Staves, Instruments, Tomes, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes?, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 16 Bardic Song - Since it's back to just being Song.

Innate Abilities: None.

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: Silenced & Disabled (Don't Act) -- Addled is now back to being Silenced, which even more sense for a Bard to be immune to, so it of course stays.

Active Abilities: Bard has 8 active abilities to be symmetric with Dancer's 8 active abilities. Bard focuses on (magical) support, but isn't completely toothless like its vanilla counterpart is when screwing people over with Song. Buffing songs back to being MAP Range:


1. Vox - Currently range 4, AoE-1 cancellation of Disabled & Silenced, it might become single-target only.

2. Shatterchord - An attack originally taken from Orator (though it was only "holding" it for Bard), it is a range-4, Direct multi-attack that is still rather experimental--more so than things....

3. Moogle Dirge - A range 4, AoE 1, discriminating attempt to add Slowed.

4. Angelic Hymn - Now MAP Range All Regening & Misty.

5. Pond's Lullaby - A single-target attempt to turn an unfortunate enemy into a Sleeping Frog via Frog Song; it is currently also resisted by Iron Will, though it has a generous range of 4. Now no longer named "Frog Lullaby", though that may change back.

6. Soul Elegy - Auto-AoE 2, repeating resurrection. The formerly named "Requiem" of Minstrel, it still doesn't Discriminate.

7. Herculean Etude - Back to being the same old +1 PA "Battle Song" for now, though I'm still not sure about stat-affecting abilities in general.

8. Mystic Nocturne - Back to being the same old +1 MA "Magic Song" for now, though I'm still not sure about stat-affecting abilities in general.

Reaction Abilities: Bard has 3 reaction abilities. See Miscellany.

1. PA Save - Renamed A Save. Both Bard and Dancer have this.

2. HP Restore - Apparently forgot to give this to anyone else first time around. Gee, I wonder why.... It's still pretty likely to die unless I can only make it trigger once like it was probably supposed to.

3. MA Save - Both Bard and Dancer have this.

Support Abilities: None.

Movement Abilities: Bard has 2 movement abilities, though they both currently don't technically exist. See Miscellany.

1. Warpath - ARENA's +2 Brave movement. Shared with Dancer.

2. Holy March - ARENA's +2 Faith movement. Shared with Dancer.



Dancer
[Despite being changed back to Dancer, I'll just leave the obvious (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmoU05_Fr5A) inspiration for "Slayer" here and come back to fill this in later still.]

Equipment: Daggers, Swords, Polearms, Poles, Whips, Shields?, Hats, Toques, Clothing, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 17 Battle Dance - Since just "Dance" isn't going to cut it, pun not intended.

Innate Ability: None

Status Immunity: Petrified & Immobilized - Part of the reason that Mime lost both of those, though Minstrel had Immunity to Immobilized because it could Dance, so....

Active Abilities: To stay symmetric with Bard, it has 8 skills; that's actually one more than it had as Slayer and there's definitely more variety than with the "Phantasmal [Whatever]". Slightly more support-based than I would like, but unlike vanilla Dancer, actually has Direct physical attacks. Has (slightly) better named abilities now, three of which are new:


1. Quickstep Jig - Range-3, AoE 1 attempt to add discriminating Hasted.

2. Silence Samba - Rng 2, AoE 1 physical attack that does randomly causes 100% Silenced or Doubtful.

3. Tempt Tango - Rng 6, "strong", physically-based single-target Charmed. The most iffy ability Dancer now has.

4. Brakedance - Close-range, heavily damaging attack that randomly causes 100% Undead or Stopped. Probably going to get slightly weaker.

5. Terpsichore - Single-target cancellation of Petrified & Immobilized. May expand to AoE 1 like Vox.

6. War Flamenco - Back to being the same old -1 PA "Polka Polka" for now, though I'm still not sure about stat-affecting abilities in general.

7. Magickal Masque - Back to being the same old -1 MA "Disillusion" for now, though I'm still not sure about stat-affecting abilities in general.

8. Endless Waltz - Currently the now second highest-restoring resurrection in the game at 50% HP, it also currently costs the most, is close-range only and is repeating, so it might see some cost decreases....

Reaction Abilities: Dancer has 3 Reaction abilities. See Miscellany.

1. PA Save - Renamed A Save. Both Bard and Dancer have this.

2. HP Restore - Apparently forgot to give this to anyone else first time around. Gee, I wonder why.... It's still pretty likely to die unless I can only make it trigger once like it was probably supposed to.

3. MA Save - Both Bard and Dancer have this.

Support Abilities: None.

Movement Abilities: Dancer has 2 Movement abilities, though they both currently don't technically exist. See Miscellany.

1. Warpath - ARENA's +2 Brave movement. Shared with Dancer.

2. Holy March - ARENA's +2 Faith movement. Shared with Dancer.



I'll maybe start on monsters Tuesday. At most today/Monday, I'll probably just look the Equipment list and get it to RavenofRazgriz...maybe. I kind of don't want to type anything for a day.


(05/23/2011 EDIT: Moving the Miscellany section back here since I keep referring to it above. It's been edited for typos, though the information is still old. The only new addition at present is Summoner's last line.

07/09/2012 EDIT: Now part of the "Sentimentality" section of other excised stuff from above that I don't want to copy into my cluttered Word documents right now.)

Given that other classes, namely special ones, also depend on Squire's/Soldier's beginning position, as much as I would like to make all those abilities free so people wouldn't have to re-buy them, I can't. They'll be really cheap, though. Either 5 JP or 10 JP. 15 JP max.

This also the reason why Soldier only has 4 RSMs now instead of its original 6 since I finally realized that pretty much all PC special classes probably need room for at least two different RSMs. That number might decrease to 3 if I deem enough PC special classes need more.


(NO LONGER VALID) The switch between Battle Skill and Math Skill happened because pretty much all Knight's abilities are single target and since Math Skill seems to slow really horribly with multiple-target abilities for some reason. As such, it was pretty necessary to switch Math Skill and Battle Skill for Blue Magic's sake unless you wanted to really admire Blue Magic.


1. Currently the path that's bugging me the most because of both formula limitations--be silent, dear Raven and FDC--and general lack of ideas. As much as I like bows (as seen by adding an entirely new weapon category), there's only so many ways you can shoot the damn things, especially within present formula parameters.

2. Originally had a pure Blinding technique, Blackout, that they mainly because it seems really weird to picture them shooting something in its eye and having it go "gosh, I'm blind now. Darn, guess I'll retreat" rather "ARGHDSAGHAREEHJAFGH!" The lack of damage if you don't use formula 2D, which uses straight weapon damage without any reduction, is one of the formula things that bugs the hell out of me. I guess I could have thought of it earlier as a blinding poison ala vanilla Night Killer rather than just now (if I weren't an idiot). However, I already have another Tier 1 class now with a Blind-inducing ability and Blind kind of needs to be balanced carefully, even if a lot more things prevent or cure it now.


1. With regards to Deflect/Reflect and the "might need change stuff so far", it's largely due to wanting all single status to have the same "inventive" naming scheme instead of being split half and half between "inventive" and "tautological". What I mean by the latter is stuff like the "Protect" spell causing Protect status, the "Shell" spell causing Shell status and the "Haste" spell causing Haste status. Compare this to more inventive things like the "Blind Rage" spell causing Berserk, the "Paralyze" spell causing Don't Act and the "Silence Song" spell causing Silence. While things needn't get as flowerly as PSP seemed to get about Yin-Yang Magic (though some of those names, like Umbra, are excellent), I want things to be consistently named just because I'm a freak like that. I also suppose because it makes some of a tribute to Oracle's "death" (and everyone raiding its corpse) that I also want to do this. I hope it won't be too confusing; there's always the select button to tell you what things do anyway.

2. Originally, I was going to have all White Magic be Holy element, but I realize that this kind of interfered with healing more than I want given that I've also given some equipment Holy halving and absorption. I might change this back, though.

3. With regards to Holy, I was originally, also, going to make a "quicker" Holy named "Pearl" (even though that technically WAS Holy in FFVI) that was a direct and Holy element, but I didn't want to give Priest too much assailing power. This became especially true with them gaining status spells (and my brief consideration to give them Break); they could probably stand to become 6th in MA and 5th in MP, really. At present, for the actual Holy spell, I might make it hit enemy-only or able to hit allies so that one of the replacement characters who will doubtless have it can teach it to you. It will be generally be less powerful, but it will be quicker and cost less MP, so that will make it easier to learn. That might make the AI spam it even more, though....

4. Speaking of White Magic, due to the Life Drain consideration in Wizard (that's coming up), I've been considering giving them something over Umbra or, more likely, Slumber. Probably just another status spell or maybe a magical version of Seal Evil (though Paladin already has two of those at present, so...). Not sure what will happen to them in the likely event now that Life Drain leaves Wizard, though though it won't be total upheaval as it potentially will in for the physical Tier 1 classes at this point.


1. Ugh, where to begin with this. Perhaps the mysterious lack of a Wind elemental in Wizard. Well, it's a combination of two other Tier 1 classes already having Wind-based attacks and Blue Mage, at present, having two alongside with Summoner and Illusionist having one each. So it seemed kind of unnecessary given that all 8 elements were covered in just the Tier 1 classes overall. Besides, I wanted a relatively "cheap" Dark-element spell and no other Tier 1 class could support it, so....

2. Oh, who am I kidding? That "might change" stuff on all over the elemental spells is rather telling. I'm just not sure if I'm overdoing it, especially since AoE and linear stuff probably affects Counter Magic and charging and moving in weird ways. Any thoughts?

3. As far as replacement abilities for Life Drain go, Wizard has five potential abilities off the top of my head: Taking either Priest's Umbra or Slumber, using that Break (Oracle's Petrify) spell that no one is currently using, getting Ultima back as Learn on Hit only (in which case Flare probably WILL become Fire-element or getting a Curse-inducing spell since no class has that (only class that can even inflict Curse at present is Summoner), though I was kind of leaning of giving that to Archer.... Again, any thoughts?


1. Ah, Chemist. Such a far and loathed class subject to my heart, one that, like Monk, I've long considered just getting rid of. Hence all the "see miscellany" things. I hope that my loathing has it made balanced as opposed to overpowered or underpowered. It got Immunity to Poison for the same reason that Mediator got immunity to Charm and Thief is getting a relatively strong innate that I was going to get rid of: specializing in Speed doesn't mean much when Speed is kept from going apeshit all over everything.

2. It would be oh so useful if Items could take X as things other than a whole number. I suppose Hi-Potion will stay 70 for now since X-Potion probably won't end up being much stronger. Auto Potion might keep being able to use X-Potions because of that.

3. The status cure items might go down to curing only 4 statuses and healing 1-100 or 1-150 HP like philsov's status cure items. At present, I've at least realized that Fairy Kiss does something I really don't think I want it to do.


1. Yeah, the Flash thing is kind of weird, but I feel that the Blindness invoking Innocent as well in this case is rather fitting. I'm kind of flip-flopping back and forth whether to have Flash be Holy element or just non-elemental.

2. I caved in and gave them a Vanish ability, but the AI seems like it's going to be so stupid about Transparent that I'm still rather wary. Lots of testing will need to be done just for this.


Geomancer is...problematic. Beyond the moveset limitations (unless you want to completely overhaul everything and get rid of the uniqueness), including the annoying inability to require CT and MP costs, there are a couple of other problems.

1. Formula limitations...that I'm not entirely sure I want to change to more MA-based given that it's free, instant "magic" even if it is dependent on what the hell you're standing on. I guess I could make every single Elemental ability able to be Reflected, but that seems...problematic. For now, I've decided just to use a purely-MA based formula but nerf the power of almost everything and make most Geomancy able to be dodged.

2. Anything "interesting" that can be done probably causes Counter Flood to become more of a liability than an actual counter. My wanting to do Auto-AoE or linear Elemental abilities doesn't seem like it would end well with regards to Counter Flood. As such, I've decided to just go the ARENA route of affixing less serious status to more frequent terrain, affixing more serious status & larger AoE to less frequent terrain nerfing the AoE of a couple of things like Carve Model.

At present, the only "constant" that I'm working on is that everything has to have an element, Elemental will now probably use the Dancing animation ala Mog and that Carve Model can only affect one panel due to Petrify stupidity. Everything else is kind of up in the air at present, including the opponent given that like half of the abilities are now Earth-based (including the more troublesome ones like Sinkhole and Carve Model) and able to dodged normally.

Equipment-wise, I think I might allow them to use Rod and Books, but that's probably all I'd be willing to give them additionally.


1. Confusion Song might just die and I need to actually see if there are any decent formulas for Sight Unseeing beyond 2D, which I've come to hate.

3. Like Priest, Acolyte might have too good a vague distribution at present.


The instant we are able to separate Jump or emulate it without restriction, it is getting its completely new skillset back, especially since Templar now has physical attacks that haven't been pilfered from it.


Titan and Siren might switch places...eventually. At present, I'm having difficulty distinguishing Titan from Midgarzolom utility-wise, which shouldn't be happening. Midgarzolom might just leave again at this rate; it's not like Summoner needs 16 spells.


More and more I'm thinking of getting rid of Wall and just gutting it for something. Maybe after/if I learn to code. At present, Wall status counts as a KO just because the AI apparently ignores it and having units on the field whore Wall...stupid. Since we're talking about it and relates to a status that Dimensionalist has, Frog counts a KO now as well; I'm not sure if it affects the AI's behavior towards Frogged units.

(It would appear that has happened now that Wall is Mist, which still needs its place in the game figured out. Given that Stop is likely staying around now with Blood Suck status having died, Dimensionalist might get another spell should another status I want to try out go through. We'll see how that goes, though.)


1. They're probably not going to get Concentrate or Martial Arts back innately; they'll probably get that damage reducing ability, though that will decrease the damage they can do.... Not sure what I'm going to give them besides, though they're definitely not getting Monster Talk back now--they at least Mimic Mediator again now, though.

2. Speaking (or not) of which, Mimes aren't going to be able to mimic any of the other complex classes at present. I might relax this later.


1. Innate Monster Talk seems like it might be stepping on Mediator's toes, especially since Animist has stronger stats and arguably stronger innate resistances. Similarly, them having Monster Talk is one of the reasons that Mime is unlikely to get it back.

2. Animist's RSMs are a source of vexation and annoyance given that they either will host overpowered ones that monsters have or have the weaker ones that many monsters have, like Regenerator, that will be underwhelming for a human by time Animist is unlocked. They lost Monster Skill as a Support too since it's completely useless now.

I've been considering giving them Counter Magic since it sort of makes the most sense to be there rather Summoner given that Animist is the premiere magical class, able to cast magic so adeptly that it can even cast the "magic" of monsters and it back at them. However, them getting Counter Magic means that Mime would likely lose it as Innate since I want to keep the two as separate as possible, which is the only thing stopping me from doing the switch. Given that Mimes can Mimic magic, it seems weird that they could Counter Magic, though maybe making them utterly physical in their innates isn't exactly a bad thing....


2. Soul Sphere - Basically MP-Demi. Still not really sure about MP-damaging attacks in general, but that's more on monsters to be honest.

10. Rain of Lances - Wind-based AoE attack. Might restrict it to need Spear. Will still be superior with Spears above other weapons even if not.



Animist (Blue Mage)
[Needs a non-Mage name eventually, especially since I told RavenofRazgriz I'd think of one in exchange for "borrowing" Dimensionalist. ...So I instead just borrowed "Animist" from him/FFT:A as much as I don't like the name and as much as it makes me feel like a lazy, thieving bastard.]

Equipment: Daggers, Swords, Rods, Staves, Shields, Hats, Toques, Clothing, Robes, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 07 Blue Magick - Had to switch this with Math Skill, so technically it is a renamed Battle Skill.

Innate Abilities: Monster Talk.

Starting Status: None - Although I'm tempted to give them initial Reraise.

Status Immunity: Dying (Dead) & Doomed (Death Sentence) - Which is why Mime wasn't immune to these even before it became more vulnerable to them; Animist's might become immune to a status other than "Dying" since nothing causes outright Dying right now and it's unlikely that anything ever will beyond, maybe, a few bosses.


Active Abilities: Blue Mage has 16 active abilities, all Learn on Hit Only. They now all secret, though I'll probably give hints if not outright mark them in monster descriptions. Probably.

While I make no promises, the Select button is there for a reason, after all, especially when the game gives you auto-Libra.

Reaction Abilities: Animist has 1 Reaction ability. at present.

Damage Split - Still needs to get nerfed...somehow. I think I've thought of way to at least initially nerf it finally.

Support Abilities: Animist has 1 Support ability.

Unyielding - The same support ability from ARENA.

Movement: Animist has 1 Movement ability.

Fly - Still trumps Ignore Height at present, which unfortunately means Ignore Height must still die since it's still completely useless.


1. Eschew - "Takedown"'s non-physical replacement. It exists mostly because a)Takedown sucked (with the current AI directions) and b)something needed to "cure" Faithful if things "cure" Doubtful". So this cancels currently cancels both. Not sure if it will continue to cancel Doubtful, though.

2. Shield Smash - Renamed Shield Break. Going to be slightly more likely to hit, but otherwise the same. I was briefly debating making it unable to be evaded given what's it aiming for, but then it could be used as a ghetto "Take Aim" with greater power, so that didn't pan out among other reasons. It may remain at its base percentage. Might go to another class just because I'm kinda wary of all the breaks being able to gotten with just two skill sets.

3. Lash Out - Spin Fist with less AoE and no discrimination, but more damage, no (initial) element and no (current) equipment restriction.

4. Head Smash - Renamed Head Break. Going to be slightly more likely to hit, but otherwise the same. It may remain at its base percentage.

5. Envenom - A close-range attack with a chance to Poison. A lot less likely to be confined with the ARH.

6. Armor Smash - Renamed Armor Break. Going to be slightly more likely to hit, but otherwise the same. It may remain at its base percentage.

7. Cripple - A close-range attack with a chance of Don't Act, Don't Move or Slow. Probably confined with the ARH.

8. Last Berserk - Inflicts Regen, Haste, Addle and Berserk to self. Can only be used in Critical.



Chemist
Although they prefer to toil away in secluded laboratories, due to the war that has ravaged Ivalice for these many years, Chemists have more and more become battlefield medics, much to the lament of many Chemists themselves. Preferring to still stay away from action, Chemists use accurate tosses to move their surefire remedies around the battlefield.

Equipment: Daggers, Rods, Staves, Crossbows?, Longbows, Instruments?, Tomes?, Hats, Clothing, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 06 Chemistry - Because Item doesn't keep with the "proper noun title" I'm going for with skill sets most likely (for humans). That and "Item" is extremely generic.

Innate Abilities: Throw Item, Move-Find Item.

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: Poisoned.

Active Abilities: Chemist still has 14 of them, though they've pretty much all received some type of overhaul outside of the lower Potions and Ethers. Let's just say see Miscellany. At present, their latest set of overhauls makes them a lot more powerful than I'm comfortable with, this even though I got rid of the arguably overpowered "X-Potion", "Ultra-Potion", "Stimulant" and "Echo Grass":

1. Potion - Restores 40 HP now.

2. Hi-Potion - Restores 80 HP now.

3. X-Potion - Restores 120 HP now.

4. Ether - Restores 30 MP now.

5. Hi-Ether - Restores 60 MP now.

6. Giant's Drink - ???? Experimental.

7. Hero's Drink - ???? Experimental.

8. Echo Herbs - Formerly "Turtle Shell"; now cancels Confused, Addled & Faithful.

9. Golden Needle - Formerly "Stimulant"; now cancels ??? & Petrified.

10. Phoenix Down - Won't affect Undead; back to healing between 1-20 HP when it raises.

11. Fairy Kiss - Renamed Maiden's Kiss; only Berserk, Frogged, Charmed and Sleeping now, having lost Petrified despite possible hypocrisy given Acolyte's newest technique....

12. Holy Water - This heals Undead, Cursed, Oily, Doubtful and Doomed "only" now since Blood Suck is, well, dead (and loving it).

13. Remedy - This only heals ???, Blind & Poisoned now, as much as the asymmetry that now exists between it, Fairy Kiss and Holy Water bugs me.

14. Second Life - Formerly Elixir; I'm keeping this a secret for now since I still need to test it out even if Elixir might be coming back (unfortunately).

Reaction Abilities: Chemist had 2 reaction abilities, but Catch is dead now, so it only has 1.

Auto-Potion - Might cap this at Hi-Potion.

Support Abilities: Chemist has 2 support abilities.

1. Maintenance - Got this back from Gunner/Arbalist/Reliquarian's spot, though might go to Thief or...something. Probably going to use Xifanie's hack related to stats here.

2. Throw Item - It will have its range reduced from 4 to 3.

Movement Abilities: None.



Thief
Even though the hardships of Ivalice have caused many thieves to be born by necessity, there are still those who turn to thievery due to sheer wanton avarice. A Thief of this class is equally dangerous as one born of necessity, perhaps even more so due to their lack of conscious when it comes to stealing anything and everything from another.

Equipment: Daggers, Crossbows, Longbows, Whips, Hats, Hair Adornment, Clothing, and all Accessories.

Skill Set: 0E Thievery - Might change to "Pilfer".

Innate Abilities: Two Swords.

Innate Status: None.

Starting Status: None.

Status Immunity: Confused - Gained the immunity that Marksman used to have given both Orator and Chemist have an immunity to something.

Active Abilities: Thief has 11 active abilities, 3 of which still need a lot of testing, having been developed only hours before this was originally posted:

1. Muddle - Formerly Gil Taking; Confusion at 3v3 to 1.

2. Steal Accessory - More likely to hit now; otherwise the same.

3. Steal Heart - The same; I'd like this to not work on monsters if possible, though.

4. Steal Shield - More likely to hit now; otherwise the same.

5. Steal Magic - Renamed Spell Absorb; taken from Templar; otherwise the same at present.

6. Steal Helm(et) - More likely to hit now; otherwise the same.

7. Steal Luck - Adds Curse at 3v3.

8. Steal Weapon - More likely to hit now; otherwise the same. As noted under Paladin, this might die in general.

9. Steal Experience - Formerly Steal Exp and then the "-15 Brave up-close" ability Steal Will; Addle at 3v3 to 1; weakened by Iron Will.

10. Borrow Time - Former Negotiate; Slow or Stop at close-range; might make available only if Hasted.

11. Sweet Dreams - A sleep-inducing attack that will probably only be limited to Knives.

Reaction Abilities: Thief only has 1 Reaction ability, which is no longer Speed Save.

Alertness - The space between Counter and Distribute reactions; the same as in ARENA where it allows for W-EV and C-EV to be used from the sides & back (and called "Awareness").

Support Abilities: Thief only has 2 Support abilities.

1. Secret Hunt - They regain this even though I was considering giving it to Berserker.

2. Two Swords - At present only really usable with Knives and some Swords. Might have its power reduced further.

Movement Ability: Thief only has 1 movement ability.

Flee - User gains +2 Move when in Critical and only when in Critical. Might gain this innately. Probably not, though.




07/14/2011 EDIT: Filled Slayer/Vanquisher into Paladin's spot. Updated the other three classes, though it's not like Mime got anything just yet. Got rid of some of the miscellany that just didn't apply anymore, though I did add a good bit towards the end of Blue Mage regarding it and Mime.

09/26/2011 EDIT: Did some minor adjusting, mostly under Mime & Blue Mage. Otherwise, didn't change anything else. I'll probably change the miscellany section later once I look over it again.

03/18/2012 EDIT: Adjusted all complex classes innates. Formally brought back Bard and Dancer here. Changed the name of "Blue Mage" to "Animist". Not going to bother really updating the miscellany, at least right now, especially since I have to back and fix/update equipment for the other classes since I forgot. Hurray.

04/30/2012 EDIT: Keep forgetting to change Addled to Silenced in some places even a month later. Well, it's changed for Bard now. I'll look over the miscellany when I feel more like killing my eyes.

07/08/2012-07/09/2012 EDIT: Switched out Animist for Summoner here. Added "Sentimental" section, perhaps for later use, which the old miscellany is a part of. Still avoided looking over miscellany since my eyes are kinda dead already. Will do next time, though I wouldn't surprised if I just excised it.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 28, 2011, 08:57:00 pm
Do me a favor and move your Embargo Miscellany section in your second post from a quote to a spoiler or something.  I'm trying to fix your word count issue but I can't get that text in its correct form by quoting the post because it's inside another quote.

I'll comment on your classes more when I'm done that since I'll try to get everything to fit in one post for you.  I've looked through most of them and have some comments but it would be easier for me to post them after fixing your tl;dr issues.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 28, 2011, 09:19:08 pm
Will do. Thanks for trying.

I think that I'd probably save a lot of space if I left out all the consideration BS and, of course, the miscellany stuff. But I kind of need all in one place because of the state of my computer at present, even with having things in Word and Notepad documents. (The problem is that it's often in too many, old documents at present.)

I think I can get to that equipment stuff by the end of this week. I've suddenly got the urge to try number-crunching crap, even if I don't want to look at FFTPatcher at all today. (Especially since I have to add in everything after Wizard when it comes to updating abilities and such. Ugh.)

I think I'll take a break for today and take the time to finally get my fiction ideas in order while waiting for my "flame" to rekindle. Thanks again.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on February 28, 2011, 09:25:06 pm
No problem.  Your best bet is to honestly put all your highly detailed documents into a .zip and put them on Megaupload if you're worried about your computer losing them or being lost itself.  Megaupload links don't get nuked usually as long as you're at least a free member and it lets you get the actual source files back instead of needing to deal with transcription off a forum post.

I wouldn't touch FFTPatcher unless you're actively testing something.  I just use lvlsim and WinCalc to numbercrunch and keep everything backed up in 3-4 different locations, so I only ever need to deal with FFTPatcher/TacText/etc one or two times before making at least a demo release.  Saves many, many headaches when things get scrapped, I'll tell you that much.

I can look over the equipment stuff whenever you're ready to send it over.  I've got time, all things considered.  I could probably update my Redesign Post 2-3 times a day currently, but I'm trying to avoid both burnout and overloading people actually following the thread (Y'know, all 3 of them.) since I'm waiting on the Formula Hack and a few other rather large and currently incomplete things anyway.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on February 28, 2011, 09:47:08 pm
Oh, it's less being worried that they'll get nuked (though I really SHOULD be backing up all my relevant crap) than it is that they're not organized. I hope that's something else I can get to by the time this week ends, but I haven't before, so....

Also, I meant FFTPatcher more in the capacity of looking for formulas and adding the moves that I said some classes had that I've yet to add. I also need to open it up for monsters anyway.

I'll keep the Equipment stuff in mind. It might take priority if monsters and Lucavi drag on like generics did.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on March 02, 2011, 07:34:25 am
This is the OP and the Miscellany.  Proof it to be sure I didn't cut anything important, though a few lists may be a couple entries smaller since they just got compressed from being so similar.  Should fit in your OP with room to spare.  I'll get on the classes later to see if I can compress them down with a hammer too.  I also fixed like, over 9000 typos as a throw-in too.


FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: EMBARGO


Salutations. It is I, The Damned, using my 1000th post (like that means anything) to finally making a thread for that patch I keep mentioning incessantly like an annoying bastard.

Anyway, due to philsov, RavenofRazgriz and a few others reigniting my interest in FFH, I figured that I would give it another try to do something productive with a patch that I feel is actually quite doable compared to the absurdly lofty one I wanted to do with "On the Skulls of Dragons".

EMBARGO OVERVIEW


Embargo is named because along with calls for "balance" and "change", one of the calling cards of this patch will be excising most foreign elements. Conceptually, it's the polar opposite of Lydyn's Shuushin patch.

I think that the concept not only allots focus on more of Ivalice's internal mechanics, which are rather hazy through the game, but also removes three of the most problematic generic classes. Monk, Ninja and Samurai all die because of this, with Oracle being an unfortunate causality, though I figure that very few people will miss more Oracle more than I.

With that said, the game will be the same for Chapter 1, though major changes are planned for Chapters 2 and 4, though the result will likely be similar. Chapter 3 is a rather...iffy area between the whole Rafa and Malak storyline, so I'm not sure about that.

Inspiration-wise, beyond the removal of most foreign elements, the patch contains many cues from and references to past Final Fantasy games. It takes the most from Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 12.

EMBARGO CHANGES


While still constantly changing things, I can list the things that I've generally planned that more or less going to happen before jumping into any rather specific details about anything.

1. All elements will generally be seen through the game more and be more important. Elemental absorption is always halved outside of Holy element.

2. A lot more abilities, mostly spells, will be learnable via Learn on Hit. Many spells beyond Blue Mage are Learn on Hit only.

3. The level 4 versions of elemental spells and level 2 version of most status spells have been replaced.

4. Monsters are buffed to hell with innates in exchange for generally lowering their stats and will now differ more than in just moveset even within families. Monster Skill is dead and monsters will show up at least slightly more in storyline battles now. They probably won't be able to breed.

5. Lucavi are similarly buffed in addition to having been buffed in a more...indirect way. They all have signature attacks and are more like their FFXII selves.

6. Templar replaces Monk, Illusionist replaces Oracle, Marksman replaces Ninja and potentially Gunner replaces Samurai. Dancer merges with Bard to make male-only Minstrel; Dancer's spot is the female-only Paladin; Calculator is now Blue Mage; Squire is overhauled into Soldier.

7. I generally want characters to do less damage, so that damage isn't so crazy and there is less need for sandbagging. At the same time, more move sets will have (expensive) revival options so that it isn't monopolized by just 4 skillsets. At present, no less than 7 classes have revival options and 1 or 2 more might get them.

8. Equipment will generally not completely obviate another weapon within the same category. Most things will more or less be of use throughout the game.

9. Swords are technically of two types (that I still need to test); Ninja Swords have been replaced by Greatbows; Katanas are replaced by non-weapons for Gunner; Bags have been replaced by misc. things; all characters can equip Perfume, Hair Adornments and Clothes; all accessories generally give some type of evasion; magic Guns aredead at present and the two other Guns might still die. Shuriken are dead since I can't change them at present; Bombs are the same. For Items, Remedy doesn't heal everything under the sun, Elixir is dead.

10. Status effects interact more and have been "buffed". Wall and Curse (Evil-Looking) now bshow up in game unless they cause massive AI problems. There are two other key status changes at present: Invite is only available through Train; Silence has been changed to Addle, which effects can affect many physical abilities as well--it may change back to just Silence, though.

11. Of other Mediator abilities, I've attempted to buff Finger Guard rather significantly. We'll see how that goes.

12. Finally, special characters are getting changed. At least three 3 new ones are planned, with there possibly being at least 3 more.


1. Death Sentence ignores "Cancel: Dead".

2. Broken/stolen items can be bought back at Fur Shop.

3. AI attacks Transparent units.

4. Defending reduces physical damage by 25%.

5. Wall reduces all HP damage to 1.

6. Float becomes weak against Wind; Oil becomes weak against Fire. (I don't want Float weak against Wind, though.)

7. JP scroll glitch fix.

8. Mighty Sword ignores equipment presence and hits monsters.

9. Buying items at Fur Shops cost 1 x normal price.

10. Poison damage from 1/8 * Max HP to 1/4 * Cur HP. (Might be slightly lessened due to likely increase in difficulty of Queklain/Cuchuulain and Balk.)

11. Change Demi and Drain formulas to use CurHP.

12. Performing gains evasion and receives 150% damage from physical attack. (Charging will no longer receive 150% damage, though it will lack evasion.)

13. Undead units ignore Phoenix Down


1. Attack UP bonus becomes 25%.

2. Magic Attack UP bonus becomes 25%.

3. Defense UP bonus becomes 25%.

4. Magic Defense UP bonus becomes 25%.

5. Crossbow formula becomes WP*WP.

6. Rod formula becomes MA*WP. (I probably won't keep this one. I don't want magical classes to have formidable weapons. What I've done with Books is questionable enough....)

7. Pole/Stick formula becomes PA*WP. (For the exact above reason, this one will likely stay.)

8. Instruments, Books and Cloths become MA*WP. (This may or may not stay. I'm not sure. Cloths may revert or just become plain PA*WP.)


1. Blank support ability over Short Charge adds 25% bonus skill.

2. Sets the title screens default option from "New Game" to "Continue".

3. Removal of permanent Brave alternation.

4. Removal of permanent Faith alternation.

5. Spell quotes always pops up. (At least for testing purposes when I start changing a lot of text.)

6. Forces any unit to automatically recover HP/MP when it steps on a crystal. (Given all the Learn on Hit stuff I'm using, I don't see any other choice. Might just get rid of Crystal period...)

7. Generic Skillset ability fix. (Not sure if I actually need this, but better safe than sorry.)

8. Change Brave into Fury.

9. Weapon Guard innate all.

10. Converts Knight Sword formula to PA*WP.

11. Axes & Flail damage becomes (Rdm{0..PA-1}+PA)*WP.

12. Weapon Strike Fix.

13. Global C-EV.

14. (#+1%) chance of Critical Hit.

15. (#+1%) chance of Knockback for Dash/Throw Stone.

16. Selling Items at 1/4 Price.


1. Formulas that use (MA+X)% become (MA*2+X)%.

2. Silent Walk becomes Flee - Adds XX move when unit is in critical. (That "XX" will probably be 02, maybe 03 since I'm pretty sure I'm going to kill Move +2.)

3. Short Charge rounds CT down instead of up. (This might not be necessary.)

4. Haste is 25% Speed bonus. (This might not be necessary.)

5. Abandon increases evasion by 50%.

6. Throw Item Range edit. (Drops down from 4 range to 3 range.)


EMBARGO PLANS


Using spoilers for this because it'll save space.

Let us first look at the job tree:

1. Soldier (all generics start as a Soldier).

2. Soldier leads to Knight, Marksman, Mediator, Priest and Wizard.

3. Marksman (previously Archer, but given that my old Marksman class is dead now), as the main class, leads to Arbalist, who are at present is just a Magic Knight of sorts with Samurai requirements.

4. Knight, as the main class, leads to Templar, the primary anti-magic class in the game.

5. Mediator, as the main class, leads either to Thief or to Chemist.

6. Priest, as the main class, leads to Illusionist, something of an amalgam between Calculator/ARENA's Sage and the "deceased" Oracle class.

7. Wizard, as the main class, leads to Geomancer, which is decidedly less physical than before in exchange for still not using MP and all their Elemental abilities actually have elements now.

8. Arbalist, as the main class, leads to Hunter.

9. Templar, as the main class, leads to Dragoon, which is just a renamed Lancer.

10. Illusionist, as the main class, leads to Summoner, which has been become a lot like its FFV and FFX self when it comes to gaining half of its Summoner magic.

11. Geomancer, as the main class, leads to Time Mage, which, like Illusionist and Templar, is trying to pick up Oracle's lost slack when it comes to status the hell out of people.

12. Mime is much easier to open now as it is opposed to Blue Mage and thus no longer the end-all class that only gets used for stats grinding. Mime can't mimic Blue Magic.

13. At present, Paladin's and Minstrel's requirements are much the same as they were despite they're relative strength increased. (That said, they need a lot of work and testing.)


Next is a list of removed or possibly removed RSM. I'm not using ALMA, but hopefully I can "save" more than just Finger Guard. All classes roughly have four RSMs max outside of Squire, which has six, and Paladin & Minstrel, which share the same five.


1. Blade Grasp.

2. Concentrate.

3. Gained JP UP.

4. Martial Arts.

5. Move +3.

6. MP Switch.

7. Teleport.



1. Ignore Height.

2. Jump +1.

3. Jump +3.

4. Move in Water

5. Move on Lava.

6. Weapon Guard.


Let's talk about monsters, the Lucavi and their potential changes. Since Lucavi are the game's bosses, I don't want to give too much:

1. Most monsters skill sets at present haven't been fully worked out. Most of them don't have fourth abilities at present.

2. All monster families outside of Uribos have at least one elemental weakness. Outside of Uribos and Goblins, all monster families also have many elemental resistances, absorptions and immunities.

3. All monsters had their stats decreased to help balance Blue Mage, though they are mostly better than Blue Mage with the ability that Blue Mages take from them.

4. To make up for the above, most monsters have four innates and some type of status immunity as well as possible innate status.

5. Chocobos haven't changed much out of being loaded with innates. They've arguably gotten weaker between gaining an elemental weakness, losing status and possibly losing Chocobo Meteor.

6. Goblins haven't really been changed. As such, they are the weakest monster (yes, they're even weaker than Uribo with all of Uribo's pesky new innates). I hope to change this though they're still meant to be a "beginning" monster without making them the overkill Monk versions they are in 1.3.

7. Bombs are probably overpowered between new resistances both status-wise and element-wise and new abilities, including Oil. They probably won't show up early game because they'd kick your ass rather effortlessly.

8. Panthers are speedy little electrified-status bastards.

9. Ithilids (the "correct" name for Squidlarkin) are mental monsters who are quite hardy because of the deep. At present, they're the only monster family utter immune to Invite/Train, if only because I might combine them all into one special-type monster and replace them with something else.

10. Skeletons are supposed to be more human-esque, now, which...hasn't been going well in testing. They also will not crystallize or turn into chests, which means they will keep raising until the battle is over.

11. Ghosts are hard to-hit and even harder to put to rest because they also no longer crystallize or turn into chests.

12. Floating Eyes are basically the Templar of monsters when it comes to being anti-magic.

13. Cockatrices are, like Bombs, likely overpowered at present--both families cancel way too much in addition to other buffs.

14. Uribo are gullible little cowards at present. Due to a recent change to a status that they had innately, they no longer work as intended; I guess I'll go in other, possibly overpowered direction then....

15. Woodfolk are still guardians of the forest, though at present they kick ass rather they get their ass kicked.

16. Bull Demons are, like Skeletons, failed experiments at present. They have even more reason to change because of something I'm going to do in Chapter 3...

17. Morbols are still fouled-mouth tanks that you don't want to get close to, though you won't have much choice now; Blue Mage at least gets rewarded for it, though.

18. Behemoth are, comparatively, elemental tanks now. Like Panthers, that sums them up rather concisely.

19. Given my plans for Dragon type creatures and the likely death of Reis, all three generic Dragon creatures are quite varied at present.

20. Hydra might well be even more overpowered than before due to innates even with their new weaknesses and the plan to give them the worst HP outside of the Undead and Bombs and no real evasion.



1. Byblos and Apanda Demons will likely be merged into one class, though Byblos might show up as named boss.

2. Archaic Demons and Ultima Demons will likely be merged into one class, though Sinogue, the named Archaic Demon who is after Reis, might stick around as a one-of.

3. Steel Giant, like everything, is still in the process of being changed. It's become even more tanky to make up for losing most of its elemental immunities.

4. Holy Dragon will most likely still be used even though I'm planning to most likely get rid of Reis.

5. Boco will become a special Chocobo, though I've yet to decide exactly what that entails.



1. All fights against them will be rather different outside of maybe Hashmalum and Altima. Let's just say there's a balance reason they're going to generally have lower stats beyond planning to have everything do lower damage....

2. Relatedly, all Lucavi will have their genders be uniformly "Monster" and not randomly be that or male or whatever. There's a couple of reasons for this that I won't be getting into just yet.

3. They will generally be slightly more susceptible to status, though you may pay dearly for trying to status them....

4. All Fear abilities are now no longer just basic 100% guaranteed to hit if they're not prevented and they cost MP now. However, in exchange for this, they will generally destroy you even worse now if they hit; they are still instant. I should point out here they are part of my attempt to buff Finger Guard, now called Iron Will: Iron Will/Finger Guard blocks all Fear abilities.

5. Fear will no longer have its own skill sets--ugh, there are so many wasted skill sets, it's absurd--and Lucavi will generally have much more skills available to them.

6. In addition to being more like their FFXII selves and the other numerous changes, they will be using their FFXII names, sans maybe Altima.

7. Not much more else I can say that won't spoil my plans, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt much to tell you that Belias and Queklain are going to have sub-par Speed now, with Belias being the slowest of the bunch as well as possibly being able to be Slowed. It won't help you.

8. Given what I plan to do with the story, including Elbidis and another NPC, it's quite likely that you will face an additional two Lucavi in-game. One of them is definitely going to be in-story if I make the change.


With that said, All that's left is special characters changes. I'll include Deep Dungeon here just because:


1. At present, I'm considering reducing the special character space to 12 characters so that the player can keep 4 generics if they want. I'm not sure about that, though.

2. I still want special characters to be better than generics, but I don't want them to blow generics away.

3. Additionally, I'm going to try to have more magically-based this time around, just because I've always found swords rather boring and, outside of the unreliable Wonder Twins, Reis (somewhat), and arguably Byblos, every single special character is physically based. Beowulf I'd argue is more in the middle since even though his skillset is entirely MA-based sans Shock, he still needs a freaking sword to do them. At least two of the already selected replacement special characters will be magicians.

4. Ramza: I've been rather annoyed trying to think up his new set given the complete overhaul to Soldier and the lack of room for any more moves in it. I think I've decided on a viable route rather recently, though.

5. Rad: Ah, yes, the first of three "special characters" you get before Agrias and Mustadio who are just glorified generics. Rad will not only be getting his own unique class goes, but he will be a lot more pivotal to Chapter 2 and actually have his own personality. As far as his, there's three potential classes I'm looking at for him.

6. Alicia & Lavian: The other two generic special characters aren't as lucky as Rad to understate things. I've already decided on their replacements, though they aren't entirely removed from the game.

7. Boco: As aforementioned, he will be made into a special Chocobo, which means that the fight against Wiegraf I will likely be a bit more difficult. Alternatively, he might not join you in Araguay Forest and instead be replaced by Alicia's replacement there.

8. Agrias: Still around. As also aforementioned, she needs to be balanced against Paladin and vice versa, which is rather annoying given how all over the place Paladin's skillset is at present.

9. Mustadio: He is getting an entirely new skillset given that Archer now has his abilities of Aim: Leg and Aim: Arm.

10. Rafa & Malak: They will have completely different moveset now, which they currently share. They need something to differentiate them without being as overpowered as their 1.3 counterparts, though they'll be more useful than the originals.

11. Orlandu: Rather recently, I've humored perhaps killing him off, but for now he'll live since I don't want to change too much from the main game and Delita sparing Orlandu is one of the things that proves that he isn't a complete bastard.

12. Meliadoul: I haven't any plans for her beyond "must be able to hit monsters". I'm too busy trying about how to make Zalera really dangerous without verging into invincible territory.

13. Beowulf: I'm currently waffling on whether I want to get rid of Beowulf completely or not. He has three potential replacement characters already lined up, but at the same time I sort of like the idea of exploring Beowulf as a broken man because he wasn't able to save Reis this time around.

14. Reis: She too is beyond saving, though she might still show up. Please deal.

15. Worker 8: As aforementioned, he will be more tanky. I just got another couple of ideas while typing this given what I intend to do to other monsters. Not sure what I'll do with Worker 7 and how I'll differ the both of them to be honest....

16. Cloud: I've already decided on a replacement for him. I just need to find a sprite and decide on which spells are best translated from the game he came from.

17. Byblos: He/it is similarly gone, with no decided replacement at present. Even if Byblos does get a replacement, you'll get your last special character well before you ever reach END.

18. Deep Dungeon: It is more of intended to be a den of bosses from previous Final Fantasy games than strictly uber teams. It won't be as difficult as 1.3, though the things I've planned (if I still have the space) will generally kick your ass around the first couple of times and be rather difficult probably. There will still be teams, though, given that a bunch of 1 vs. 5 would be boring after all while, especially not even...heh, almost gave something away. Anyway, Elbidis is no longer the end boss of this place, but instead there now resides another who also seeks to be pinnacle of his art.... Here's a hint: It's not Omega.

19. Elbidis: Despite having no solid plans for him now, I keep mentioning that name because I intend for him to have a much more active role in the game rather than meditate at the bottom of the Deep Dungeon and then try to kill you. At the very least, he'll be extremely interested in the character slated to be Cloud's replacement and show up at around that time of the game, which is before Deep Dungeon.


EMBARGO MISCELLANY


Okay, we're coming to the end now. Thank you for reading this far. All that's left is a list of potential things that I want to do that I haven't done/begun implementing myself and potential problems I see.

Let's talk about the potential things I want to do first since additional problems might stem from that:


1. I want Brave and Faith extremes to detrimental. As such, I want 100 Brave and 100 Faith to be BAD things, even without permanent Faith and Brave alternation. I plan to try to do this by having those extremes trigger status, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing when Brave and Faith won't "tick down" like minimum Brave will. Also, even if I can have things get ticked down, then that might mean that separate statuses themselves might be tied those extremes and usable, which...isn't good. I guess if Wall goes belly-up idea-wise I can use that for...something.

2. Similarly, I want Brave and Faith to only be go as low as 01 and not 00. Atheist/Innocent/Apostate status completely negating most magic is stupid. At least with 01, it would mean that magic can still potentially hit and affect the "atheist".

3. Related to the above, I want to fix that damn glitch that makes it so that Untruth spells think that 100 Faith is 0 Faith.

4. When it comes to statuses causing weakness to a certain element, I'd much rather have Don't Move be furthered as a negative status than a negative aspect be attached to Float; it would further make Don't Move and Float the opposites that I've intended them to be.

5. I want to add a couple of more in-story battles and fiddle around with the script quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I've the room.

6. Additionally, want to make use of all skill sets, though with changing generic monsters like that, I might have a lot less than I planned to.

7. As aforementioned, I want to add at least one other Zodiac battle, especially given that it will take the place of at least one other boss battle thankfully--Chapter 4 is already loaded with boss battles, so....

8. Speaking of the glut in Chapter 4, I want to make Chapter 3 have more of...everything, somehow. At present, outside of Rafa & Malak and some gauntlets, it's pretty lacking on both attainable special characters and bosses.

9. I've considered wanting weaknesses to only do 1.5 damage rather than straight double damage.

10. Finally, I want to learn how to hack and use ARH and such so I can do most the stuff myself. I'm not sure about sprites, though, because I've always sucked at art. Sprites are pretty much the last priority to me as such.


Of course, nothing good can ever last:


1. Balancing this game is going to freaking atrocious between wanting to keep most equipment relevant, wanting to add more elements and have more element interaction, wanting to add more status and have more status interaction, probably allowing for Lucavi to be Demi'd and Life Drain'd, wanting lower speed, wanting lower damage, making it so that magic-users being mid-charged doesn't mean much, changing Silence to Addle and other things. It's like...balance itself is an eldritch abomination.

2. Similarly, having all classes stay relevant is easier said than done, especially when trying to balance them against special characters.

3. I might have too many immunities on things (both equipment-wise and class-wise) to the point where, even having made Ribbon one-of, I might have still obviated a lot statuses.

4. The elemental thing might have been gone overboard with regards to what has it weapon-wise and directly offensively ability-wise to point where things might be obnoxiously difficult to attack. While I want damage to be lower, I don't want battles to drag on forever or, worse, become Sisyphean.

5. Despite all the reuse of ability-space, I might still run out of changeable ability space, at least for the things I want to do with random battles and DD. That would be...annoying.

6. Finally, there's perhaps the chance that I'm still being too ambitious about this, especially since I want to do it by myself. Even having had such free time (unfortunately), I simply might not actually be capable of such still.


With all that said, I'm still trying to give myself a deadline for at least being done with the most basic changes up to Chapter 2:

1. Midway point/Possibly early release: March 10, 2011. (One-year anniversary of when I started).

2. Strict deadline of at least most basic Chapter 2 changes: March 31, 2011. (More likely date.)

Thank you for your time.


3. Knight, as the main class, leads to Templar, the primary anti-magic class in the game. (Knight has a lot more sword-related skills and what's essentially a lesser Revive with Monks' horrible, horrible death.)

4. Archer, as the main class, leads to Marksman, who are at present just renamed Ninja who use Bows and can't equip Two Swords. (Archer has an entirely new skillset.)

5. Mediator, as the main class, leads either to Thief or to Chemist.

6. Priest, as the main class, leads to Illusionist, something of an amalgam between Calculator/ARENA's Sage and the "deceased" Oracle class.

7. Wizard, as the main class, leads to Geomancer, which is decidedly less physical than before in exchange for still not using MP and all their Elemental abilities actually have elements now. Wizards have gained condensed Bio spells [of varying elements of Water, Dark and Earth] and ost Poison & Death. They also lost Frog, which has been given to Time Mage, in exchange for taking something akin to Time Mage's Meteor as a Learn on Hit ability ala FFIX. They have, at present, also gained Life Drain and a Debarrier ability.

8. Templar, as the main class, leads to Dragoon, which is just a renamed Lancer given that we can't yet use the unique Jump in any other class and that was too much to lose.

9. Marksmen, as the main class, leads to Gunner, which is the class mostly likely to die given how focused it is on exactly one weapon--Mythril Gun is the Materia Blade now for all intents and purposes--and how relatively boring it is.

10. Illusionist, as the main class, leads to Summoner, which has been become a lot like its FFV and FFX self when it comes to gaining half of its Summoner magic.

11. Geomancer, as the main class, leads to Time Mage, which, like Illusionist and Templar, is trying to pick up Oracle's lost slack when it comes to status the hell out of people.


All of these are Razele's.

2. No starting items.

9. Selling items at (Fur) Shops costs 1/4 normal price.

13. Equip Change innate all.

14. Defend innate all v1.1.

15. Monster Skill innate all.

16. Undead units receive 25% max HP damage from Phoenix Down.

19. Katana chance to break.


Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 02, 2011, 07:25:46 pm
Hey, I would have fixed typos...eventually. As much as I typo, it's only natural that there would unfortunately be quite a few and I was focusing more on formatting issues when I edited in things, especially with the forum not notifying me when it cuts things off.

Still though, much thanks, especially for including the miscellany stuff that I thought would have had to be excised. I'll update the first post with it.

Don't worry about the classes, though. I know exactly what to change and excise to make them shorter and I have to change quite a few things anyway, so it will largely be pointless. Feel free to point out any typos to me, though.

In the meanwhile, since I haven't touched FFTPatcher in the past two days and I haven't play-tested things in months, I figure that I'll dump all my status stuff here in an effort to go over them. As always, some of this stuff is doubtless going to change.

For now, the status names are staying the same since I'm more worried about trying to come up with ability names, though some of them are pretty much assured to change later. This will be an experiment in being concise on my part.

(09/26/2011 EDIT: Status names have now be changed to adjectival and in a few cases, as with Treasure, outright changed.)


????* (???) [Originally: [blank]]
Effect: Unit is....

Cancels: Everything with regards to this is new, so I'm not going put an asterisk by everything. [07/16/2012 EDIT: Might end up canceling Misty. Eventually.]

1. Transparent.
2. Critical.
3. Regening.
4. Hasted.

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. [Looted].
5. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 1
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Crystallized (Cry) [Originally: Crystal]
Effect: Unit is beyond saving and has turned into a one-time HP/MP restoration effect.

Cancels: All other status.

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/16/2012 EDIT: Undead to no longer to block Crystallized once I..."fix" some things with regards to Undead.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Undead.*5
3. Jumping.

Miscellany:
Order: 27
CT: 0
Freeze CT: Yes.
Count as KO: Yes.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: Yes.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Dying (Dyi) [Originally: Dead]
Effect: Unit is dying but can still be resuscitated if one is quick enough before it's too late.

Cancels: No longer cancels [Blood Suck] or Floating.* Now cancels Oily. Considering having it cancel Blind and/or Addled like it does in ARENA now. (EDIT: As of 03/29/2012, it also cancels both of those now.) [07/16/2012 EDIT: While [Addled] has obviously been back to Silenced for a while, I forgot make note that this now cancels Frogged and no longer cancels Poisoned or Regening for now, testing it in tandem with ARENA. Also added a "mystery" status back.]

1. Charging.
2. Jumping.
3. Cautious.
4. Performing.
5. Blind.*5
6. Confused.
7. Silenced.*5
8. Oily.*
9. Transparent.
10. Berserk.
11. Critical.
12. Frogged.*7
13. Protected.
14. Shelled.
15. Hasted.
16. Slowed.
17. Stopped.
18. Faithful.
19. Doubtful.
20. Charmed.
21. Sleeping.
22. Immobilized.
23. Disabled.
24. Reflective.
25. Doomed.
26. ???.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*

Miscellany:
Order: 25
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: Yes.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.**
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Undead (Und) [Originally: Undead]
Effect: Unit's body has begun to rot eternally, making most healing harmful and possibly denying one the salvation of death.

Cancels: No longer cancels Reraise.* [07/16/2012 EDIT: With Reraised dead, "ironically" Undead will be canceling its (current) replacement of Blessed outright. Undead will also, for now, cancel Imperiled. I'm also still debating whether to let Undead go back to at least canceling Blind. Poisoned & Regening stuff still needs to be worked out.]

1. Blind.*6
2. Poisoned.*
3. Regening.*
4. Doomed.*
5. Blessed.*7
6. Imperiled.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Dying** and Reraised now.

1. Crystallized.
2. Jumping.
3. Petrified.*
4. [Looted].*
5. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 16
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Charging (Chg) [Originally: Charging]
Effect: Unit is focusing almost solely on an upcoming attack, keeping their evasion but taking extra damage to do so.***

Cancels: Transparent.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 8
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes. [Changed back from "no" because it would otherwise detrimentally affect too much.]
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Jumping (Jmg) [Originally: Jump]
Effect: Unit has left the battlefield and is in the middle of a Dragoon's Jump attack.

Cancels: Nothing.

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 7
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: Yes.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Cautious (Cts) [Originally: Defending]
Effect: Unit has assumed a defensive stance to further evasion and to reduce damage.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 - Given its new important position in my plans and my attempts to work with other things, it will now actually cancel at least a couple of things. It might cancel even more in the future.]

1. Berserk.*7
2. ???.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Definitely won't be able stack on top of Sleeping; may go back to being able to stack on top of Charging and Performing if it doesn't cancel the CT, which I'm pretty sure it does.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6
7. Sleeping.*7
8. Charging.*7
9. Performing.*7

Miscellany: This is no longer going to die.
Order: 6
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Performing (Prf) [Originally: Performing]
Effect: Unit is performing an elaborate, continual action, unaware of its surrounding but not anymore vulnerable to damage.***

Cancels: Transparent.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 5
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.*
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Petrified (Ptr) [Originally: Petrify]
Effect: Unit's flesh turns to stone, causing immediate but perhaps temporary death.

Cancels: No longer cancels Charging, Cautious, Performing or Reflective.*

1. Jumping.
2. Confused.*
3. Floating.
4. Transparent.*
5. Berserk.
6. Poisoned.*
7. Regening.*
8. Hasted.*
9. Slowed.*
10. Stopped.
11. Faithful.*
12. Doubtful.*
13. Charmed.*
14. Sleeping.
15. Doomed.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: What ultimately happens with this depends on the ASM "homework" I still owe formerdeathcorps:
Order: 24
CT: 0
Freeze CT: Yes.
Count as KO: Yes.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.**
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Invite (N/A) [Originally: Invite]
Effect: Unit is tamed into permanent servitude.

Cancels: Nothing.

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: It literally just occurred to me to maybe not make it able to stack on top of Frogged given how much damage can be done to Frogs, but I'm rather ambivalent.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*

Miscellany: I'm more and more considering killing this off, even if I can't find someway to replicate it without needing an "official" status slot for it. It just seems a waste to have a slot for something like this when Quick and Golem have unofficial statuses that don't need them, even both of those are formula-based.
Order: 15
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: Yes.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Blind (Bln) [Originally: Darkness]
Effect: Unit's sense of vision has been destroyed, causing physical attacks to have a greater chance of missing.

Cancels: Nothing.

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Probably going to be able to stack on top of Undead status again. Might become unable to stack on top of itself, though since it doesn't Cancel anything, much less Charging or Performing, and it doesn't stop Act or Move, that's not terribly important one way or the other.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Undead.*6
4. Jumping.
5. Petrified.*
6. [Looted].*
7. Regening.*
8. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: Pretty much default to 50% with the "by half" ASM.
Order: 19
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Imperiled (Imp) [Originally: Confusion]
Effect: Unit's elemental properties shift detrimentally, exposing it to greater harm:
1. Unit's Absorb properties go to Null.
2. Unit's Null properties go to Resist.
3. Unit's Resist properties go to Neutral.
4. Unit's Neutral properties go to Weak.
5. Unit's Weak properties go to ????

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Lost Confused's Canceling of Charging & Performing. Now Cancel Protected & Shelled and is likely be canceled by both of them as well some...other statuses.]

1. Protected.*7
2. Shelled.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Won't be able stack on top of itself at least. Maybe Cautious and Reflective as well. Not definite, though, especially since at least three other things besides Protected and Shelled already cancel it.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. Imperiled.*7
6. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: Like many (negative) status, this needs to no longer be infinite. It needs to no longer have Confused's properties first, though.
Order: 19
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes. [Changed from Cnf's "No".]
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Silenced (Slc) [Originally: Silence]
Effect: Unit's voice and source of magical power is severely hampered.

Cancels: Technically everything here is new even without the edit.

1. Charging.*
2. Performing.*5
3. Misty.*5

Can't Stack On Top Of: Is now the opposite of Addled in that it not only affects Performing, but cancels it. [07/17/2012: As such, Silenced obviously needs to not be able to stack onto itself. Otherwise Paladin's Pure Skill instantly becomes overpowered, arguably broken.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Regening.*
7. Stopped.*6
8. Silenced.*7

Miscellany: Infinite duration on this is actually "fine" or, at least, an extremely low priority to "fix".
Order: 21
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.*


???? (???) [Originally: Blood Suck]
Effects: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Keep forgetting to make a note of this, even though I don't want to say much about it at present given it has to be coded entirely. I'll only say it's a negative status and was, until about mid-April 2012, going to be a secondary version of Stop. Now it and Stopped are nothing like each other, which is for the better. Its properties are basically decided now.]

Cancels: Technically all new given how long this has been redacted despite having been "decided on" since last year (2011). Right now, only Oily is actually "decided"...and, well, see below:

1. ????
2. Oily.*7
3. Hasted.*7
4. Slowed.*7
5. Sleeping.*7

Can't Stack On Top of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Perhaps make ??? unable to Stack on top of itself like I intend to do with most things. While its still coded as "Blood Suck", I suppose I'll have it not stack on most things. It won't stack on Oily if it doesn't outright cancel it and vice-versa.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted]*
6. Oily. [If it doesn't cancel it as above.]
7. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: This as Blood Suck also had Lower Target Priority checked off? No wonder the AI was so bad at dealing with Blood Suck:
1. Order: 1E
2. CT: 0 [Needs to become finite.]
3. Freeze CT: No. [Since no longer mini-Stop.]
4. Counts as KO: No. [Changed from Blood Suck's Yes.]
5. Can Reaction: No. [Unchanged from Blood Suck for now.]
6. Ignores Attacks: No.
7. Canceled by Immortal Status: No. [Eventually.]


Cursed (Crs) [Originally: Dark/Evil Looking]****
Effect: Unit has had a hex placed upon them that destroys and denies positive blessings.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Even with Reraised technically dead, Cursed will still cancel it as "Blessed". That said, it might cancel even less since, like Reflective, Floating and even Faithful might leave; despite Faithful being the more neutral of the two it's more likely to stay.

1. Floating.*
2. Transparent.*
3. Regening.*
4. Protected.*
5. Shelled.*
6. Hasted.*
7. Faithful.*
8. Blessed.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT:

1. Crystallized.*
2. Petrified.*
3. [Looted].*

Miscellany: This might be only status I'm changing where the chief thing to fix is the animation rather than the properties:
Order: 0
CT: 0 [Likely to change, which would mean it probably wouldn't be canceled by Dying.]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Or Treasure's Replacement.

There's still nothing to see here yet. What was to become was outsourced to Chicken. I'm leaning towards positive status effect since I desperately need more of those, especially since a few of the old ones that have survived have come decidedly "neutral".


Oily (Oil) [Originally: Oily]
Effect: Unit is covered in flammable liquid that makes Fire-based attacks far more harmful.***

Cancels: Now cancels four things as opposed to nothing for being temporarily "nerfed"/"fixed".* [07/17/2012 EDIT: Probably losing Charging & Performing whether or not it cancels or blocks that "mystery" status.]

1. Charging.*5
2. Performing.*
3. Transparent.*
4. Hasted.*5
5. ???.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: While it continues to cancel Charging & Performing, Oily will be unable to stack onto itself. Also, if it doesn't outright cancel that mystery status, then it will block it and vice-versa.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Oily.*7
5. ???.*7

Miscellany:
Order: 17
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Floating (Flt) [Originally: Float]
Effect: Unit is levitating a few feet off the ground and, as such, is immune to Earth-based techniques.

Cancels: Immobilized.*

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Dying.** [07/17/2012 EDIT: This is able to stack on top of Cursed again considering its unlike to remain blocked by it.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Jumping.
3. [Looted].*

Miscellany:
Order: F
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Blessed (Bls) [Originally: Reraised]

Effects: Unit has had a blessing placed upon them that destroys and denies many negative ailment.

Cancels: Even just canceling almost all negative status sans Crystallized, Dying & Critical would puts Blessed WAY ahead of Cursed, so it cancels "only" about half, some of which might still leave, like Frogged and Poisoned. Anyway, all technically new:

1. ???*7
2. Blind*7
3. Imperiled*7
4. Silenced*7
5. ???*7
6. Cursed [The only really "necessary" one.]
7. Oily
8. Frogged
9. Poisoned
10. Immobilized
11. Disabled

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: "Ironically", the thing taking Reraised's spot goes back to being unable to be applied to Undead status, even the ones that aren't always Undead; it's even canceled by Undead too. Will be able to stack on top of and cancel ??? & Cursed unlike Reraised, though.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Undead.
4. Jumping.
5. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: I was going to say this needs to lose its coded abilities of Reraised, but with it now being canceled by Dying, that should take care of that problem automatically:
Order: E
CT: 0 [Likely to change, which would mean it probably wouldn't be canceled by Dying.] Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Transparent (Trn) [Originally: Transparent]
Effect: Unit has become difficult to see and thus become nigh impossible to evade on the next attack.***

Cancels: Hasted.*

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: In the increasingly unlikely event that it survives, despite the fact that I need more positive statuses, not less, it will now not be able to stack on top of another uncoded "mystery" status.]

1. ????.*
2. Crystallized.
3. Dying.
4. Charging.*
5. Jumping.
6. Performing.*
7. Cursed.
8. [Looted].*
9. Oily.
10. ???.*7

Miscellany: This status is likeliest to die next, especially given how inept the AI is at using it and reacting to it correctly even with current ASMs. Besides, I'm allowing Concentrate back, so this really isn't needed...:
Order: D
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Berserk (Brk) [Originally: Berserk]
Effect: Unit is consumed by bloodlust and doggedly pursues & attacks the nearest foe.

Cancels: Now gets rid of some negative status in an attempt to make it more "appealing". [07/17/2012 EDIT: No longer cancels Critical. Rather the opposite in fact. Now cancels Sleeping, though.]

1. ???.*
2. Charging.
3. Jumping.
4. Cautious.
5. Performing.
6. Poisoned.*
7. Sleeping.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Now no longer can occur on top of Critical to help get counter the infinite duration somewhat. Also, I've decided to be "nice" for now and make Frogged units immune to Berserk since Berserk does nothing to boost pathetic Frog damage.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6
7. Critical.*7
8. Frogged.*7

Miscellany: For now, the infinite duration on this matters less due to change to Critical, though that's ultimately stopgap. Probably.
Order: 18
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.*6 [Was "Yes" for a while.]
Can React: Yes.*
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


???? (???) [Originally: Chicken]
Effect: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Chicken's originally planned replacement turned out to be superfluous with something that I think I should be able to do, though considering I still have to test something else, this won't necessarily become a positive status though I "need" more of those possibly. That remains true as becomes the spot for Looted's old replacement.]

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Only thing that this should "obviously" cancel is Cautious. Honestly not sure if there's anything else it "should" cancel.]

1. Cautious.

Can't Stack On Top Of: [Don't really think anything should change from Chicken's old resistances at present.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*

Miscellany: Fixing out how to make some replacing Chicken to not screw around, especially when the unit's Brave is at or above 10, should be "fun":
Order: 4
CT: 0 [Yeah, that needs to not be.]
Freeze CT:No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No. 
Canceled by Immortal Status: No. [Now "no".]


Frogged (Frg) [Originally: Frog]
Effect: Unit has become a Frog. Ribbit.

Cancels: No longer cancels Floating.* Now cancels Doubtful status. [07/17/2012 EDIT: Now to cancel Berserk and one of the "mystery" statuses.]

1. Charging.*
2. Jumping.
3. Cautious.
4. Performing.
5. Doubtful.*
6. Berserk.*7
7. ???.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Chicken.*
7. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: Still pondering what else to do with this, including finite duration. Also still need to make sure Polymorph still works while Frogged in the shift to Dimensionalist:
Order: 20
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.* [Back to being "No" due to the whole "canceled by Dying" thing.]
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Critical (Crt) [Originally: Critical]
Effect: Unit is heavily injured and more likely to retreat.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Now actively cancels Berserk. Still can't, and won't, be able to be actively inflicted by anything other than damage, though.]

1. Berserk.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can no longer stack on top of Berserk. Cannot stack on top of the new status either. [07/17/2012 EDIT: Able to stack on top of Berserk again since it cancels it.]

1. ????.*
2. Crystallized.
3. Jumping.
4. [Looted].*

Miscellany:
Order: 3
CT: 0
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Poisoned (Psn) [Originally: Poison]
Effect: Unit's health has been compromised and rapidly deteriorates in eighths.*7 Can be lethal, but often only such if left untreated or the unit has other severe health complications.***

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Due to being weakened back down to 1/8 of Max HP, it "needs" to cancel other things, so at present it cancels Blessed and Transparent now, though those are both "iffy".]

1. Regening.
2. Blessed.*7
3. Transparent.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can no longer stack on top of Berserk at present in effort to boost Berserk. As of 05/01/2012, Berserk is no longer immune to it, though Berserk still initially cancels it. [07/17/2012 EDIT: Not has changed at present. Just noting that it will probably be able to stack on top of Undead again after some "fixes" and it's not blocked by Blessed at present, partly because it's unlikely to be blocked by Blessed and may even cancel it.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Undead.*
4. Jumping.
5. Petrified.*
6. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: This went back to its original, weaker roots due to lowered overall end damage in Embargo, realizing it rather obviated Demi was it was with 25% HP per turn and feeling that it needs to keep in line with Regening and Misty. It might go even lower, especially since Regening and Misty are likely to, but will get some other "perks" to make up for that:
Order: 1A
CT: 96.*7 [No, that's not 672. No longer 0* since I so enjoy stealing from ARENA.]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Regening (Rgn) [Originally: Regen]
Effect: Unit's health is restored gradually.

Cancels: (EDIT: At present, long before 03/29/2012, it no longer cancels ????.)

1. Blind.*
2. Poisoned.

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Now blocked decidedly blocked by that same mystery status, partly because Regening itself blocks Silenced; Regening doesn't cancel Silenced as well because that's Misty's job (now).]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. Cursed.*
6. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6
8. Doomed.*
9. ???.*7

Miscellany: Probably the least planned to be changed of three statuses that currently deal with HP/MP directly, though it's the easiest to "change" at present in terms of things like no longer being canceled by Dying:
Order: C
CT: 96.*7 [No, that's not 672. No longer its original 36 since I so enjoy stealing from ARENA. Well, that and it shouldn't have been so wildly uneven compared to infinite Poisoned in the first place.]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Protected (Prt) [Originally: Protect]
Effect: Unit is protected in some way that reduces the effectiveness of physically-based attacks by a third.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: This now at least cancels Imperiled. I was considering letting it cancel Cursed, but given that Dying now cancels Cursed and Cursed already has it tough enough as it is, that would be overkill.]

1. Imperiled.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: For now will remain blocked by Cursed, I'm still not sure how it and Doubtful should interact here....]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Cursed.*
5. [Looted].*

Miscellany: As per stealing from ARENA, its CT has been lengthened:
Order: 13
CT: 48 [Now 48 instead of 32]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Shelled (Shl) [Originally: Shell]
Effect: Unit is protected in some way that reduces the effectiveness of magickally-based attacks by a third.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: This now at least cancels Imperiled. I was considering letting it cancel Cursed, but given that Dying now cancels Cursed and Cursed already has it tough enough as it is, that would be overkill.]

1. Imperiled.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: [07/17/2012 EDIT: For now will remain blocked by Cursed, I'm still not sure how it and Doubtful should interact here....]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Cursed.*
5. [Looted].*

Miscellany: As per stealing from ARENA, its CT has been lengthened:
Order: 12
CT: 48 [Now 48 instead of 32.]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Hasted (Hst) [Originally: Haste]
Effect: Unit is able to move and act at a quicker pace than normal.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Due to my current thoughts that I might be crapping on it a bit too much status interaction-wise, it now cancels Sleeping. That could easily change back, though.]

1. Transparent.*
2. Slowed.*
3. Sleeping.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Dying now.** Will probably get hated on even more later. [07/17/2012 EDIT: As above, given how much I've targeted Hasted, which has also been blocked by Oily for a year even though it hasn't been here, it's entirely possible that it will be the only positive status that can stack on top of Cursed. This while both being canceled by it and not canceling it. It only seems "fair" since Blessed doesn't--and won't--be canceling, much less blocking, Slowed.]

1. ????.*
2. Crystallized.
3. Jumping.
4. Cursed.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Hasted.*
7. Stopped.*
8. Oily.*7

Miscellany: At present, this is also still "only" at 25% effectiveness. I need to figure out the "actual" CT when it comes to Hasted in terms both that and the original 50%:
Order: 11
CT: 32
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Slowed (Slw) [Originally: Slow]
Effect: Unit is restricted to moving and acting at a slower pace than normal.

Cancels: Hasted.

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Dying now.**

1. Crystal.
2. Jump.
3. [Looted].*
4. Slowed.*
5. Stopped.*

Miscellany: Might be going back to halving Speed, even as originally ridiculous as that seem. Its CT is definitely going to be less than Hasted's regardless. Whether it's a 50% or 25% reduction, I need to figure out its "actual" CT just like with Hasted:
Order: 1B
CT: 24
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Stopped (Stp) [Originally: Stop]
Effect: Unit has become seemingly frozen and [Redacted].

Cancels:

1. Hasted.*
2. Slowed.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Jumping.
3. [Looted].*
4. Stopped.*

Miscellany:
Order: 22
CT: 24*
Freeze CT: Yes.
Count as KO: Yes.*6
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Misty (Mst) [Originally: Wall]
Effect: Unit has begun to passively channel Ivalican mist to restore its mana and mind.*** [Note: All instances of Wall still in effect above & below are invalid and do not apply to this. Here is Wall's former description: "Spatial-temporal barrier arises and negates most damage.***"]

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Now cancels Reflective rather than being blocked by it, though that can easily change back.]

1. Silenced.*5
2. Reflective.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: As of 03/29/2012, I think I'm decided on what it can't stack on top of. [07/17/2012: As said above, no longer blocked by Reflective.*5 Might be blocked or canceled by a mystery status, though.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Jumping.
3. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: Honestly considering giving this an infinite duration, especially since I'm likely to reduce it further, it has more "in common" mirror-wise with Reflective than Regening and since I need the CT space:
Order: 2
CT: 96.*7 [Yeah, you know the drill by now, even if it's not in ARENA.]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.*
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Faithful (Fhf) [Originally: Faith]
Effect: Unit becomes consumed by faith, putting its life solely in the hands of the supernatural.

Cancels: [07/17/2012: I figured this could cancel at least one more thing given all that Doubtful still currently cancels. It was originally considering Poisoned, but now it cancels something entirely different. I just thought of something else it could may be cancel too, though I'll have to think about that one....]

1. Doubtful.
2. ???.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. Cursed.*
6. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: I'm considering using ARENA's CT here as well, though in this instance (and Doubtful's) I think the CT there is probably too long:
Order: B
CT: 32
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.*
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Doubtful (Dbf) (Innocent)
Effect: Unit becomes extremely skeptical of the supernatural, generally reducing its effectiveness for better or for worse.

Cancels: Now cancels a lot more than just its opposite of Faithful. [07/17/2012 EDIT: With Reraised* dead, this "needed" something else to cancel. I figured it was either between Blessed and Regening and I chose...Regening because, well, see below this.]

1. Protected.*
2. Shelled.*
3. Faithful.
4. Reflective.*
5. Regening.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: Now can't stack on top of Frogged, just because I eventually realized that becoming a frog would make it pretty difficult to deny the supernatural. Pretty difficult.... Ribbit. [07/17/2012 EDIT: Given Faithful is blocked by Cursed, despite not being negative, Doubtful be blocked by Blessed, though not canceled by it.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Frogged.*
7. Stopped.*6
8. Blessed.*7

Miscellany: I'm considering using ARENA's CT here as well, though in this instance (and Doubtful's) I think the CT there is probably too long:
Order: A
CT: 32
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Charmed (Chm) [Originally: Charm]
Effect: Unit becomes temporarily enticed to betray its allies.

Cancels:

1. Charging.
2. Jumping.
3. Cautious.
4. Performing.

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Dying now.** Is back to being able to stack on top of Berserk (for now). [07/17/2012 EDIT: I need to see how this is at stacking on top of itself already, if it even can, since it cancels both Charging and Performing.

1. Crystallized.
2. Jumping.
3. Petrified.*
4. [Looted].*
5. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: Might actually lessen the CT a bit:
Order: 14
CT: 32
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Sleeping (Sleep)
Effect: Unit has instantly succumb to a deep sleep, taking extra damage from any physical attack, which will then awaken them.

Cancels: Now cancels Confused as well since it cancels Berserk. [/more stealing from Raven] [07/17/2012 EDIT: With Imperiled now taking over for Confused*, that cancelation no longer occurs.]

1. Charging.
2. Jumping.
3. Cautious.
4. Performing.
5. Berserk.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 23
CT: 24 (As of 03/29/2012. It might change.)
Freeze CT: Yes.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Immobilized (Imb) [Originally: Don't Move]
Effect: Unit has become unable to move for one reason or another, but is still able to act.

Cancels: Floating.*

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Dying now.** Might get changed to no longer be able to stack on top of itself. [07/17/2012 EDIT: Definitely no longer able to stack on top of itself.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Jumping.
3. [Looted].*
4. Stopped.*6
5. Immobilized.

Miscellany:
Order: 1C
CT: 24
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Disabled (Dsb) [Originally: Don't Act]
Effect: Unit has become unable to take any actions for one reason or another, but it is still able to move.

Cancels: As of 03/29/2012, it cancels two things, partly because of Silenced's return.

1. Charging.*5
2. Performing.*5

Can't Stack On Top Of: Might get changed to no longer be able to stack on top of itself. [07/17/2012 EDIT: Definitely no longer able to stack on top of itself, especially since it cancels both Charging and Performing.]

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6

Miscellany:
Order: 1D
CT: 24
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


Reflective (Rfl) [Originally: Reflect]
Effect: Unit has become surrounded by a barrier that causes certain magic spells targeting the unit to bounces off at twice the distance between the caster and the targeted unit.

Cancels: Nothing at present, it will probably end up canceling at least Misty status later...which as of 03/29/2012, it has. [07/17/2012 EDIT: This may cancel Imperiled...eventually. Otherwise, it's much the same.]

1. Misty.*5

Can't Stack On Top Of: That or it won't be able to stack on top of Misty. Might also make it, more so than Protected or Shelled status, be unable to stack on top of Doubtful status as well.

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. [Looted].*
5. Stopped.*6

Miscellany: Even more than Misty this is likely go to an infinite duration:
Order: 10
CT: 64*
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.


Doomed (Dmd) [Originally: Death Sentence]
Effect: Unit's body has begun to shut down rapidly, bringing a swift demise.

Cancels: [07/17/2012 EDIT: Even with Reraised* dead, Doomed will still be canceling Blessed as well as blocking it.]

1. Regening.*
2. Blessed.*7

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can no longer stack on top of itself, though IIRC it already couldn't do that unofficially. Oh well. No reason not to make it official then.

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Undead.*
4. Jumping.
5. Petrified.*
6. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6
8. Doomed.*

Miscellany:
Order: 9
CT: 3 [Measured in turns, not clockticks in this instance.]
Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.


* All new changes.

** Things left over from my messing around with Necromancy or other such things from a year ago and that are unimportant to change at present even though they didn't take.

*** Things enabled by hack or to be enabled by hacks.

**** Seems to work fine, but still needs to have the fact that it stops walking animation fixed.

*5 New as of 03/29/2012 decisions.

*6 New as of 05/01/2012 decisions.

*7 New as of 07/17/2012 decisions.



Addled (Silence)
Effect: Unit's memories have muddled and lost, making quick reactions and many techniques impossible.
Order: 21
CT: 0

Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.*
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.*

Cancels: No longer cancels Performing like how it was going to.

1. Charging.*

Can't Stack On Top Of: No longer affect units that are Performing like it was going.

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Performing.*
5. Petrified.*
6. Looted.*
7. Regening.*
8. [Wall].*



Blood Suck
Effect: Unit has become consumed by bloodlust and vampiric tendencies. [This status is dead now, making this entire section for it invalid.]
Order: 1E
CT: 0

Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: Yes.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.

Cancels:

1. Charging.
2. Jumping.
3. Defending.
4. Performing.
5. Confused.*
6. Berserk.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. Looted.*
6. [Wall].*




Looted (Treasure)
Effect: Unit is beyond saving and has left beyond an item that can be salvaged. [There's a good chance this is going to die.]
Order: 16
CT: 0

Freeze CT: Yes.
Count as KO: Yes.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: Yes.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.

Cancels: All other status.

Can't Stack On Top Of: As of 05/01/2012 (really, a while ago), can't stack on top of Dying since that should theoretically make phasing it out a lot easier.

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.*6
3. Jumping.




Reraised (Reraise)
Effect: Unit has gained the ability to automatically resurrect from severe injury once after a few moments.
Order: E
CT: 0

Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: Yes.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: No.

Cancels: Doomed.*

Can't Stack On Top Of: Can stack on top of Undead now.*

1. ????.*
2. Crystallized.
3. Dying.
4. Jumping.
5. Cursed.*
6. [Looted].*
7. Stopped.*6



Chicken
Effect: Unit has succumb to extremely low bravery and become a literal chicken for two turns or until its bravery raises to 10 or more.*** [This is probably getting replaced because it's a bit...too silly.]
Order: 4
CT: 0

Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.

Cancels: No longer cancels Float.* Now cancels Frogged since it's a literal polymorph.

1. Charging.
2. Jump.
3. Defending.
4. Performing.
5. Frogged.*

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrify.*
5. Treasure.*
6. Stopped.*



Confused (Confusion)
Effect: Unit is confused and begins to act randomly, equally becoming a threat or an aid to allies as much as foes.
Order: 19
CT: 0

Freeze CT: No.
Count as KO: No.
Can React: No.
Ignore Attacks: No.
Canceled by Immortal Status: Yes.

Cancels: 

1. Charging.
2. Jumping.
3. Defending.
4. Performing.

Can't Stack On Top Of:

1. Crystallized.
2. Dying.
3. Jumping.
4. Petrified.*
5. [Looted].*
6. Stopped.*6



As aforementioned, some of this stuff will undoubtedly change. At present, statuses most likely to change are Wall (I apparently lied about it counting as a KO when testing or maybe I changed that back a while ago), Frog (may not count as a KO if that affects the AI) and one other.

Similarly, I would like to do more with certain statuses that are still problematic to the AI, like Confusion, Death Sentence and Transparent, as well as statuses that at present have infinite duration that I don't think should like Berserk, Reraise and, again, Confusion and Transparent.


09/26/2011 EDIT: All statuses renamed and upgraded with their current relations to one another. Wall replaced by Misty and new "mystery" status added that still needs to be coded [once I learn how to code].

Speaking of Wall and things in brackets, all instances of [Blood Suck] and [Wall] mean they're invalid now.

03/30/2012 EDIT: Silence[d] makes its return/debut. I also fixed up typos, updated some statuses as marked by "*5" and excised Addled & [formally] Blood Suck while leaving Looted, Chicken and technically Wall alone for now.

05/01/2012 EDIT: Quite a few changes here. Stopped now basically blocks almost all statuses and currently will count as a (temporary) KO. Berserk no counts as KO and will no longer be immune to ??? or Poisoned, but still cancel them. Undead now cancels and blocks Blind. All instances of [Wall] on still active statuses excised. Blind is no longer blocked by Sleeping. Make Looted being unable to stack on top of Dying official even though it's still experimental.

07/09/2012 EDIT: Looted (Treasure), Reraised (Reraised), Chicken and Confused (Confusion) "officially" excised, though only Reraised's replacement, Blessed, and Confused's replacement, Imperiled, have been revealed. Also confirm that Defending, now Cautious, is no longer going to die. Also finally added a space for Blood Suck's long decided replacement.

07/16/2012-07/17/2012 EDIT: All existent statuses updated, including changing all instances of "Defending" to "Cautious". Also, reformatted all the existent statuses headers and interior sections, moving the Miscellany sub-section to the end of it as well as naming it Miscellany in the first place.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on March 11, 2011, 07:14:27 am
Ugh. Finally done with excising the unnecessary stuff from the class descriptions like things below Equipment, all of the "at present" redundancy, all of the Miscellany sections and most of the Innate Status & Starting Status parts since they're not used by any generic humans classes. Also, there are a lot less typos in the class posts now, sigh.

(05/23/2011 EDIT: Moving the Miscellany part from here back to the end of the class section under the complex classes.)


Soldier: Basically, it can now equip any and all pieces of equipment in the game except for Knight's Swords/Greatswords, Greatbows and Guns. All classes can equip Hair Adornments, Clothing and all Accessories, which now includes Perfumes being unisex, at present.

Knight: At present, I believe that I have all units capable of wearing Clothing, Hair Adornments and Perfumes, but not also Hats. I'll have to remember to double check this.

Marksman (Archer): The only class that equip Greatbows innately to further mirror Knight.

Priest: They've gained the ability to use Flails both due to 1.3 and FF history and they've gained the ability to use Books due to the fact that I'm letting all magical classes use them.

Wizard: They've gained the ability use Knives (mostly as a tribute to 8-Bit Theater) and Books, which all magical classes have. I may eventually let them use Staves, but they probably won't get anything else.

Acolyte (Templar): Replacing Monk, so basically everything is new outside of Clothing and non-Perfume accessories.

Chemist: Basically, like Orator (Mediator), they've gained every inconspicuous weapon. The only one that they haven't is Cloth. Like Mediator, they may ultimately lose Crossbow.

Illusionist: Considering they are replacing Oracle, they actually haven't changed that much. They gained access to Instruments and Cloths and lost use of Poles, but that's it.

Geomancer: Geomancers lost quite a bit of weapon choice, losing Swords, Axes and Shields to better reflect they're more magical than before.


Besides that, I finished adding everything to FFTPatcher this weekend, so technically I'm done with human generics already (for now) and have been on monsters all week...despite the fact that I've nothing to show it yet outside of some concept ideas and what's already been done. I hope to fix this later on today.

I did manage to send my equipment list off to RavenofRazgriz after making sure it wasn't full of typos like it idiotically was before. I also managed to update the first post with three more ASMs regarding name changing, Blindness and Overwhelm & Unyielding; I didn't update the changelog, though, just because my present changelog is a mess anyway.

In addition to that, going over things in FFTPatcher did give me some thoughts class-wise:


1. Soldier (Squire): Might likely get Brave UP or Counter Tackle over Move-Get JP, which will likely just die.

2. Knight: If it loses Counter Tackle to Soldier, then it will get Brave UP.

3. Marksman (Archer): I'm thinking of switching it and Mediator's place on the tree since, ironically, it's slightly easier to come up with beast-related physical classes than it is other archery-based classed. It would certainly make Draw Out-esque skills a LOT easier compared to the current POS that is "Arbalist".

4. Orator (Mediator): Might lose Charm if becomes Archer's HP replacement. Not really sure. If it does, though, then Paladin will probably become innately immune to Charm. If it becomes Archer's HP replacement, then it will probably take Defense UP from Knight.

5. Wizard: I'm considering excising the Tier 3 elements just because the whole elemental thing at present is rather iffy, especially since I still can't test things. They'll probably lose Doomsday back to Dimensionalist/Time Mage and get like, I don't know, "Scathe" as their Learn on Hit ability.

6. Priest: Similarly, Priest could very well lose Cure 3 and two other abilities to be symmetric with the "lesser" Wizard.

7. Acolyte (Templar): Lost Spell Absorb to Thief, which is now called "Steal Magic" at present. I just didn't feel like updating the class lists at present since I had enough to deal with making them actually coherent. Similarly, Confusion Song is now capable of adding Addle, Confusion and/or Charm instead of just Addle.

8. Arbalist: Still sucks at present. Sadface. (This class has been long dead now.)

9. Chemist: Still heavily considering weakening Holy Water, Fairy Kiss and Remedy and completely replacing Stimulant and Turtle Shell. I've been thinking about what would happen if/when FDC and Raven's formula thing happens and the stubborn skill sets can become side menus. I might keep Item as its own skill set just because of its power.

10. Thief: Gained Spell Absorb from Templar in "Steal Magic" and Sweet Dreams became a Separate Sleep, Poison and/or Blindness Knife-based attack that I'm considering need to require a Mantle as well. That might be a bit much, though. I suppose I should also point out that Muddle is blocked by Iron Will.

11. Illusionist: I lied about it being stable...big time. I'm considering killing all six "Lore" abilities sans Flash, but I have no idea what the hell to replace them with, especially since Vanish is kinda of...iffy due to the AI and it's not like we can replicate Blink or Lock or anything like that.

12. Geomancer: No changes here. Just another class I desperately need to test. I have been thinking, though, if that sub-menu thing goes through, then it will probably take Aero from Blue Mage, though Blue Mage might lose one or both of those spells anyway.

13. Dragoon (Lancer): No changes here. Sigh....

14. Hunter: No changes here. Double sigh.... (This class has also been long dead.)

15. Summoner: I think I might indeed switch Titan and Siren, but then I need to make Siren do something else I believe that Charm is one of the statuses that prevents Learn on Hit status.

16. Dimensionalist (Time Mage): I decided to let them keep Comet (for now). They'll probably get Meteor back via Doomsday, though it will be Learn on Hit only. RavenofRazgriz reminded me that the Ignore Attack option exists (sort of), so Stasis only needs Stop, really, and thus Wall is even more likely to change.

17. Mime: Their new innates will probably be Counter, Counter Magic, Awareness and...something else. Any Ground, maybe? Maybe Monster Talk, though that would mean that three classes would have it and given that Mediator might lose its Charm Immunity....

18. Blue Mage: I still can't think of anything better than "Changeling" to name it. Besides that, no changes since it's dependent on monsters, which I haven't done yet.

19. Minstrel: Siren Song actually adds Stop, I believe. This may change still, though. I still need to decide what to do with Hide when Wall status likely dies.

20. Paladin: Shield Bash is planned to be Wind-element and only hit enemies. Besides that, it's another class where everything just needs testing. I already know what to change Bulwark to in the likely event that Wall dies.


Beyond that, I've got a good feeling about Lucavi, so I should be able to blaze through those even without doing the number-crunching I wanted to do. I just hope I can be productive today at all considering....

(09/26/2011 EDIT: Haha. How naive I was. Anyway, all typos (that I found) have been excised and all names have been updated were applicable.)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 13, 2011, 07:07:22 pm
(Ugh. I hate double posting, much less triple posting, but given that it's not in the same day, I've become more lax about that [and everything else, apparently]. Sigh.)

So, I was about to finally start on monsters (properly) last night/this morning, distractions (rage-inducing, entertaining or otherwise) aside...when I realized that my plan for monsters--to use human skill sets because Monster Skill is pathetic and have monsters like the ones in philsov's ASM'd--kind of screws with my Deep Dungeon plans. Obviously, monsters are more important than some optional maps at the very end of the game, but it's still enough to give me pause for consideration, now. Maybe Monster Skill will have to (sigh) stick around.

Anyway, another point of consideration is that I'm thinking of replacing Red Chocobos with Light Blue Chocobos since Ignore Height is dying and Choco Meteor is probably dying (though Boco might get Non-Charge and Comet). Also, there's the fact that something that flies in-battle kind of beats something that's built for "mountainous terrain" since Fly is greater than Ignore Height. The Light Blue Chocobo would continue the tradition of being the river-traversing one, so it will most certainly get at least Walk on Water (or Move in Water, whichever one) to do so.

So, Light Blue Chocobo over Red Chocobo? Yay? Nay?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 23, 2011, 07:46:24 am
("+1 Yay, [Light] Blue Chocobo!" I mean, I'm basically talking to myself anyway at this point, so....

As such, I'll fix any typos later on today/tomorrow.)

Ugh. It shouldn't have taken me 10-ish days to get done with just generic monsters plus Boco, especially when I technically skipped 4 families of them and just now decided that I might do away with Hydras as well. Hell, I haven't even altered stats yet.

But, they're done, first (technically second) draft-wise anyway. I suppose it would have gone more quickly if I wasn't sleeping for like 9+ hours a day again or didn't want to make every monster slightly different or had my space more allotted or whatever.

Surprisingly, I still think I can get everything done to release a decent-ish 0.1 patch that's more about mechanics up to Chapter 2 by the 31st, even if I take a break tomorrow. Let's stop rambling, though, and talk about general things before getting into monster specifics.


1. Given that I know we can do it now by still screwing with whole numbers, weakness to something will be reduced to 1.25 or 1.5, while halving will become merely resistance and be .75 instead of .5. Not sure if I'll change Oil to boost Fire damage less yet; the other status thing I want that hasn't been coded yet.

2. Similarly, provided that weaknesses can be made to override absorption, I might turn back absorptions on monsters to not be resisted/halved, but at present, all in-game absorption is halved/resisted and has been for like a year.

3. As aforementioned, monsters will end up having (much) lower stats than before due to Blue Magic (which still needs a ton of balance) and Blue Mage. They will also now be using MP due to using human skill sets. As such, Monster Skill is dead now. (Off-handedly, Ignore Height is also dead now.)

4. Speaking of Blue Magic, I only noticed on Monday how many Lightning-based attacks it has compared to other elements. I've tried to fix this a bit along with giving it some other diversity, so it's gained at least three different attacks than they had before. (Perpetual Night and Frost are completely new--well Night is "old", but I fixed it actually to be learnable now by virtue of it now doing damage--and Magic Spirit became Sap Spirit.)

5. To somewhat make up for this, I've given all monsters four Innates, innate immunities to differing status and more elemental interaction. I perhaps went...somewhat overboard on this still, at least elementally. At present, monsters only have an interaction with six of the eight elements at most and no (generic) monster cancels any elemental anymore. This is a lot more fair than the original allotments for things like Woodfolk/Treefolk having had four absorptions or things like Dragons having had three cancellations or Behemoths resisting everything but Water.

6. Speaking of Water, while going through and re-doing everything, it ended up being the weakness of a lot more monsters than I would like it too, especially since Water abilities are still kind of...lacking. (Water weapons, though, actually exist now, so....) Similarly, Earth got kind of screwed over since quite a few things resist it (basically everything with Fly) or are actually completely immune to it because of Float. Earth was always intended to be the hardest hit element, though, alongside Fire, so that might be necessary anyway. It's not like it can't change. Any ideas with regards to possible focuses of Water are welcome.

7. With regards to water and terrain, a hell of a lot less monsters have Cannot Enter Water. It still exists due to unfortunate necessity (and is part of the reason that so many damn things are weak to Water at present), but a lot more monsters can Walk on Water now, which helps do away with "wet poaching" as well as offering them more mobility (since everything will have slightly less move anyway). Anything that can be "wet poached" will probably have shitty poaching rewards anyway. (Like Yellow Chocobos.)

8. Speaking of poaching rewards, I haven't touched that yet despite having had my equipment list done since last year. I'll probably get to it before I do the patch, though, since now I'm a lot more confident about the general direction of monsters.


With regards to the general direction of monsters, let's talk about the monsters I've skipped and why. By "skip", I mean "didn't redo and will be replaced via ENTD manipulation in any battles for the Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 patch I plan to release":

1. Skeletons - They're getting a complete make-over and becoming far more humanoid. They'll probably end up the monster most likely to have more than 4 abilities that's a generic. However, given that we still can't get equipment working on monsters right now and I still need to decide on those abilities, they have been skipped.

2. Ghosts - Have been skipped for a similar reason to Skeletons, though they're far less likely than Skeletons to get 4+ abilities for reasons I don't want to go into for right now.

3. Ithilids ("Pisco Demons") - Still not sure whether I just want to condense them into one Ithilid monster or not still. Regardless, they're definitely appearing in at least one story battle now, so they'll stick around.

4. Uribos - Still not sure whether to condense to one special monster or get rid of them completely. They're just so...not threatening. Not even in a "we feign innocence but will rip your throat out" way. I already have different sorts of Charm and Chocobos & Woodfolk/Treefolk are clerical monsters, so they're unnecessary. I also still need to decide what to replace them with.

5. Hydras - Technically not one of the ones I intended to skip from the beginning, so I worked on it a bit before deciding, "wow, there's no way to make these sensibly different from each other and everyone thinks they're overpowered anyway, so I'll probably just condense them into one or two monsters and replace them." I've already decided what to replace them with and, unlike Uribos, it's not as much of a priority since Hydras (or at least Tiamat) will still be definitely around, just as boss monsters.


With that said, I must thank philsov since I "borrowed" quite a few of his ideas when it came to the active abilities as well as the "3 shared abilities and 1 unique ability" schema for most monsters--at present, Malboros and Dragons are the only monsters who deviate from that scheme for reasons that will become rather apparent. Similarly, I suppose I should state here that no monster within a family will be overall weaker than another when it comes to stats--they'll all be good at something with the family, even if it will be annoying trying to "balance" 48+ monsters that way.

I should similarly point out that the order of (reaction) innates is important. The rightmost ones will have the most chance of trigger if the reactions take the same trigger. Also, all monsters are immune to Addle (Silence), but I'm going to list it repeatedly anyway.

Finally, quite a few of the monsters have human skills at present because I'm being kind of miserly about skill space (all of a sudden) until I get done with all special characters and Lucavi. I'll point out instances where they're likely to keep it, but otherwise think of any human skills (obviously not counting Blue Magic, which I'll denote with an asterisk) as placeholders.

I'll make it a separate post, though, since I don't want to risk getting cut off yet again.

As such, I'll partly explain why the hell it took me so long (beyond stupidity, sloth, sleepiness and lack of inspiration and what have you):

1. Trying to make 37 (12 families + Boco) units markedly different each while limiting yourself to four techniques is damn difficult. I arguably haven't done that for the 20 or so human classes and all of those (not counting Mime, of course) have at least 8 abilities and much more customization.

2. At the same time, I also had to limit myself to the type of attacks that monsters could have (since I've pretty much doing same of all [generic] units):


  • No Shock-based attacks.
  • No abilities that affect stats, whether it be to lower or raise them.
  • No abilities that manipulate Brave since that's the sole domain of Mediator and it would have to be pretty damn significant amount for it to be worth it on a monster.
  • No Quick-based abilities for the same reason.
  • No abilities that affect levels since degenerator stuff is utterly stupid.
  • No abilities that have the chance to add status that counts as a KO to more than one unit at a time, which included things like the vanilla Bad Breath (so stupid) with Petrify and Frog chances on top of everything else.


3. I have similar monsters to consider for what I want to do with some story battles and DD. The latter is ultimately expendable, but something I still have to consider from the beginning.


If anyone has suggestions with regards to what follows, then feel free to suggest them since really any comments would be nice. It would be somewhat encouraging to know that someone besides RavenofRazgriz and a couple of others have looked at this, though getting no response obviously won't discourage me at this point.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 23, 2011, 07:53:25 am
(As aforementioned, I'll fix any and all typos later on today or tomorrow. I kind of need a break after typing this up for the past four hours.)

Chocobos - Faithful, friendly steeds that can still peck or shoot your face off if you rub them the wrong way.


Common Abilities: Choco Cure/Choco Esuna/Choco Ball

1. Choco Cure is still the same at present.

2. Choco Esuna is now like ARENA Monk's Stigma Magic, which makes sense given that I lobbied for that, in that it's an instant, but single-targeting version of Priest's Esuna. It currently shares the same ISC with Esuna, meaning that when Esuna changed to removing Undead, Petrified, Addled, Cursed, Berserk & Doubtful, so too did Choco Esuna.

3. Choco Ball now can cause Blind, though this might change.

YELLOW CHOCOBO:

1. Move: 5 [reduced from 6]

2. Jump: 5 [no change]

3. Innate: Flee (Silent Walk) [NEW], Any Ground [NEW], Counter Tackle [NEW], Distribute [NEW].

4. Half/Resist: Wind; Weak: Earth.

5. Immune: Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Oily [NEW], Berserk [NEW], Poisoned [NEW].

6. Unique Ability: Choco Revive: Close-range, instant revival. It will cost a hefty amount of MP and wouldn't bring back much HP, though.


BLACK CHOCOBO:

1. Move: 5 [reduced from 6]

2. Jump: 5 [no change]

3. Innate: Flee (Silent Walk) [NEW], Fly, Counter, Caution [NEW].

4. Resist/Half: Earth; Weak: Wind.

5. Immune: Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Oily [NEW], Poisoned [NEW].

6. Unique Ability: Choco Guard - Self-AoE 1, ally-only All or Nothing Regening and Defending. (This is likely going to die.)


BLUE CHOCOBO:

1. Move: 5 [reduced from 6]

2: Jump: 5 [no change]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Flee (Silent Walk), Counter Tackle, Magic Def. UP

4. Resist/Half [All NEW]: Wind, Water; Weak: Earth.

5. Immune: Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Oily [NEW], Berserk [NEW], Poisoned [NEW].

6. Unique Ability: Choco Barrier - Self-AoE 1 Random Protect or Shell. Or, at least, it used to be before it turned into Self-AoE 1 Random Transparent, Protected, Shelled or Reflective after Roderick's Barrier died when Roderick got Wall.


BOCO, THE WHITE (?) CHOCOBO:

1. Class: 46 White Chocobo [from (Undead) Oracle**] (Might have him be a Red Chocobo just to be different.)

4. Move: 5 [increased from 3]

5. Jump: 6 [increased from 3]

6. C-EV%: 20 [increased from 5]

7. Innate [All NEW]: Non-Charge, Any Ground, Counter, Move-MP Up. [Non-Charge will probably become Short Charge.]

11. Resist/Half: Wind [NEW]

12. Immune: Invite, Blindness, Addle [NEW], Blood Suck, Oil [NEW], Berserk [NEW], Poison, Charm.

13. Choco Cure, Choco Esuna, Choco Ball, Comet (Choco Meteor), Confusion Song, Choco Recharge (Small Bomb [second]) & Raise. [Comet and Confusion Song are human skills that it will probably keep. Hell, it will probably get at least one other human magic skill. Boco now has Raise is also, of course, a human skill, and may be something that it eventually loses for...various reasons.]

14. Unique Skill: Choco Recharge - Restores MP to single-target that isn't Boco. Currently costs 15 MP to do so. Might increase or decrease depending. I'm now considering just having it cause Misty status.



Goblins - Monster pugilists who aren't as dumb as they look...though they're still somewhat dumb. Just don't say it to their faces. Goblins and Black Goblins are, at present, the only monsters who are completely neutral to all elements.


Common Abilities: Dash/Goblin Punch/Ogre Run

1. Dash is a human ability. They're keeping it since it's a step up from Tackle and saves space.

2. Goblin Punch is like Repeating Fist, but from a distance. It will probably be the only Blue Magic to remain at 0 MP when all is said and done, though it has a bit of a minor "wind-up".

3. Ogre Run is an 3v3 linear Earth Slash that does less damage but has a change to inflict Immobilized.

(RED) GOBLIN:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 4 [up from 3]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Any Ground, PA Save, Counter Tackle, Caution

4. No elemental affinities. [No longer weak to Ice.]

5. Immune [ALL NEW]: Addled, Poisoned, Charmed. [Vulnerable to [Blood Suck] now.]

6. Unique Ability: Eye Gouge - The 1.3 version that causes Blind and Confused.


BLACK GOBLIN:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 4 [up from 3]

3. Innate: Any Ground [NEW], Defend [NEW], Sunken State/Hide [NEW], Counter. [Will probably lose Sunken State.]

4. No elemental affinities. [Lost weakness to Ice.]

5. Immune [ALL NEW]: Addled, Poisoned, Charmed. [Vulnerable to [Blood Suck] now; consider making Black Goblin "heretical" and immune to Faithful and Cursed as well.]

6. Unique Ability: Sleep Holder - Close-range Sleeping-inducing "grab" that can be evaded. (Despite description, it is NOT persevering at present.)


GOBBLEDEGOOK/GOOBLEDEGUCK:

1. Class: 63 Gobbledeguck [Was considering going with "Lil' Murderer", but given the electric angle now, this is an even more humorous name.]

2. Move: 3 [no change]

3. Jump: 4 [up from 3]

4. Innate [All NEW]: Any Ground, PA Save, Speed Save, Caution. [Might get any Cannot enter water and gain move 4.]

5. Resist/Half: Lightning; Weak: Water. [No longer weak to Ice.]

6. Immune [ALL NEW]: Addled, Poisoned, Charmed. [Vulnerable to Blood Suck now.]

7. Unique Ability: Thunder Knuckle - A lightning-fast, Lightning-based punch that can possibly paralyze the target, causing Disabled.



Bombs - Fire spells gone horribly, these magical weapons, even with the collective weakening of their innates, would probably still kick your ass if I allowed them to appear early game. (Might change the name of one these jokers to "Balloon".)


Common Abilities: Fiery Emission/Drench/Self-Destruct

1. Fiery Emssion has a chance to add Oil now, but at present it's more or less the same thing as Flame Attack.

2. Drench is philsov's idea: Separate Disabled or Oily that hits only enemies over a 3 range, AoE 1 distance.

3. Self-Destruct will be Critical only now. Otherwise, it's the same.


RED BOMB:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 3 [no change]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Critical Quick [NEW], Levitation (Float), Any Weather [NEW] [Float move returned over Floating status with the loss of both Defense UP and Iron Will (Finger Guard) innately.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Fire; Half/Resist: Lightning & Dark; Weak: Water & Holy. [No longer resists Ice; is technically immune to Earth.]

5. Immune [ALL NEW]: Undead, Petrified, Addled, Chicken, Frogged, Poisoned, Regening, Immobilized.

6. Unique Ability: Spark - It is still exactly the same as vanilla at present.


GRENADE:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 3 [no change]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Critical Quick [NEW], Levitation (Float), Defense UP [NEW] [Float move  returned over Floating status with the loss of Iron Will (Finger Guard) innately. Since Grenade has retained its Defense UP, it will have the least HP among Bomb families.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Fire; Half/Resist: Ice & Dark; Weak: Water & Holy. [No longer resists Lightning--let's just blame that on its "anti-ice armor"; is technically immune to Earth.]

5. Immune [ALL NEW]: Undead, Petrified, Addled, Chicken, Frogged, Poisoned, Regening, Immobilized.

6. Unique Ability: Blast Furance/Hell's Furance - 2 range, tri-directional, Fire-based, anti-Faith attack that has a chance of causing Oily, Cursed and/or Doubtful at present. Probably needs a nerf.


EXPLOSIVE:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 3 [no change]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Critical Quick [NEW], Levitation (Float), Short Charge [NEW] [Float move  returned over Floating status with the loss of both Defense UP and Iron Will (Finger Guard) innately.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Fire; Half/Resist: Lightning & Dark; Weak: Water & Holy. [No longer resists Ice; is technically immune to Earth.]

5. Immune [ALL NEW]: Undead, Petrified, Addled, Chicken, Frogged, Poisoned, Regening, Immobilized.

6. Unique Ability: Flare - Wizard skill. Placeholder due to the only other thing I could think of probably being a horribly unfair idea. (Lol, persevering Flare.)



Panthers - Poison-clawed, prim, status-heavy cats. They are often kept as pets for...some reason, at least by Vampires.


Common Abilities: Poison Claw/Hastebreak/Cat Kick

1. Poison Claw is an always Poison ability that absorbs a bit of HP.

2. Hastebreak is the always Slow version of Poison Claw, though it's closer range. It replaces Pounce, which was going to be a reluctantly used version of philsov's Execute attack until I realized how utterly it screwed with my plans.

3. Cat Kick is a solid-damaging attack with a chance to cancel Performing, Defending and Charging.


(RED) PANTHER:

1. Move: 4 [no change]

2. Jump: 20 [obviously increased from 4 because Ignore Height is even more worthless than I realized; will probably become 10]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Move in Water, Silent Walk, Speed Save, Counter. [Decided to give Red Panther and Coeurl Move in Water over Cannot Enter Water due to the advantages that the Vampire Cat/Shadowcat had over them. I'm also still curious about what happens with sprites that initially couldn't enter water when they do/can since I don't remember testing it...; IIRC, the spirtes are fine for the most part.]

4. Resist/Halve: Earth; Weak: Ice. [Ugh. So many things were weak to Water already, even though it's still kind of scarce as an attacking ability, so they become weak to Ice instead. Also become resistant to Earth rather than Lightning like the Couerl.]

5. Immune [All NEW]: Dying, Confused, Addled, Faithful, Doubtful, Doomed. [Vulnerable to [Blood Suck] now. Immunities mostly shaped by "9 lives" adage or whatever the saying counts as.]

6. Unique Ability: Catnip - a Direct, currently Wind-based ability that randomly causes Confused, Berserk or Charmed to a target.


COUERL:

1. Move: 4 [no change]

2. Jump: 20 [obviously increased from 4 because Ignore Height is even more worthless than I realized; probably be reduced to 10]

3. Innate: Move in Water [NEW], Critical Quick [NEW], Counter, Speed Save [NEW]. [Decided to give Red Panther and Coeurl Move in Water over Cannot Enter Water due to the advantages that the Vampire Cat/Shadowcat had over them. I'm also still curious about what happens with sprites that initially couldn't enter water when they do/can since I don't remember testing it...; IIRC, the spirtes are fine for the most part.]

4. Resist/Halve: Lightning; Weak: Ice. [Ugh. So many things weak to Water already, even though it's still kind of scarce as an attacking element, so they became weak to Ice instead. Couerls resist only Lightning, not Earth like Red Panthers do.]

5. Immune [All NEW]: Dying, Confused, Addled, Faithful, Doubtful, Doomed. [Vulnerable to [Blood Suck] now. Immunities mostly shaped by "9 lives" adage or whatever the saying counts as.]

6. Unique Ability: Blaster - A now Lightning-element, as it traditionally is, status attack that causes Addled, Slowed, Immobilized or Disabled randomly.


VAMPIRE CAT:

1. Initially renamed "Vampire" to "Shadowcat" because that would be confusing when I want to make a "Vampire" class and "Vampire Cat" isn't much helpful, even if that's rather apt. I changed it back to Vampire Cat, though, for a couple of reasons, including having a plan that I I could use "Shadowcat" for otherwise. Hehe....

2. Move: 4 [no change]

3. Jump: 20 [obviously increased from 4 because Ignore Height is even more worthless than I realized; not really necessary because of Teleport, but I want consistency and it prevents fall damage. It will probably be reduced to 10.]

4. Innate: Cannot enter water, Regenerator [NEW], Speed Save/Adrenaline [NEW], Teleport [NEW].

5. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark; Resist/Halve: Lightning, Ice; Weak: Fire, Water and Holy. [Ugh. So many things weak to Water already, but this has to keep that. I don't like it having three weaknesses, as do a couple of other monsters, but it's going to be pretty damn buff, so....]

6. Immune: Dying [NEW], Undead [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Poisoned [NEW], Doomed [NEW]. [Immunities mostly shaped by Vampire cliches in addition to "9 lives" adage or whatever the saying counts as. Technically, the Vampires in my patch might not be Undead, but instead be "mortality-impaired".]

7. Unique Ability: Blood Suck - Elmdor's, not the Vampire Cat's (which got used for Catnip), though the percentage of the Blood Suck chance for Elmdor's was changed to 25% a year ago. This is "technically" a human ability since human Vampires will have it as well (as well as Elmdor still having it).

Now that Blood Suck status is dead, it causes Undead & Berserk at 100% now. We'll see how problematic that is, but it will still be less problematic than Blood Suck as a whole, much less Blood Suck as 100%.



[Insert Illithids here.]


[Insert Skeletons here.]


[Insert Ghosts here.]

Flying Eyes - Anti-magical winged cyclops, their gaze abilities are fearsome, but mostly only one if out in the open or of a weak will. They will protect their eyes at all costs.


Common Abilities: Piercing Gaze/Charm Gaze/Reflect

1. Piercing Gaze is basically a weak 5v5 Light/Holy-based linear laser-beam attack that I'm allowing to be reflected at present. I've considered letting all the other, non-damaging Gazes be subject to be Reflect, but that seems unnecessary when they're already affected by Iron Will (Finger Guard) at present.

2. Charm Gaze is basically philsov's Hypnosis by a different name. Attempts to add Charmed or Sleeping to a Direct target. Allowed to be range 3 instead of his range 2 simply because of another attack (Illusionist's Mesmerizing Lights) with a much wider range and technically Gazes don't work on those who are affected by Sleeping status due to the formula it's using at present.

3. Reflect is the human ability. I was originally going to use philsov's Radiance, but given what I want to do with Flying Eyes, they'll probably end up getting an anti-Reflect ability if anything. So this is a placeholder.


FLOATING EYE:

1. Move: 5 [no change since they're so light]

2. Jump: 2 [reduced from 5 since it doesn't matter with Fly and they're so light that they should get messed up from falls]

3. Innate: Float [NEW], Counter Magic [NEW], Fly, Magic Def. UP [NEW] [Since, IIRC, like Bombs I planned for them to be "magic weapons", they're still magic-adept magic-haters. The Floating Eye is just lazy about it since I decided to run with its name. Might even nix its Fly ability eventually; probably not, though.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Half: Lightning & Holy; Weak: Ice, Wind and Water. [Wind weakness is exclusive to the Floating Eye. It will probably need buffer stats than I originally intended to give it due to having three weakness, though I suppose I could make it lose its Water weakness....]

5. Immune [All NEW]: Blind, Addled, [Blood Suck], Frog & Immobilized. [As much as I wanted to leave them vulnerable to Blind, I'd imagine they would protect their eyes at all costs.]

6. Unique Ability: Stun Gaze - 3 range, direct Gaze that randomly adds Slowed, Immobilized or Disabled to the target. Resisted by Iron Will as aforementioned.


AHRIMAN:

1. Move: 5 [no change since they're so light]

2. Jump: 2 [reduced from 5 since it doesn't matter with Fly and they're so light that they should get messed up from falls]

3. Innate: Cannot enter water, Counter Magic [NEW], Fly, Magic Def. UP [NEW]. [Since, IIRC, like Bombs I planned for them to be "magic weapons", they're still magic-adept magic-haters.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Half: Lightning & Holy; Resist: Earth; Weak: Ice and Water. [Earth resistance just added (for now) since I think all creatures with Fly will have it and it's more fair than giving them immunity to Earth as I had originally, foolishly planned]

5. Immune [All NEW]: Blind, Addled, [Blood Suck], Frog & Immobilized.

6. Unique Ability: Devil's Gaze - 3 range attack with no vertical (at present) that's Direct, resisted by Iron Will and attempts to add All Blind, Cursed and Doubtful now to a single target.


DOOMGAZE:

1. Move: 5 [no change since they're so light]

2. Jump: 2 [reduced from 5 since it doesn't matter with Fly and they're so light that they should get messed up from falls]

3. Innate: Cannot enter water, Counter Magic [NEW], Fly, Damage Split [NEW] [Since, IIRC, like Bombs I planned for them to be "magic weapons", they're still magic-adept magic-haters. As seen with Damage Split, Doomgazes will embody the "eye for an eye" idea.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Half: Lightning & Holy; Resist: Earth; Weak: Ice and Water. [Earth resistance just added (for now) since I think all creatures with Fly will have it.]

5. Immune [All NEW]: Blind, Addled, [Blood Suck], Frog & Immobilized.

6. Unique Ability: Doom's Gaze - 3 range attack with no vertical at present that's Direct, resisted by Iron Will and an attempts to add All Poison and Death Sentence to a target.



Aevis(es?) - Rather large, predatory birds. Though the Cockatrice is the most infamous and arguably deadliest one, the Axebeak and the Steel Aevis are formidable, dangerous foes themselves.


Common Abilities: Shine Lover/Hawk Glare/Beak

1. Shine Lover is the 1.3 self-Regen and Haste version that everyone seems to love. I'm almost tempted to give it to Panthers instead....

2. Hawk Glare has long since been Aero's replacement--partly because them having a Wind-based attack when they're currently weak to Wind was damn stupid--as a distance Disabling ability. I may end up resisted by Iron Will, but currently it's "only" physically-evadable.

3. Beak is now within the domain of all Aevises instead of just Cockatrice. It still causes Petrified & Reflective, but it is now physically evadable.


AXEBEAK:

1. Move: 4 [reduced from 6]

2. Jump: 4 [reduced from 6]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Cannot Enter Water, Fly, Speed Save [NEW] [Arrow Guard might get changed to something else eventually. I'm still unsure.]

4. Resist/Halve: Ice, Earth & Holy; Weak: Fire & Wind. [I don't think they need to absorb anything, even with them being a lot more fair elementally at present. They used to be immune to 3 different elements, which is kind of...ridiculous obviously.]

5. Immune [All NEW]: Petrified, Addled, [Blood Suck], Poisoned & Doomed. [I'm going to allow them to be hit by Floating unlike how I originally had it; Steel Aevis is the exception.]

6. Unique Ability: Brain Crush - A close-range, unavoidable dive-bombing attack with a chance to Addled. I might change that to Addled & Doomed later, though then I'd probably have to buff Necrophobe's Fate Transfer. I might also just truncate the name to "Brain", though that seems a bit too short as well as ripe for confusion with Mindflayers and other things still around.


STEEL AEVIS:

1. Move: 3 [reduced from 6; it's heavier than the other two. It will also probably have less evade.]

2. Jump: 5 [reduced from 6; it's also strudier.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Cannot Enter Water, Fly, Defense UP [NEW] [Arrow Guard might get changed to something else eventually. I'm still unsure.]

4. Resist/Halve: Ice, Earth & Holy; Weak: Fire, Lightning & Wind. [I don't think they need to absorb anything, even with them being a lot more fair elementally at present. The odd one out by being weak to Lightning. Again, not terribly crazy about it having three weaknesses.]

5. Immune: Petrified [NEW], Floating, Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Poisoned [NEW], Doomed [NEW]. [I'm going to allow them to hit by Floating unlike how I had it outside of Steel Aevis. I'm considering giving Steel Aevis back the permanent Reflect status I foolishly had given all Aevis, though only initially instead of permanent.]

6. Unique Ability: Feather Bomb - As philsov's version, it's "light" damage attack that is unevadable and meant for sniping, though mine is Fire-based at present. It has the distinction of having the longest ability range in the game among generics at present at range 6.


COCKATRICE:

1. Move: 4 [reduced from 6]

2. Jump: 4 [reduced from 6]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Cannot Enter Water, Fly, MA Save [NEW] [Arrow Guard might get changed to something else eventually. I'm still unsure.]

4. Resist/Halve: Ice, Earth & Holy; Weak: Fire & Wind. [I don't think they need to absorb anything, even with them being a lot more fair elementally at present.]

5. Immune: Petrify [NEW], Addle [NEW], Blood Suck, Poison [NEW], Death Sentence [NEW]. [I'm going to allow them to hit by Float unlike how I had it outside of Steel Hawk.]

6. Unique Ability: Stone Breath - Cockatrice's replacement for Beak might be the deadliest new ability in the game as it is the only multi-target (only/All) Petrified ability in the game. I felt that I had to make it linear with a range of 2 just to make it "fair".



[Insert Lamias here.]


Woodfolk/Treefolk - Gentle, clerical guardians of the forest, they will punish anyone who intrudes upon the forest and aid anyone who respects it.


Common Abilities: Leaf Dance/Sap Spirit/Rootgrapple

1. Leaf Dance is much the same, except with vertical 5, Wind element and boosted power.

2. Sap Spirit is Blue Mage's Magic Spirit except that it's basically Bizen Boat now instead of a piss poor MP restoration ability. It ignores allies. (03/18/2011 EDIT: Except this is dead now, so not really.)

3. Rootgrapple is a persevering Earth-element attack that can't be evaded and has a chance of adding Slow and/or Don't Move every time it hits that AoE 2 area. It doesn't ignore allies.


WOODMAN:

1. Still needs a better name in my opinion, though I can make it work if I have to.

2. Move: 3 [No change. I think the Move of only 2 that people tend to do is rather unnecessary and limiting.]

3. Jump: 3 [No change. Much the same as the above, the Jump of only 2 the people tend to do is rather unnecessary and limiting.]

4. Innate [ALL NEW]: Regenerator, Counter Flood, Move-MP Up, Walk on Water. [Much better than cannot enter water and Counter. Woodmen are meant to be the most impetuous and aggressive of the Woodfolk.]

5. Absorb & Resist/Half: Water & Light/Holy; Resist/Half: Earth; Weak: Lightning & Dark. [Much more fair than four absorbs and additionally resisting Fire, with Taiju/Feywood being immune to Fire.]

6. Immune: Undead [NEW], Petrified [NEW], [Blood Suck], Floating, Frogged [NEW]. [Probably the last monsters I'll make immune to Frog as well as perhaps Undead.]

7. Unique Ability: Spirit of ???? (Protect Spirit) [I really need to think of a four letter noun that's somewhat synonymous with "protection". Closest I have is "Care", which kind of sucks.] - AoE 2 Protected & Regening ability.


TREANT:

1. Move: 3 [No change. I think the Move of only 2 that people tend to do is rather unnecessary and limiting.]

2. Jump: 3 [No change. Much the same as the above, the Jump of only 2 the people tend to do is rather unnecessary and limiting.]

3. Innate [ALL NEW]: Nature's Wrath/Counter Flood, Regenerator, Move-HP Up, Walk on Water. [Much better than cannot enter water and Counter. Treant are meant to be more passive like their FFXII selves, more "mature" than the Woodman.]

4. Absorb & Resist/Half: Water & Light/Holy; Resist/Half: Earth; Weak: Lightning & Dark. [Much more fair than four absorbs and additionally resisting Fire, with Taiju/Feywood being immune to Fire.]

5. Immune: Undead [NEW], Petrified [NEW], [Blood Suck], Floating, Frogged [NEW]. [Probably the last monsters I'll make immune to Frogged as well as perhaps Undead.]

6. Unique Ability: Spirit of Calm - AoE 2 Shelled and Regening ability.


FEYWOOD:

1. Move: 3 [No change. I think the Move of only 2 that people tend to do is rather unnecessary and limiting.]

2.  Jump: 3 [No change. Much the same as the above, the Jump of only 2 the people tend to do is rather unnecessary and limiting.]

3. Innate [ALL NEW]: Counter Magic, Counter Flood, Regenerator, Walk on Water. [Much better than cannot enter water and Counter. Feywood are meant to be the most sturdy and passive of the Woodfolk. I might make them have Move 2, but eh....]

4. Absorb & Resist/Half: Water & Light/Holy; Resist/Half: Fire & Earth; Weak: Lightning & Dark. [Much more fair than four absorbs and additionally resisting Fire, with Taiju/Feywood being immune to Fire.]

5. Immune: Undead [NEW], Petrified [NEW], [Blood Suck], Floating, Frogged [NEW]. [Probably the last monsters I'll make immune to Frogged as well as perhaps Undead.]

6. Unique Ability: Spirit of Life - Basically 1.3's AoE 2 revival with the same weak revival that philsov's Rebirth has. Will cost an hefty chunk of MP regardless.



Bull Demons - Surprisingly talkative, these bullish humanoids are somewhat brash and arrogant, though they've the superior strength of multiple oxen to back it up.


Common Abilities: Wave Around/Blow Fire/Intimidate

1. Wave Around is currently a rather weak, if unable to avoided, Self-AoE 1, Lighting-element attack that ignores the user.

2. Blow Fire is going to be a weaker Fire Breath that aims for the eyes and thus attempts to Blind rather than add Oil. It needs to be more than that, though.

3. Intimidate is the Mediator ability, though of the Don't Act kind and not the minus Brave/Fury kind. Provided all goes well with my testing of it, they'll probably keep it and even get other Orator abilities.

BULL DEVIL:

1. They might switch names/positions with Minotaurs for...reasons I forget at the moment.

2. Move: 3 [no change]

3. Jump: 4 [increased from 3]

4. Innate: (P)A Save [NEW], Cannot Enter Water, Brave UP/Fury UP [NEW], Counter. [Again, the Class C one is the "most reckless" one.]

5. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Earth & Dark; Resist: Fire; Weak: Water & Holy.

6. Immune: Confused [NEW], Addled [NEW], Floating, Chicken [NEW], Sleeping [NEW] & Disabled [NEW]. [Now vulnerable to Blood Suck, not that this matters now. Might lose immunity to Sleeping.]

7. Unique Ability: Mimic Titan - A close-range, heavy damaging ability Earth-element Auto-AoE that's technically not unique because it's shared by Ochu (which had it first) since the previous unique ability, "Bull Rush", just caused the AI to kill itself with recoil like an idiot.

MINOTAUR:

1. Move: 3 [reduced from 4]

2. Jump: 4 [increased from 3]

3. Innate: (P)A Save [NEW], Cannot Enter Water, Counter, Move-HP Up. [Move-HP Up might end up changing to something else.]

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Earth & Dark; Resist: Fire; Weak: Water & Holy.

5. Immune: Confused [NEW], Addled [NEW], Floating, Chicken [NEW], Sleeping [NEW] & Disabled [NEW]. [Now vulnerable to Blood Suck, not that this matters now. Might lose immunity to Sleeping.]

6. Unique Ability: Curse of Rage - A range 2, vertical 3 MA-based ability that adds Curse and Berserk to a target.


SACRED:

1. Much like Floating Eye, I decided to run with the weird name and make it so that the Class A Bull Demon lived up to its name. "Sacred" is pretty much a sarcastic thing it calls itself since it enjoys mocking Ivalican religion, knowing the truth about what/who Ajora really is and such. Besides, the alternate name is already being used, but I can't say anything else about at the moment.

2. Move: 3 [no change]

3. Jump: 4 [increased from 3]

4. Innate: MA Save [NEW], Cannot Enter Water, Counter, Short Charge [NEW]. [Short Charge being some of the necessary advantage for the sake of Holy (maybe).]

5. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Earth; Resist: Fire, Holy & Dark; Weak: Water. [Given that Sacred make a mockery of the Holy thing, I felt that it was better to make them resistant to Holy while sacrificing their ability to absorb Dark. I might make them immune to Dark, though. Not sure.]

6. Immune: Confused [NEW], Addled [NEW], Floating, Chicken [NEW], Doubtful [NEW], Sleeping [NEW] & Disabled [NEW]. [Now vulnerable to [Blood Suck]. Again, given the Sacred's mockery of religion, immunity to Doubtful is appropriate. Might give it immunity Faithful as well. Not sure.]

7. Unique Ability: Holy - Priest's Learn on Hit Only ability. This human skill being here is decided and not just a placeholder thanks to the conversation in ASM'd monsters thread that happened between philsov, RavenofRazgriz, Eternal and myself.



Malboros - Fair less gentler plant creatures, these carnivorous, scavenging cesspools of poison and disease can float upon scum-pads on the water. The Ochu is a close cousin of them.


Common Abilities: Constrict/Bad Breath

1. Constrict is a weak, close-range physical attack that grabs an enemy and persevering crushes their limbs, possibly inflict Don't Act, Don't Move and/or Slow with each squeeze.

2. Bad Breath is an auto-AoE 2 that hits self. Luckily, all of the Malboro family is immune to everything it causes. Animists...not so much. (To allay any possible fears, Bad Breath doesn't inflict Doomed, just like it doesn't inflict Petrified or Frogged anymore either.)


COMMON MALBORO:

1. Called "Common Malboro" now since I don't want any monster to have a name that's the same as the family as a whole avoid confusion.

2. Move: 3 [no change]

3. Jump: 131/3 [Thanks to philsov, I now know that Malboros can actually be used as stepping stones, so this isn't an error (even if it doesn't mean anything outside of Nelveska). It basically translates to Jump 3.]

4. Innates: Counter, Alertness [NEW], Regenerator [NEW], Walk on Water. [I really have to learn how to change the names of things in FFTPatcher. It will be SO much easier to remember things then.]

5. Absorb and Resist: Wind & Water; Resist: Dark; Weak: Fire & Ice.

5. Immune [ALL NEW]: Blind, Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Poisoned, Charmed, Sleeping & Doomed. [They can be affected by Floating now since apparently ones from FFIX could.]

6. Shared Ability (with Great[er] Malboro): Cloying Breath - 2v2 Linear Attack that can add Slowed and/or Sleeping to anything that breaths it in.

7. Unique Ability: Goo - Like philsov, a MA-based attack with a chance to add Poisoned, Immobilized or Disabled rather than a non-damaging chance to add one of those.


OCHU:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 131/3 [Thanks to philsov, I now know that Malboros can actually be used as stepping stones, so this isn't an error (even if it doesn't mean anything outside of Nelveska). It basically translates to Jump 3.]

3. Innates: Regenerator [NEW], Absorb Used MP [NEW], Arrow Guard [NEW], Walk on Water. [I really have to learn how to change the names of things in FFTPatcher. It will be SO much easier to remember things then.]

4. Absorb and Resist: Earth & Water; Resist: Light/Holy; Weak: Fire & Ice. [I thought to make Ochu resist Light instead of Dark since I'm making them so different from Malboros & Great Malboros and they're even more plant like anyway.]

5. Starting Status: Sleeping. [They're rather lazy....]

6. Immune [All NEW]: Blind, Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Poisoned, Charmed & Doomed. [They can be affected by Sleeping. Hell, they start out the battle Sleeping at present. They're kind of narcoleptic.]

7. Shared Ability #1: Water/Aqua - Something of a placeholder that's shared with Roderick at present. ...Which means that Ochu will have spell quotes.... So now it's a somniloquist too?

8. Shared Ability #2: Mimic Titan - Ochu thrashes about like a pelutant child, causing Earth-based tremors in an Auto-AoE 2 area. Not able to be dodged. Now shared with Bull Devil.

9. Unique Ability: Rest - A self-targeting move that restores 80% health at the cost of causing the unit to succumb to Sleeping. Planned to be Critical Only and cost quite a bit of MP, though that's more so that the AI doesn't end up whoring it. It might restore less HP, but I can't see it going beneath 50% considering the costs.


GREAT(ER) MALBORO:

1. Move: 3 [no change]

2. Jump: 131/3 [Thanks to philsov, I now know that Malboros can actually be used as stepping stones, so this isn't an error (even if it doesn't mean anything outside of Nelveska). It basically translates to Jump 3.]

3. Innates: Regenerator [NEW], Short Charge [NEW],  Counter, Walk on Water. [I really have to learn how to change the names of things in FFTPatcher. It will be SO much easier to remember things then.]

4. Absorb and Resist: Wind & Water; Resist: Dark; Weak: Fire & Ice.

5. Immune [All NEW]: Blind, Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Poisoned, Charmed, Sleeping & Doomed. [They can be affected by Floating now since apparently ones from FFIX could.]

6. Shared Ability (with Common Malboro): Cloying Breath - 2v2 Linear Attack that can add Slowed and/or Sleeping to anything that breaths it in.

7. Unique Ability: Putrid Breath - With Bio III dead (and a placeholder besides), Greater Malboro now has an even more dangerous form of Bad Breath. It is so dangerous that it needs to be single-target, close-range AND Critical only, though that latter part my change since it tends to screw over the AI (if close-range).



Behemoths - These cursed beast of burdens are said to be omens of disasters. (They're certainly omens of pain in the ass considering it took me two days just to think up anything decent with them and I STILL can't haven't thought of a third skill ability. Basically think of them as sturdy, less critical-hitting Absols.)


Common Abilities: Mark of the Beast/Cursed Wail/Disaster Warning

1. Mark of the Beast is basically a weaker Stab-Up that has chance to make the unit become Cursed.

2. Cursed Wail kills any unit that's Cursed instantly at a range of 3. Basically Death to the Cursed.

3. Disaster Warning is an AoE ability that causes Don't Act and/or Confusion. (In Ulmaguest's slot.)

LESSER BEHEMOTH:

1. Move: 4 [no change]

2. Jump: 131/3 [no change]

3. Innate: MA Save [NEW], Cannot enter water, Defense UP [NEW], Counter.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Wind; Resist: Fire, Ice, Lightning; Weak: Water. [They might lose resistance to Thunder/Lightning.]

5. Immune: Confused [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Cursed [NEW], Floating, Charmed [NEW], Disabled [NEW].

6. Unique Ability: Tornado - The same as Hashbrow...er I mean, Hashmalum's. This was planned from the beginning. Lucavi will be getting weaker stats as well, so this ultimately be as face-exploding as it was/is in vanilla and 1.3.


KING BEHEMOTH:

1. Move: 4 [no change]

2. Jump: 131/3 [no change]

3. Innate: MA Save [NEW], Cannot enter water, Defense UP [NEW], Counter.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Earth; Resist: Fire, Ice, Lightning; Weak: Water. [They might lose resistance to Thunder/Lightning.]

5. Immune: Confused [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Cursed [NEW], Floating, Charmed [NEW], Disabled [NEW].

6. Unique Ability: Quake - The same as Hashbrow...er I mean, Hashmalum's. This was planned from the beginning. Lucavi will be getting weaker stats as well, so this ultimately be as face-exploding as it was/is in vanilla and 1.3.


DARK BEHEMOTH:

1. Move: 4 [no change]

2. Jump: 131/3 [no change]

3. Innate: MA Save [NEW], Cannot enter water, Defense UP [NEW], Counter.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Dark; Resist: Fire, Ice, Lightning; Weak: Water & Holy. [They might lose resistance to Thunder/Lightning.]

5. Immune: Confused [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Cursed [NEW], Floating, Charmed [NEW], Disabled [NEW].

6. Unique Ability: (Perpetual) Night* - A "fixed" Night ability, it is now a Dark-element attack that hits everything on field except for the caster and has a chance to inflict Sleep.



Dragons - Here they be. Covetous, winged reptiles with death breath, dragons will probably be around quite a bit more in vanilla and 1.3 (and maybe even other patches). They'll still probably not be as smart as a lot of other fantasy dragons tend to be, though.


Common Abilities: Dragon Roar/Tail Swing

1. Dragon Roar is a Auto-AoE 2 ability that inflicts random Slowed, Immobilized or Stopped and can't be dodged. Given what I want to maybe do with Stop, it might eventually lose that and possibly become Don't Act. That would at least free up yet another Inflict Status spot since I went through so many of them just for monsters....

2. Tail Swing is the same as vanilla. It probably needs to be buffed to 1.3 standards or somewhere in between eventually.


GREEN DRAGON:

1. Again, I wish there was a less bland name to call them, but given what I plan for other monsters, especially these types, this isn't exactly name room. Hell, I had to change the other two Dragons just because of that lack of "space" naming-wise.

2. Move: 3 [reduced from 5]

3. Jump: 131 [no change]

4. Innates: Cannot enter water, Dragon Spirit [NEW], Fly [NEW], Move-Find Item [NEW]. [IIRC, Dragons have working Flying sprites. They just don't use them like Worker 8 for some reason. Someone feel free to correct me on this. At present, Move-Find Item is just kind of "there", but no other monster has it and it fits with covetous idea. I'll just have to make sure to have them never appear on the first battle of map that opens up if I let them keep it.]

5. Absorb and Resist: Lightning; Resist: Fire & Earth; Weak: Water. [Yeah. Something else weak to Water. Kind of annoying...]

6. Initial Status: Reraised.

7. Immune: Dying [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Floating & Poisoned [NEW].

8. Unique Ability #1: Lightning Breath - Lightning-based breath attack that will be the weakest of the three in exchange for unable to be avoided.

9. Unique Ability #2: Burst - Just insert "Lightning-element attack" into Gil Storm's old description: "The covetous dragon spitefully magnetizes a target, which then has its flesh repeatedly shredded by Gil. Perserving, random-hits, anti-faith, follows target and currently range 5 initially, though the initial range might decrease given how nasty it could end up being. It CAN be avoided though and the CT is rather necessarily lengthy."


FROST DRAGON:

1. Move: 3 [reduced from 5]

2. Jump: 131 [no change]

3. Innates [ALL NEW]: Dragon Spirit, Fly, Defense UP, Walk on Water. [IIRC, Dragons have working Flying sprites. They just don't use them like Worker 8 for some reason. Someone feel free to correct me on this. Frost Dragons will probably have the least amount of HP because of Defense UP.]

4. Absorb and Resist: Ice; Resist: Earth & Water; Weak: Fire & Lightning.

5. Initial Status: Reraised.

6. Immune: Dying [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Floating & Poisoned [NEW].

7. Unique Ability #1: Ice Breath - The same range 2, linear Ice-element Ice Breath as before, except with a chance to Slow now.

8. Unique Ability #2: Freeze - With Frost being given to Ghosts, this has become a range 4, AoE 1 spell that has a chance to add Stopped.


FIRE DRAGON:

1. Move: 3 [reduced from 5]

2. Jump: 131 [no change]

3. Innates: Cannot enter water, Dragon Spirit [NEW], Fly [NEW], Move on Lava [NEW]. [IIRC, Dragons have working Flying sprites. They just don't use them like Worker 8 for some reason. Someone feel free to correct me on this.]

4. Absorb and Resist: Fire; Resist: Lightning & Earth; Weak: Ice & Water. [Yeah. Something else weak to Water. Kind of annoying.... Equally annoying is the fact that Fire Dragon has a worse version of Dragon's weakness. I don't particularly mind this given that I plan for all of them to be useful, but the asymmetry that presents is...vexing. Yet I don't want to not have the regular Dragon be weak to anything or resist to anything else, so I'm not sure how to fix it at present.]

5. Initial Status: Reraised.

6. Immune: Dying [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Floating & Poisoned [NEW].

7. Shared Ability (or was with Bomb): Fire Breath* - Arguably what started the drive to have all three dragons get their two "unique" abilities since Fire Breath is at present rather weak. (With current stats, though, Bombs will still rip your face off even with the buff to starting equipment if I left them at Sweegy. You DON'T want to face two of them so early in the game, especially with units you can't even control.) The Fire Breath that Bomb has and the one that Fire Dragon has, though, will probably become separate if similar abilities like Blow Fire (which I was initially going to just have also be Fire Breath).

8. Unique Ability: Ardor - A version of Giga Flare that has actually been touched, it aims to be the Fire-element ability with the most AoE of overall. Think of it as draconic carpet-bombing.


[Insert Tonberries here.]

* Able to be learned by Blue Mages. (03/18/2011 EDIT: Defunct as of this. Outside of that Bad Breath note, I'm not giving people any clues.)

** Given the minor problems that Dome was having with Boco's skill set in 1.4, I already both used something different and changed the only battle where an Undead Oracle even appears (so wasteful) already; the male Undead Oracle that was at Poeskas Lake is now a male Undead Summoner.


With that finally, finally done, I can now move on the special monsters, including Lucavi, who should be pretty easy since their skill sets already exist for one thing and are present massive wastes of space that could use my malevolent touch. Beyond that, I suppose making a list of what I still need to get done before a theoretical patch release on the 31st:

1. Still need to do special characters, at least the ones appear up until the end of Chapter 2 where you fight Queklain. This includes both special humans and monsters, both allies and enemies.

2. Still need to do Tactext stuff, though that should be easy enough, if tedious.

3. Still need to see if I can get my emulator up and running now.

4. Still need to redo Arbalist's and Hunter's spaces, though I've ideas now.

5. Change all of the ENTDs with regards to Chapter 2 where appropriate. The initial fights in the prologue and Gariland Magic City have been changed and already have planned changes for Sweegy up to the Wiegraf fight. After that, mostly when it comes to Chapter 2 and some random battles, I'm not so sure.

6. Learn how to event edit since I'm unsure of tactext covers that. It would be really minor things with regards to Boco and maybe giving Rad actual lines for now. Maybe a bit more with regards to the other special character who isn't taking Cloud's spot.

7. Learn how to code. Not necessary before the release. It would help with formula and mechanics testing, though.


Yeah...leaving myself just a week for this. I'm so glad I'm masochistic.

(09/27/2011 EDIT: Such horrible naivete again. Regardless, Illithids, Skeletons, Ghosts, Lamias & Tonberries have been added and all monsters have been updated as best as possible. There are likely some typos given how long it took me to redo all of this. ...Hmm, as I suspected. I went over the limit again with those five. I'll just post them in a new post.)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Pride on March 24, 2011, 05:10:57 am

As mentioned on the chat, I feel like too many of that status immunities are thrown around and given to the monsters as a decision that there isn't much other way to improve them. Granted monsters do need a lot of help, I just always feel this isn't the best way to do it. Maybe just a few here and there.





As mentioned on chat, I thought Choco Ball proc Oil was very strange until you mentioned the Black Chocobo was originally getting a fire based attack, which I still wouldn't be opposed to as that is their common role in most of the games. If you keep Choco Guard on them, then I would suggest something like Blind, Don't Move, or even Slow. Sort of a low end status just added on as a slight perk.

I would recommend Seperate or All or Nothing for Choco Barrier as a way for it to get a little more room on the Priest.

Boco being a White Chocobo has become very popular recently, I don't see much wrong with it but I don't really care for  Confusion Song.




They have a monkish vibe to them with a few status spells sprinkled on the two lower tied ones. I don't like how the Black Goblin has Defend as an innate skill considering how foolish the ai is with it... Also an interesting choice to make them vulurable to Blood Suck, making them more "human" then most other monsters.




Hm... Well Bombs are Bombs. Hard to really give them some flair. Drench seems underpowered considering Oil is only good for one hit before it disappears. I also find it very strange that they are weak to Holy, I'm assuming because they are like some possessed fire lanturns or something. Grenade seems like the best of the bunch currently, having innate Defense Up and a seemingly very powerful unique ability. Flare on Explosive further shows that they are difficult to make interesting. :/





Pounce... If you were willing to borrow from FFTA, I believe they had an ability that cancelled Haste and perhaps this could be extended here as an alternative. I think it could fit as your current Cat Kick cancels a few status as well. Teleport seems a bit strange even with the theme of the Shadowcat.

Other then that... I believe they are fine.





I was thinking you could move down Death Sentence from the Doomgaze monster and giving them something else (perhaps a spell that has a chance of death / petrify?). They seem like a powerful status class much like the Malboros. Personally I'm thinking they are actually really solid besides the filler move "reflect".



I'll look at more classes later today but I can feel I'm starting to get more and more tired. You also have  a lot more information I'll comb through as well
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 24, 2011, 01:48:39 pm
(Reposting this because of all the typos that were in there. Damn persistent headache.)

Thanks for the feedback, Pride. I'll get to my (I would vainly hope) concise reply in a bit.

So, last night, before I finally got to bed an hour and a half after that random (or maybe not so random) severe headache, I decide that, given what I want to do with Lucavi, the only Lucavi that I'm going to bother changing (more) before that planned 0.1 release is Cuchuulain. I mean, the other Lucavi already have their (very) different Innates and will (probably) keep them sans the changes I might make (later), but I doubt I'll change their stats for now. I might change their skill sets and other things, but they're not getting any unique skills like Cuchuulain/Queklain is.


As such, here's my itinerary for today:

1. Enact my plans for Fear since I apparently haven't already.

2. Decide on Cuchuulain's Innates and abilities.

3. Finish changing all the ENTDs for the Chapter 1 story battles and maybe start with Chapter 1 random battles.

4. Deal with all special characters related to Chapter 1, including the Prologue. So that means, off the top of my head, I have to decide on: Chapter 1 Ramza, Chapter 2 Ramza, Chapter 1 Delita, Chapter 1 Wiegraf, Algus*, Miluda, Gafgarion, Agrias and, arguably most importantly of the non-Ramza characters, Rad.

5. Take stock of how much free Ability space and Inflict Status space I still have left after that.

6. Start reading up on coding since it's been more than a year since I read the tutorial.

7. Try to clean up this thread a bit.


That's probably all I'll get around to today unless I get pretty inspired and/or decide on some of the more nebulous generic monster and/or human issues. (Hmmm...I should probably look through sprites again.)


*Speaking of Queklain/Cuchuulain, I must ask a question: How do people feel about the PSP names? I'm not going to make the language overly flowery whenever I get around to event changes and in-game text changes, but it seems like the name scheme changes should be consistent with characters if I'm trying to do it with abilities. Something like Algus vs. Argath is something I'm curious about.

Quote from: Pride on March 24, 2011, 05:10:57 am
I'll look at more classes later today but I can feel I'm starting to get more and more tired. You also have a lot more information I'll comb through as well


That's an overly nice way of saying I'm a long-winded bastard. Thanks.

And, yeah, take your time. I doubt most people even read most of my long-winded posts--and I don't exactly blame them--and as such I certainly wouldn't expect most to slog through the entirety of one of my overly loquacious ramblings.


General:

1. Yeah, I admitted that I felt that monsters currently are outright immune to too much, even with having made sure that they have no elemental negations (sans Levitation [Float movement]) this time around. I'll probably end up reducing the amount of statuses that many of them are immune to while lamenting that I can't make them merely resistant.


Chocobos:

1. Yeah, I suppose I should have mentioned publicly that Black Chocobos originally had Choco Flame, but that became Choco Revive since I figured it wasn't worth the time and that another monster besides Woodfolk/Treefolk needed revival.

2. As such, the proc for Choco Ball will most likely change. I think that Blind is probably the best choice, even if I feel like I've been giving that to too many things and most of the initial weapons outright block it. (Although, arguably, that makes Blind even better to put in early game, especially with how difficult to balance Don't Act and Slow are.)

3. I suppose Separate Protect and Shell wouldn't be bad. All or Nothing is a bit much for something you get so early in the game, even with Debarrier around.

4. I know that everyone is using White Chocobo for Boco, which part of the reason I don't want to. I want to be "special", damn it! *pouts*

5. For the record (since I'm unsure how much you're aware of beyond monsters due to aforementioned wordiness), Boco's Confusion Song is Templar's Confusion Song, which randomly causes Addle, Charm OR Confusion. I don't think there's a single technique anymore that causes just Confusion given how stupid the AI is with it. Just like how there probably won't be a single technique that causes just Death Sentence until/if we can fix those AI problems since "Death Sentence: Ignore Dead" sure as hell doesn't fix all of it. Duly noted, though.


Goblins:

1. Yeah, Goblins are meant to be the "Monks" of the game now, to the point that I was actually briefly considering giving them Innate Martial Arts. However, that would have both been foolish and hypocritical of me since Martial Arts is so damn stupid and that was point of getting rid of it and Monk anyway.

2. Similarly, Defend on Black Goblins probably is a bad idea. For some reason, I don't want to give them Caution, though. Probably because I don't want it interfering with their Counter. They'll probably end up with something besides Defend, though.

3. All humanoid monsters (that aren't Undead) are planned to be vulnerable to Blood Suck now. This includes Goblins, Ithilids and Bull Demons and possibly whatever replaces Uribo.


Bombs:

1. Yeah, Drench might underpowered. I could make it All Oil and Don't Act instead of either or, especially since Bombs will NOT be appearing early game now. (Earliest they'll appear is Chapter 2, probably after Araguay is cleared.)

2. With regards to them being weak to Holy/Light, I'll have to look through my (overly messy) notes in Word, but I believe it's because I wanted something that was weak to Light that wasn't a demon. Additionally, I believe I wanted an angle that "The Church" made anti-magic weapons that was weak to the type of magic that they used, i.e. Holy. However, between that no longer being anything but Learn on Hit for generics and the fact that Bull Demons are also weak to Water and Holy (baring Sacred), this might change. At present, I might make them neutral to Light and weak to Dark or Wind. Even though it would be consistent with what I want to do with Velius/Belias, I'm surprisingly reluctant to make them weak to Ice given that it seems pretty dumb that you're make an anti-magic weapon that's weak to one of the primary elements of your most common mage--at present, Wizard only has one Learn via JP Dark attack and no Wind attacks, the latter of which might indeed become the domain of "The Church" via Illusionist.

3. Glad to see you like Grenade. The "armor" is a reference to its visual appearance in FFIX. (http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/espmon/bomb.shtml) I am a bit weary that I've given Defense UP and/or Magic Defense Up to too many things innately, though it's part of the reason why those abilities have (reduced) effectiveness equal to Attack UP and Magic Attack UP now.

4. Eh, I'm sure that I can think of something better than Flare. Like I said, I just couldn't think of anything better while going through outside of the horribly unfair "Stalker Flare", which the AI wouldn't be able to use nearly as well as the player anyway. (Which is the one of the last thing I want when it comes to abilities, hence why almost all stat boost abilities are dead.) Besides, I was being miserly with my space as it is and I'm sort of bouncing around the idea of making Flare Learn on Hit only like in FFV (akin to Holy) since Doomsday is likely to go back to Time Mage/Dimensionalist.


Panther:

1. Hastebreak is the ability you're talking about and, indeed, something I've considered that since last year. Problem is that there's no formula that comes close to doing what it could actually do, which is Slow or Stop only Hasted units--for the record, this inability is why Thief's "Borrowed Time" ability exists since it's a combination of Hastebreak and the FFX-2 (http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/jobs/thief.shtml) ability of the same name. I can't recall if I've said in this thread, but given the still-technically limited space of monsters, I don't want to "waste" an ability spot on an ability that exists only to cancel a status, especially since the way that formulas are, many of those techniques ONLY affect units with that status. Hence why Cat Kick does actual damage now. Still, I suppose that I would maybe give them a Hastebreak that's "just" Slow attack. That would be preferable to Execute, at least with what I want to do with the ARH. Although, a Slow attack does kind of run counter to forcing Hasted units to just bleed out faster by Poison Clawing their faces off.

*briefly considering having Poison cancel Haste*

2. Vampire Cats/Shadowcats might indeed lose Teleport. For some reason, I was under the impression that Blood Suck forces units to Teleport, perhaps because the only battle it's guaranteed to ever come up is the second Elmdor one where you're pretty forced to use Teleport to minimize his stupid Blade Grasp. Not sure what else I would give them over it, though. Maybe Move-HP Up since Regenerator isn't guaranteed to activate, but that might be a bit much.


Flying Eyes:

1. I'm rather weary of giving anything generic an add Dead ability. I really don't like those abilities on generics for the most part, which is why Cursed Wail is the closest thing anyone has to them and replaced "hey, you're MAYBE instantly Dead" Sudden Cry. The only generic ability that has a chance to add Dead/Dying status at present is Odin, which is both Learn on Hit only and the only Summon that can be outright evaded and even that might change.


I look forward to yours or anyone else's comments. Now, with that lengthy diatribe done, I can begin my work for today.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Dome on March 25, 2011, 02:35:33 pm
The damned, how you made this possible?
"undead monsters no longer crystallize or turn into chests"
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 25, 2011, 03:22:28 pm
Ugh, damn annoying necessity of sleep. I've been rather oversleeping lately still, including taking stupidly long naps (which I've always hated) mid-day. Yesterday was such a day. As such, I didn't get nearly as much done as I would have liked and the itinerary has shifted slightly.

What I Got Done:

1. I looked at Queklain/Cuchuulain and decided that most of the innates are actually fine for what I want to do since despite being normally redundant, he should probably have lower HP than he would normally need without them for...several reasons.

2. I changed some generic jobs around. Mediator and Archer/Marksman have fully swapped places, meaning that Mediator now officially leads to the jobs I still need to change (which will, as such, no longer be Archery-based, though they'll still be physically oriented of course even as "meh" as Mediator physically is); Archer now leads to Thief and Chemist, which arguably makes more sense given what I want to do.

3. Related to stuff happenings, Mediator has Defense UP now and Knight has Attack UP now. I've also decided on what to do with the hitherto class-less RSMs: Archer has Focus; Blue Mage has Unyielding; whatever the hell Hunter becomes has Overwhelm; Thief has Alertness.

4. I looked at the ENTD stuff for Chapter 1. I got horribly sidetracked when I remembered how stupidly prevalent Virgo is. As such, I've already changed several birthdays of both enemy and ally characters. More will probably change later since I'm just focusing on Chapters 1 and 2 for now.


Speaking of ENTD, my itinerary has changed to editing the Resources ZIP since it's rather...annoying to try to change equipment to more appropriate solutions when nothing has been renamed in FFTPatcher. I'll probably end up doing stats sooner than later too.

Quote from: Dome on March 25, 2011, 02:35:33 pm
The damned, how you made this possible?
"undead monsters no longer crystallize or turn into chests"


Just make them immune to Crystal and Treasure. They'll eventually get back up, though perhaps not immediately at the count of 0. Alternately, you could make Undead status itself immune to Crystal and Treasure and it would have the same effect, just broader.

At present, that only affects Skeletons & Ghosts and I was actually considering changing it back a bit--Skeletons would only be immune to Crystal whereas Ghosts would only be immune to Treasure--since I wasn't sure if it would end up as overly obnoxious, especially considering I want monsters to be stronger but not necessarily by being (generic) OHKO machines.

So, yay or nay to undying Undead?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RandMuadDib on March 25, 2011, 07:08:45 pm
I don't necessarily think its a good idea to give the undead status immunity, because the ai would not understand that it needs to remove undead from the player to kill it properly. Otherwise undead becomes a multi-use reraise. Personally I say only critters that are innate undead should have immune crsy/treasure
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 28, 2011, 03:06:27 am
(Reposting this because I updated and fixed the first post.)

Yawn. I'm going to have to push back my intention to get a 0.1 patch out by Mar. 31st to a more "reasonable" goal of Apr. 7th between feeling piss-poor & thus sleeping away half of the day because of it and the realization that I've more left to do than I thought.

I did at least get some work done this weekend, though:


1. All Chapter 1 story battle and storyline ENTDs have at least been somewhat modified. In the case of storyline "edits", it's not event editing (yet), but merely zodiac sign changing and a few other things to keep the story consistent. They'll be fully changed once I decide on what levels Equipment should be.

2. While doing the above, I realized what an idiot I am because I don't have an accessory that blocks Sleep; only a Robe does at present. That will have to change, especially given what I want to do at one early storyline battle.

3. While I was at it, I brutally murdered all Degenerator traps.

4. I decided on Fear fixes, though one of them will need me to learn how code a status first.

5. I went over the Inflict Status list. I was able to excise about 11 things and I might have space for as much as 26 more; I realized that, for some Squaresoft-esque reason, I had three different inflict status codes just for Salve, which might still be dying. Ugh.

6. The ENTD changes to Chapter 2 have pretty much been decided on, at least up to Zirekile Falls. They just need to be implemented. In the case of Zirekile Falls, I really need to watch the sprite limit.

7. Equipment-wise, Perfumes are looking like they might completely die again despite being unisex now. They're not too different and I could really use some "beginner" accessories or at least accessories that aren't so bloated. Perfumes will probably stick around for the 0.1 patch, though.

8. I've decided that Flare will become Learn on Hit only for Wizards. This might change back, but at present, it will mean that Explosives will probably get to keep Flare for now.

9. Soldier's going to lose some RSMs: Equip Axe will probably go to Hunter; Move-Get JP will likely just die. Gained EXP UP and/or Move-Get XP might also just die, in which case they'll probably get Brave UP.

10. Panther's Pounce is dead. I just need to figure out what to replace it with.

11. I'm not going to be using that Stolen or Broken Fur Shop hack for...several reasons.


Currently trying to decide on some special character sets, starting with Chapter 1 Ramza and differing him from Squire Delita and Squire Algus. I think I've finally figured out how to do that given that key problem was that Soldier already has 15 abilities and differing them by one ability, especially when Ramza has two other forms that themselves need "unique" abilities, would be rather narrow.

I should probably update the front page, though.

****

Okay, so that's done:

1. Removed the few typos that Raven missed.

2. Updated the elemental stuff. (With regards to weakness and resistance.)

3. Updated the monster list. (With regards to pretty much everything, especially Uribos and Hydras.)

4. Updated the ASM list. (Add 3 ASMs: Undead Oracle mount, Slow 25% and Alertness [though I was always planning to use that]. Lost the aforementioned Stolen or Broken one.)

5. Updated the special character list. (Mostly just with some additional hints and the fact that Boco has been done.)

6. Updated the misc. stuff.

7. Killed the changelog for now since it was a mess.


And some other stuff. I also realized that I probably need to go back and talk about zodiac signs and Gil briefly. I'll do that in a minute.

****

Itinerary for tomorrow since I'm going to try to go bed around midnight for once (or would have had if this computer wasn't depressingly slow and hadn't delayed me for half an hour):

1. Do all special classes in Chapter 1, including Rad, Gafgarion and Agrias. Not sure that Miluda needs anything special.

2. Look over ability spaces that are left that.

3. Try to figure out Queklain/Cuchuulain's special ability.

4. Start trying to really figure out stats.

5. Make a damn accessory that blocks Sleep. (I already have one picked out.)

6. Do all the tactext entries for Items.

7. Maybe look at the tutorial for coding again finally (if I'm feeling well enough).

8. Oh and finally see if I can run the damn emulator on this computer again.


Additionally, things that are related to some of the above, like Wizard and Chemist, will probably see some changes tomorrow too, but that goes without saying.

Quote from: RandMuadDib on March 25, 2011, 07:08:45 pm
I don't necessarily think its a good idea to give the undead status immunity, because the ai would not understand that it needs to remove undead from the player to kill it properly. Otherwise undead becomes a multi-use reraise. Personally I say only critters that are innate undead should have immune crsy/treasure


I never intended to do that. I was merely telling Dome of another way to do what he asked.

So noted, though.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Dome on March 29, 2011, 07:25:37 am
The never dying undead idea is awesome, but only generic undead monsters should benefit from it
Might be a bit broken if given to every zombified unit
(Btw, I'll implement it in 1.4, hope you don't mind)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 02, 2011, 07:11:25 pm
(Ugh. There's no way in hell that going through the entire ability list should have taken thrice as long as I anticipated.)

So...first things first while working down from my infinite rage that has arisen for various reasons, some unrelated to this project.

Firstly, a large, belated thanks to Cheetah for granting me permission to use his Red Mage sprite for Rod and his "unique" Red Mage class. I've yet to implement it (or any sprites still), but it's nice knowing that I've permission now since Rod will be more important to the story (at least where Chapter 2 is concerned).

Secondly, as you may have noticed, I seem to be misspelling "Rad" as "Rod". Well, I'm not. Henceforth, Rad will be called "Rod(erick)" in my patch. I was considering using the PSP name (like I am for a lot of characters still)...until I found out that it was fucking Ladd--excuse my expletive. Seriously, "Ladd"? What. That's not even...Rad is better than that. Given that Roderick is actually, you know, a human name and a European one at that, I figure I'll use that; I also happen to like the name Roderick a lot for some reason, so that works for me.

Thirdly, after all the delay that it's caused me, mostly because Soldier is closer to the "traditional" Red Mage at present and because of formula limitations when it comes to making "unique" healing spells, Rod's Red Magic is finished...for now. There were additional considerations and changes I had to make alongside shifts to some other classes:

1. Red Magic ignores Faith at present. When I get or make some damn formulas that work, though, they will use Faith. Just like every other magician except Mr. Master Magician who replaces Cloud.

For a skill set that was originally intended to reflect Gafgarion's cautious nature and want of surety, Red Magic spells are rather...iffy at present. Also, to call it Red Magic is a bit...weird at present since even without the other new character to consider, even with said character not going to be around for 0.1 patch. Clerical units aside, there's nothing to replicate "doublecast" White Magic...or any interesting non-used White Magic.

As such, at present, Red Magic is more a combination of Black Magic and the no-longer existent Yin-Yang Magic. It only has 8 spells--I was originally going to give it Spell Absorb and Life Drain as well. These names are tentative, though I'm more comfortable with the ones that aren't "Double [Element]":

1. Double Fire - Twice-hitting, single-target Fire element ability. Strongest.
2. Double Ice - Twice-hitting, single-target Ice element ability. Medium. Slight chance of slow.
3. Double Bolt - Twice-hitting, single-target Lightning element ability. Weakest. Unable to be dodged. Lesser chance of Slow or Don't Act.
4. Barrier - Single-target random Protect, Shell, Reflect or Transparent ability.
5. Wish - Like ARENA's Transfusion ability now.
6. Lethargy - Multi-target, separate Sleep and/or Slow ability.
7. Mute - Multi-target, separate Addle and/or Don't Act ability.
8. Venom - Multi-target, separate Oil, Blindness and/or Poison ability.


2. Due to the "power" issues of Red Magic, the Double spells have taken place of the level 2 Wizard spells for the sake of some equipment. The level 2 Wizard spells have been bumped up to the level 3 slots and the level 3 spells have been bumped up to level 4 slots.

3. Now, the more astute may be thinking "Wait, but wasn't he using the Level 4 slots as shitty Illusionist spells"? And to that I say, "Yes, I was." At present, as aforementioned, the Lore-esque abilities have died are replaced by things that are...honestly still quite likely to change.

1. Aero - There are technically two Aeros now since I don't feel like changing Wind Soul. It's an AoE 1 Wind-based damage ability that ignores allies.
2. Aero 2 - An AoE 2 Wind-based ability that doesn't ignore allies.
3. Vanish - A single-target, Transparent adding ability that can target the user.
4. Vanish 2 - A multi-target, Transparent adding ability that can't target the user.
5. Dread Image - An auto-AoE Slow ability that is the most likely to change.
6. Flash - Still the same.
7. Mesmerizing Lights - Still the same.
8. Terrorize - Still the same.


4. Going back to Wizard, it's lost Doomsday (back) to Dimensionalist. Dimensionalist has lost Chronos, which in turn became Scathe for Wizard since Flare is Learn on Hit only now. This may yet change.


Finally, I made sure there's an accessory that blocks Sleep like I should have from the beginning. You're going to need it. I also took the liberty of buffing White Staff again while at the same time saving an Inflict Status spot.

Hmmm...I feel like I'm forgetting something, but maybe it's just fatigue from being awake since yesterday.

At present, all I'm probably going to do for the rest of the night is change all the random fights for Chapter 1, change Sweegy Woods and Sand Rat Cellar again and try to finally read up on the tutorial before my brain gives out. Also at present, other special characters can take a back seat for now. I'm tired of staring at that damn ability list.

Quote from: Dome on March 29, 2011, 07:25:37 am
The never dying undead idea is awesome, but only generic undead monsters should benefit from it
Might be a bit broken if given to every zombified unit
(Btw, I'll implement it in 1.4, hope you don't mind)


As I said before, feel free; thanks for asking, though. There's a good chance I won't even use it despite having an additional way to put/keep them down for good.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 04, 2011, 10:20:45 pm
(Sigh. I'm so off today. Even moreso than recently....)

So, finally trying to get around to finishing the first draft of ENTDs, I quickly stumbled when I realized there's no way that to tell where the hell the starting positions are. That is...problematic, to say the least.

There was the additional problem of the directionals (from the world map) being somewhat sketchy, but that's been solved.

It's been solved because I finally verified that my emulator still runs smoothly enough to be of use. (I also think I accidentally deleted my 1.3030 copy after finally beating Zalmo after not playing for a year almost solely because of him. Whoops. Oh well, "moral" victory and crap like that.)

I'll just copy and paste the observations I made in Notepad here since I need to take a break after that dismal failure. (Keep in mind, this was done without any of the ASMs, though I doubt that would have changed much [outside of perhaps Fury].)

Lol, Dead Malak's Hell Knight class only has 1 Speed and other shitty stats. I also keep forgetting that Rad's initial spritesheet is a female Ninja for some reason.

It would seem that Ice's linearity is "wonky" and goes in two directions if you try to target diagonally.

Rapiers aren't as glitchy when they attack I thought they would be. I'll still have to fix them, though.

Fire follows the caster.

Things are doing way too little damage outside of Best Compat. crap. I'd imagine that elemental weakness is the same problem.

The AI seems to be using Revive competently at least.

Throw really needs to die.

Bible needs to be buffed.

Bio 3 is a green spirit-like effect.

Demon Fire is white bubbles from below.

Bio 1 is black bubbles from above.

...Shit. Revive works even if the unit isn't next to them when it resolves.

Lol. Boco's spritesheet appears to be a male Oracle. Weird seeing Delita causally toss Ovelia on him and then ride off on him. Hunh.


****

It would seem that the leader Squire got made into the Archer some how. I could have sworn that I replaced the Chemist....

Ramza still has Battle Boots, damn it.

Crap. Scream has a "power at max!" thing that comes up after it goes off. More evidence that Scream needs to die.

I might have increased break abilities too much....

Gravity Rod is so much better than Oak Staff it's ridiculous.

Holy crap, Dash does quite a bit of damage....

Crap. Charge does the same thing that Revive does. I wonder how to stop that. I doubt I can without somehow replicating the inability to move that the original Charge inflicts. Hmmm...

Cure could maybe use a bit more power, but it isn't nearly as bad as Black Magic at present, especially given its AoE.

Hunh. So you can do more than three prizes without the game bitching at you. Good to know.

For some reason Ice Rod comes after the other two Rods. Hunh.


****

The Thief change appears to have gone smoothly.

Lol. The Bull Demon I put there for testing is for some reason behind Ramza and facing the wrong way.

It looks like Algus still has Battle Boots as well. Hmmmm....

Hmm...I just realized that Delita still showed up in the menu despite the fact that I've changed his instructions. I must have forgotten something in the Magic City Gariland fight.

Ffff...Algus has Blue Magic too. Well, at least I know Blaster works.

Hmmm...the Bull Demons are shown as only having Counter. That's...not good.

Hunh. The computer used Shell on itself without being damaged. That's...odd. Good, but odd.

Same with Protect as well. Hunh.

So the Bull Demons do have a skill set. It just a blank because of the space used. Not sure why Counter is showing, though. Maybe because what I did with the RSMs.... They can talk at humans. Let's see if they can talk to each other though....

Weird seeing a unit land from Float via Equip Change even though I know I've tested it before.

And Algus continues to whore Blaster for some reason.

Holy shit. Bull Rush did 120 damage...and then the Bull Demon was promptly killed by the recoil. Fff....I need to Revive it to test the damn thing.

So much initial Regen wearing off....

...Bolt is still doing multiple strikes? Damn it.

Good. Now Fiery Emission from Algus for decent damage (20).

Threaten has a shitty hit rate.

Bows also seem to be the only things doing decent damage. Same with Javelin. Maybe I should up all starting WP to that area....

Make that 40. It would seem that I had forgotten about the fire halving. I'll need to do tactext tonight.

Lol. I just realized the Thief's replacement is named Gaston. I don't remember that name naturally being in the game.

Fff....the Bull Demons can't use Talk Skill on each other despite both being monsters. This is problematic.... Well, at least now I know. Also, made sure that Death Sentence didn't have a prompt that popped up.

...And the enemy Bull Demon kills itself with Bull Rush again. Not looking good for that ability....

Hunh. I don't remember there ever being a prompt for Algus to join. ...What did I fuck up?

And Delita is still in the menu. Sigh....

****

Time to check out the whole random battle thing.

Good. As soon as I moved towards Mandalia from Igros, random battle. Now, let's see....

Possible starting postions from Igros are [11,9], [11,8], [10,7], [10,6], [11,6], [10,5] and [11,5].

Good. Igros does correspond with Mandalia Plains North, so it's like thought and IS the direction you come from and not the direction you're going. Still doesn't clear up the whole "west" thing, though.

And Red Panther has...a 84% Petrify ability that it shouldn't have. Okay....

Yay, 81% Eye Gouge....

At least Poison Nail works, though.

****

Somehow gave Ramza Nameless Song rather Nameless Dance and didn't give the Squire abilities cost like  I thought they had since they kind of need to. (If they're not costing JP, though, then why the hell isn't the computer Auto-Mastering them?)

...Going to have to buff Mime's HP an absurd amount.

Crap. Odin and Midgar Swarm can still be learned via JP.

Weird. I didn't make any reactions free.


****

Okay, good. Mandalia Plains West 1 is indeed supposed to be Mandalia Plains East 1, which means that Mandalia Plains South 1 is indeed from Thieves Fort.

Beyond that, it would seem that the starting positions from the east are [0,5], [0,6], [0,7], [0,8], [0,9], [1,5], [1,6], [1,8] and [1,9].

Crap. Steal Luck's Curse prompt won't show up when it's targeting.

Comet wasn't Mimic'ed. Crap.

Yellow Chocobo disappears when Counter Tackle activates. Crap.

And Polka Polka isn't doing anything....

Animation needs to be changed for Orge Run.

Nameless Song doesn't appear to be working either.

At least Caution on Goblins doesn't cause any glitches.

Lol at winning via Confusion.

****

Replacement monsters are Sweegy Woods appear to not have any problems at the opening. It would seem that the Floating Eyes aren't...Floating, though. Maybe that's why monsters had Float blocked; maybe I just forgot, though.

Wow. Look of Fright's hit rate is abysmal at present. Even with Bad compat., it shouldn't be 12%.

It would appear that monsters that couldn't move in water are fine without Cannot Enter Water.

Hunh. Algus appears to be actually useful and show me what happens with Counter Magic for the new spells. It's not horribly buggy like I thought with regards to Ice linearity. I'll have to test Fire before I kill them....

Piercing Gaze looks pretty neat with Wing Attack's animation still being the same. Hunh.

So Fire Counter Magic seems to be centered on the person who cast Fire, but without hitting the counterer.

Bull Rush thing happened again. Sigh.

Okay. So Bolt isn't as weak as I thought given that it hits 4 times and isn't evadable. However, I'm probably going to change Black Magic again, so....

****

Okay, so the starting positions from Sweegy Woods West 1 are different from the story battle starting positions. The Sweegy Woods West 1 are [0,2], [0,3], [0,4], [0,5], [1,2], [1,3], [1,4], [1,5] and [2,1].

Also, rather annoying to be reminded that just because two or more different things have a chance of being randomly present doesn't guarantee that either one will appear. Hmmm....


It would seem there was something about a ".cue" not being found as well. Not sure what that's about....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: MysticKnightFF5 on April 08, 2011, 11:34:53 am
Quote from: The Damned on February 21, 2011, 08:06:11 pm
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: EMBARGO

Dancer merges with Bard to make male-only Minstrel; Dancer's spot is the female-only Paladin;

I thought you said you wanted to remove the foreign issues, not amplify them to all hell.
Since when has there EVER been a female paladin?! WHEN HAS THERE EVER BEEN A FEMALE RELIGIOUS WARRIOR?
Jeanne D'Arc, that's when. Remember what happened to her? Exiled and branded as a heretic, then killed in battle.
So, tell me, how is a female only Paladin sensible?

EDIT: To be fair, perhaps switch the two and make minstrel female? Since that sounds like something men would make a woman do on the battlefield, lol.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Eternal on April 08, 2011, 11:45:01 am
*points to Agrias, Frimelda, and Dame Ravness (Tactics Ogre)*
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Kagebunji on April 08, 2011, 02:58:12 pm
Eternal is fully right. Besides, Female Paladins are great. Ah, too bad Dame Ravness' sprite was heavily based off Agrias, otherwise we could do a sprite for her.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 08, 2011, 03:00:50 pm
(Fission mailed.)

So...yeah. Obviously, I didn't get around to finishing things up last night for several reasons, but I think I can get things done by April 12th since I've become "inspired" in several areas and already fixed/decided on a quite a few issues. It's just that a lot of what's left (Tactext) is rather...tedious. If not, then I really won't have much time to work on it for a while after that date.

I think that I've solved most of the (special) class issues, even given the current formula restrictions, but I still need to resolve those two previously Archer path (now Mediator path) classes.

As for what I've done thus far:


1. Comet (Choco Meteor) can be mimiced and evaded now.

2. Cloned 1A Hell Knight's stats to 12 Hell Knight (Red Mage) so that Rod has actual stats now. I'll have to remember to change roof Malak's class in the ENTD so that he still "dies" in that battle.

3. Catnip uses Inflict Status 51 instead of Inflict Status 66 like it was supposed to. Has had X reduced from 65 to 50 since it can't be dodged.

4. Odin and Midgar Zolom are Learn on Hit only now, though now that I think about it, Odin seems like it's going to have the same problem that Ice had if I don't make it instant.... I suppose I'll make it instant or...maybe it's follow target's that's the problem. Still will make it 0 CT for now.

5. Bible's WP to 6 and Healing Staff's WP to 9.

6. Giving all Lucavi Monster Talk for now rather than changing the just recently changed Fear again. They're all more fair now because of it considering how many of them lost Non-Charge (which they were probably going to lose anyway, considering).

7. Similarly, for now, I'm giving all three Bull Demons Monster Talk over Cannot Enter Water. They're still weak to Water, but this at least means that them appearing at Sweegy Woods instead of Goblins now isn't as limiting for them; as such, they're likely to keep it.

8. Hmmm...even with Float (movement) innate, Flotiballs weren't Floating. Maybe Float and Fly are anathema to each other, at least when it comes to movement since there was that hack that pokeytax made that had Float status be able to trigger Fly. As such, I've just switched over to Float as innate status instead of innate movement and given Floating Eye its inability to enter water back.

9. I had the idea to make the earliest Black Magic instant. Fire is the most damaging with the least range; Ice is an AoE with middling range but least vert.; Lightning has most range and vert. and is unable to be dodged, but does the least damage. I think the other spells of the same class can follow those types of changes. We'll see how it goes.

10. Hunh. The linear Ice spells didn't have Follow Target, so I guess that wasn't the cause of the diagonal annoyance. Not sure what to do about Scathe, especially now that I remember that it's linear. Hmm...Scathe will probably have to die. Not sure what to replace it with yet, though I think that I have an idea or two.

11. I suppose that I'll boost Cure a bit, but only a bit. I might make it ignore Reflect, but I'm not sure I want all of them to ignore Reflect. Maybe I will make it Holy element again, though. Hmm.... I suppose I should at least make Raise ignore Reflect, though. I wonder if I should allow Raise 2 to do so as well, especially since it will never go back to being restoring 100% HP. Then again, I suppose I could have just Prayer fill the "non-Reflectable healing" gap and just make it instant and it's not like I want all of White Magic to be able to get around Reflect, so I'm not sure.

12. Edited all accessories and Chemist Items in Tactext.

13. Fixed all typos in Zodiac Signs descriptions and gave Serpentarius a far less cryptic description.

14. Removed immunity to elements from all accessories.


At present, here's what I should be able to finish doing today:


1. Edit Spell Quotes a bit, mostly just getting rid of typos [even for spells that I'm going to eventually be changing] and changing at least all Fear quotes.

2. Finish up with the random Chapter 1 ENTD now that I'm more sure of where the hell starting positions are. There are some revisions I need to make to story battles anyway....

3. Finish up Chapter 1 special classes, though it's mostly the "technical" ones left between Miluda, Gafgarion and Agrias.

4. Finally replace some sprites, mostly Rod and Boco. Maybe Paladins since I don't want to have them use that whorish Dancer sprite and it's not like replacing them will affect anything since they pretty much never appeared in any vanilla story battles. Maybe replace Uribos with Tonberries (or Lamias).

5. Read through the coding tutorial again to see if I actually understand all of it this time. If not, try to track down FDC or someone who can explain it.

6. Cross-check list of used ability space and Inflict Status space to both make sure there aren't any more large screws-up like Petrifying Catnip and to see how much space I have left. (I've already decided to kill off at least a couple more abilities.)

7. Completely redo the aforementioned two generic classes and make an enemy-only class related to one of them.


Not really sure if I'll get to anything beyond that today, though I at least need to finish generics before I can finish up doing Items in Tactext due to the whole abbreviation thing, which is...annoying. I still haven't thought of a decent alternative name for Blue Mage even. Sigh.


Quote from: MysticKnightFF5 on April 08, 2011, 11:34:53 am
I thought you said you wanted to remove the foreign issues, not amplify them to all hell.
Since when has there EVER been a female paladin?! WHEN HAS THERE EVER BEEN A FEMALE RELIGIOUS WARRIOR? Jeanne D'Arc, that's when. Remember what happened to her? Exiled and branded as a heretic, then killed in battle.


What? How is a female Paladin a foreign issue? It's like calling a dragon a foreign issue because a dragon has never actually existed in real life.

Speaking of real life, yes, I'm aware of what happened to "Joan of Arc". Thing is that Ivalice and Final Fantasy in general are a lot more "equal" when it comes to gender issues for the most part. While the setting is meant to mirror a medieval one, it's a lot less repressed and restricted than the actual Dark Ages and other medieval parts of history were in a lot of areas. I don't think Agrias was a completely unique case, especially since she wasn't hiding her sex or anything like that. Additionally, it's rather arguable that Alicia and Lavian (due to the complete lack of personality they have) were training under her to both guard the princess/royalty and become Holy Knights/Paladins themselves.

(There's also Frimelda and, more famously, Beatrix (http://www.ffcompendium.com/h/jobs/paladin.shtml) from FFIX when it comes to female Paladins.)

Quote from: MysticKnightFF5 on April 08, 2011, 11:34:53 amSo, tell me, how is a female only Paladin sensible?


Beyond what was said above, they're far more likely to stick to the necessary vows of total celibacy that I'm putting in the backstory of my hack.

I wouldn't mind perhaps making Minstrel and Paladin gender-neutral classes later on, but for right now, I'm not even sure how to do that (or if it can be done). Similarly, I can't exactly switch them given that making Minstrel a female-only class means that it would have to be completely overhauled to become physically-based. Otherwise, it becomes as bad as Dancer at being "the premiere physical class (for females)...that has almost nothing to do with physical attacks", which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place.

Quote from: MysticKnightFF5 on April 08, 2011, 11:34:53 am
EDIT: To be fair, perhaps switch the two and make minstrel female? Since that sounds like something men would make a woman do on the battlefield, lol.


Rather weird for you to cite history and then go against it when historically minstrels tended to (only, IIRC) be male.

If you've suggestions for a female-only class that would be physical, have a different enough (mass) revival ability that makes sense, wouldn't step on any other classes' toes and would be appropriate in a foreign-light setting, then I'm all ears. Otherwise, it stays as is for now, though I shall note your opinion.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Kagebunji on April 08, 2011, 03:12:39 pm
If you plan to use Lamia, please use this version, with updated and fixed movement:

(http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3431.0;attach=6838;image)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on April 08, 2011, 03:35:55 pm
I'll keep that in mind. Thank you for the advice and your permission, Kagebunji. It means I won't have to hunt you down later.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: pokeytax on April 08, 2011, 05:37:04 pm
Quote from: MysticKnightFF5 on April 08, 2011, 11:34:53 am
So, tell me, how is a female only Paladin sensible?

EDIT: To be fair, perhaps switch the two and make minstrel female? Since that sounds like something men would make a woman do on the battlefield, lol.


r u 4 real

Quote from: The Damned on April 08, 2011, 03:00:50 pm
8. Hmmm...even with Float (movement) innate, Flotiballs weren't Floating. Maybe Float and Fly are anathema to each other, at least when it comes to movement since there was that hack that pokeytax made that had Float status be able to trigger Fly. As such, I've just switched over to Float as innate status instead of innate movement and given Floating Eye its inability to enter water back.


I dunno. The movement ability coding is a real headache; I don't see anything explicitly making these conflict but who knows!
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Gotwald on April 10, 2011, 02:39:59 pm
Here are all of the maps in the game, with a legend for all the present geomancy and starting positions and height.

Hope this helps.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 10, 2011, 06:11:32 pm
(Hmmm...I wonder how busy I'll be tomorrow at this point.)

So, outside of still not understanding roughly half of the coding tutorial and learning that I basically have to change the sprites every time that I would use/make a new ISO, I just need to really decide on these last two generic classes. Freaking ENTD took forever though after realizing how backwards some it was/is--I'm seriously going to have to change more in the Attack.Out that has nothing to do with the thus planned event changes:

1. Changed all Fear Spell Quotes to more entertaining and less repetitive ones I hope. The only other spell quote that I changed for right now was that of Checkmate's besides fixing the typos present in the game in that section.

2. Changed quite a few other things in Tactext, namely job descriptions for some special classes, though not generics yet.

3. Decided to, with Pride's permission (after he informed me it existed), use Pride's fix of that annoying Faith and Innocent bug.

4. Decided to have Lamias replace Uribos. Tonberries will probably end up replacing Hydras. I'm not sure about Skeletons, Ghosts and Illithids still, though it's really only the former that's holding everything else up.

5. As aforementioned, Chapter 1 ENTDs finished completely outside of a few Attack.Out changes. This includes further re-doing the story battles and finishing up the random battle ideas (while lamenting the map situation). The only things that will change at this point beyond the aforementioned would be perhaps equipment assignments, Move-Find Item rewards and restricted AI-only skillsets.

6. Miluda, Gafgarion, Agrias and Wiegraf have their skillsets thought up. I'm currently still need to do Mustadio, the first replacement character (who probably won't show up in 0.1 for...various reasons) and Cuchuulain.


I'm currently working on the enemy-only Vampire class so that I can redo Hunter and...whatever the hell Arbalist is becoming at this point. Vampires have been rather oddly...difficult to think up anything for, though I'm at 7 abilities of my self-imposed "rule of 8" for right now, so it should be too much longer.

After the skillset thing is done, since I'll need to worry about implementation, I'll be probably working on FFTPatcher the rest of the night, especially since I already need to re-do some equipment and need to actually change Chapter 2. Man, Zirekile Falls is going to be such a pain....

Quote from: pokeytax on April 08, 2011, 05:37:04 pmI dunno. The movement ability coding is a real headache; I don't see anything explicitly making these conflict but who knows!


Yeah, I've no idea myself, but it seemed like the only thing I could think of, especially since Ahriman were never immune to Float (IIRC) like some other monsters were.

I'll relay what happens with the change.

Quote from: Gotwald on April 10, 2011, 02:39:59 pm
Here are all of the maps in the game, with a legend for all the present geomancy and starting positions and height.

Hope this helps.


Ah, much thanks. Not what I was expecting--and I think that map.rar within the main rar is superfluous--but it could certainly prove useful with the geomancy and the height.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 12, 2011, 08:49:12 pm
Ugh. I just got back from the doctor. I'll have to see if I can finish this by April 15th instead of the end of the today. Otherwise I won't be able to focus on it for a while given...more serious matters.

Realizing the lack of ability space I currently have is rather...disheartening, but I'll try to do what I can and I've already thought of some things to cut.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on April 14, 2011, 03:04:26 am
Mostly just used today as a thinking day to try to shore up generic classes. As such, the monster issues have been resolved outside of Skeletons, which are still a problem spot, and Lamia and Tonberries, where I have to worry about space (or lack thereof). Problems with Panthers, Aevises and Behemoths have been (seemingly) solved though.

I was mostly trying to figure out what the hell to do with those last two generic classes. For now, I've decided to get rid of Throw completely (which means that Catch dies) on Hunter and give it some abilities like Celdia's Vanquisher class since she gave me permission to do such about a month ago. It's somewhat different from her class, though, and at present it relies too much a bit too much on MA for my class--then again, given that Mediator is technically a Physical class now (Scream is being changed to an actual attack), I suppose that's not hugely problematic (at present) and it's always nice to use the Untruth formula for more things.

That leaves Samurai's spot, which is currently a pain in the ass to deal with. In my mind, I've thought of two potential solutions for it:

1. Go with a variation of the Reliqu(ar)ian/Antiquirian set that I suggested for Lasting Dawn's Mercernaries patch. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=1355.20)

2. Go with a variation of the Gambler set that I suggested for Lasting Dawn's Mercernaries patch that will actually work within existing formulas. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=1358.0)


Given that Hunter is finally done (for now), this is actually kind of unimportant compared to all of the other stuff I still need to do. ENTDs will be completely finished by tomorrow for Chapter 2, though, since I was waiting to be done with Hunter or whatever is replacing Samurai since there are freaking Knights everywhere in Chapter 2's Story Battle in the vanilla assignments.

Still, I wish to ask: Reliquarian or Gambler?

Decide the destiny! (Maybe. Since it's feels like I'm talking to myself, especially with Raven having been swallowed by the world again.)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: Pride on April 14, 2011, 03:21:48 am
Favoring the Reliquarian currently, though its mostly because you can still use the "Draw Out" mechanic and have it fit in favor wise with finding "rare" items and poaching for them. Mercernaries didn't really have a skill set down for it so it would more depend on what you would want to do with it.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on April 14, 2011, 02:40:51 pm
Yeah, I'm favoring Reliquarian too. I already have two certain interpretations in mind. I just need to look at FFWiki to look up a certain...person in FF history.

Gambler is merely an interesting alternative despite its formulaic limitations at present.

Also, I just realized that my eighth skill for Hunter sucks even more than I thought it would. Whoops. I'll have to think up something entirely new....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: The Damned on April 15, 2011, 08:24:10 pm
So...yeah. This isn't happening by the end of the day for a myriad of reasons, least of all being that my computer was being absurdly slow until two or three hours ago because of something that I thought I had already taken care of.

It's probably for the best, though. Even if I won't have as much time and (really) need to focus on more important things after today, I still don't want to rush this, even if by the time that I do get out some type of patch, it will still only be up to Chapter 2. I'm looking forward to May 7th now, but that date may be even worse than what I had planned before considering....

Still, there's no real reason to keep rushing it if I'm going to have to keep pushing it back for some reason or another. If it gets done (competently) before then, then I'll put something out. If it takes beyond that date to get something competent done, then so be it. I want to be very clear that I'm not going to let this die (again), though.

I'm still going to work on it for today, but it will be very basic stuff like trying to fix my room issue, finishing up abilities and everything like that. I'm probably going to take a break over the weekend to get started on "other things", but I'll at least try to look over the coding tutorial again to see if I understand it more this time. That or at least learn something else beyond just FFTPatcher and FFTactext.

At present, however, I have finished all the ENTD, both story (those were finished a while ago) and random battles up to Chapter 2. All random battles are completely redone/new.

For now I'll only put up the names, though, due to a few things that need testing and some of monsters and non-generic needing further implementation. Some of these will doubtless be changing in later versions, but most of these are more or less going to remain the same until 0.1 comes out:

1. Mandalia Plains North 1 - More Trouble from Gariland*
2. Mandalia Plains "West" 1 - Cat Burglars*
3. Mandalia Plains South 1 - Fight For Food.**
4. Sweegy Woods West 1 - Who's The Pet?**
5. Sweegy Woods East 1 - Burned Out.
6. Zeklaus Desert South 1 - Chance of Sandstorms.*
7. Lenalia Plateau South 1 - Like Water for Goblin Punch.
8. Lenalia Plateau North 1 - Until You're Blue in the Face!*
9. Fovoham Plains South 1 - Afraid of Heights?
10. Mandalia Plains "West" 2 - Chocobo Wrangling.
11. Mandalia Plains North 2 - To Protect a Castle.
12. Sweegy Woods West 2 - The Wicked Witch!*
13. Sweegy Woods East 2 - The Trees have Eyes!
14. Zeklaus Desert South 2 - Mpemba effect!*
15. Mandalia Plains South 2 - Mind Thieves.
16. Lenalia Plateau South 2 - Water Runs Downhill.
17. Lenalia Plateau North 2 - Steamed Looking Glass.
18. Fovoham Plains South 2 - Death Corps Survivors.
19. Fovoham Plains West 1 - The Patrolling Sky.
20. Fovoham Plains West 2 - Weak-Minded.
21. Araguay Woods West 1 - Chocobo Revenge!
22. Araguay Woods West 2 - Plant Food!*
23. Araguay Woods East 1 - Get Equipped with Wood.***
24. Araguay Woods East 2 - Spirit-Tree Flux!*
25. Zirekile Falls West 1 - You Shall Not Pass!
26. Zirekile Falls West 2 - You've Got to Kiss A Lot.
27. Zirekile Falls South 1 - Water Wings.
28. Zirekile Falls South 2 - Rain of Arrows.
29. Bari(a)us Hill North 1 - Ladies' Knight.*
30. Bari(a)us Hill North 2 - Knight Life.
31. Bari(a)us Hill South 1 - Fancy Rats!*
32. Bari(a)us Hill South 2 - Prevailing Winds.
33. Zigolis Swamp East 1 - Quest for Suck.
34. Zigolis Swamp East 2 - It's the Plague, Babies.
35. Zigolis Swamp West 1 - Ghostbusters!
36. Zigolis Swamp West 2 - The Rose.
37. Bari(a)us Valley South 1 - Forced Baptism.
38. Bari(a)us Valley South 2 - Naughty Tentacles!*
39. Bari(a)us Valley West 1 - Fall into the Sea!
40. Bari(a)us Valley West 2 - Copycat Burglar?


* My own ideas given to philsov for ASM'd.

** Ideas adapted from 1.3

*** Ideas adapted from philsov. (P.S. I'm "borrowing" Forest Fire! for later chapters when it comes to Araguay. Thanks.)


In the meanwhile, I'm going for a walk.

Before I do, though, I want to give everyone (even if they haven't replied, because I sure as Hell haven't viewed this thread 700+ times just by myself) my sincere thanks for continued support.

Stay healthy and in your prime (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=188xD74SpKw&feature=channel_video_title), everyone! Your (various) projects expect nothing less from you (unless, perhaps, you're making the next Evangelion, then feel free to go nuts).
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo - Tentative Name
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on April 22, 2011, 03:58:30 am
You seem to have been busy.  Can you toss me a tl;dr of what I missed?  You and your long posts are the anathema of 4 a.m.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 22, 2011, 01:00:05 pm
(Hunh. This thread has 200 more views despite the fact that I've been gone all month. I don't know whether I should feel honored or guilty.)

*yawns and looks around*

Ah! After 1000 hours I'm free!  It's time to conquer Earth!

(Thanks, Raven. It shows you how long it's been since I've actually watched Power Rangers. In that case, that really does feel like 1000 years ago.)

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on April 22, 2011, 03:58:30 am
You seem to have been busy.  Can you toss me a tl;dr of what I missed?  You and your long posts are the anathema of 4 a.m.


Apparently my life is anathema to productivity since I meant to reply to this as soon as I saw it...a month ago. Damn Rapture preparations oversleeping, generally feeling sick, getting distracted by other projects and having to actually do monetarily related stuff a lot more as of late.

To be extremely concise about things, for once, I should be able to sum it up in five lines:

1. Generic human class are done on the most basic of levels; the newest classes are Reliquarian and Hunter now, with Reliquarian still needing moves.

2. Generic monster classes besides Uribos & Hydras, which are being replaced by Lamia and Tonberries, and Illithids, Ghosts & Skeletons, which I'm still undecided about.

3. I was previously and still am in the middle of working on special class abilities and capabilities.

4. Similarly, I am still in the middle of working on ENTD BS; please don't get my started.


The ENTD BS was actually part of the reason that I took such a long pause in this. I was trying to do it purely by using the Maps on the front page, but everything is just so...backwards that I decided to that I try to play through the game and note the seemingly contradictory starting points on all Ch. 1 and Ch. 2 maps. Of course, my computer was still not cleaned up yet--I'm still in the process of cleaning it, though I'm making marked progress considering--and thus I wasn't too keen about trying to use pSX while I had so little memory. Hence the delay.

Oh, that and I charted things out only to realize that I already ran out of ability room and no amount of consolidating appears to give me the amount I want even before DD. Yeah....

Anyway, good to see you're back...or were back; I haven't looked at the other threads yet since I've been cleaning up every post of mine in here to make it devoid of typos. I'll probably be doing that for the rest of the day.

But, yeah, I hope that I can still do my other projects while keeping up with Embargo as I promised.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on May 23, 2011, 02:31:40 am
That was only four lines, bro.

I find it surprising you're that pressed for ability slots, though, myself, unless you're making everything have unique skills or something.

It's good to see this is moving along though at least, despite your setbacks and ENTD trouble.  Also the quote you were looking for is "Ah! After 1000 hours I'm free!  It's time to conquer Earth!"
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 24, 2011, 09:29:07 am
(Ha at this being literally the first thing I do upon waking up about half an hour ago.)

Ugh. I should have expected that doing something would take me longer than I thought it would. It seems like I should multiply date by 3 given what's been happening.

Regardless, I'm finally finished getting rid of most if not all typos in every post of my mine in this thread. There were unfortunately quite a bit of those.... I also shifted a few things around:


1. I moved the miscellany section with regards to classes below the actual class section again since I kept referring to it there.

2. I made minor updates to the class and monster sections, though they are going to be edited again eventually.

3. The status section has been separated into eventual statuses instead of being a large list. I hope that makes it easier to read, but someone besides me is going to have to tell me.


Given all the setbacks in time that I've had recently, I think that I'm going to work on organizing things today and seeing if I can do more name changes and/or come up with more abilities since I had most things fixed out before I "left" for a month; Lamia and Tonberries are the only things that need abilities. It was just a lack of space that was making things complicated.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on May 23, 2011, 02:31:40 am
That was only four lines, bro.


That should show you the effort I put into being concise.

Besides, the fifth line would have just been me saying that "I re-affirmed what a mongrel idiot I was by reading the coding tutorial twice and still not understanding half of it; I guess I'll have to track down FDC sooner rather than later."

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on May 23, 2011, 02:31:40 am
I find it surprising you're that pressed for ability slots, though, myself, unless you're making everything have unique skills or something.


Yeah, it's the latter. I know you don't have much time given that you're working on your own thing like Pride is, but you should probably read the monster section on the last page so that you can at least yell at me for it. (This reminds me that Pride never got around to commenting on the rest of my monsters after Flying Eyes.)

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on May 23, 2011, 02:31:40 amIt's good to see this is moving along though at least, despite your setbacks and ENTD trouble.  Also the quote you were looking for is "Ah! After 1000 hours I'm free!  It's time to conquer Earth!"


So noted.

I just have to make sure that this particular move is actually striding forward instead of one of those little death throes/flails that goes nowhere.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 25, 2011, 07:46:17 am
(Again with this being the first thing I do when I wake up. Maybe that wouldn't happen if I didn't fall asleep in the middle of doing things again....)

Heh. I should have figured that trying to do something that's supposed to simplify things would end up being overly complicated.

In trying to X-Copy Eternal248's spreadsheet organization (though with a few changes), I realized by the time that I got towards the end of human generic classes that for what I wanted to do, I had to make a spreadsheet for every other planned class as well. So, 70 sheets later, I'm done...with only the most basic structuring (and some half-assed names).

Sigh. At the very least, doing this should allow me to map out the abilities for some of the classes I haven't even started yet--*cough*MasterMagician*cough*--with formulas, even if the variables probably won't mean crap by the time I get anything out and even if I don't actually have the room--sigh--for them right now. I'm kind of aiming towards Sunday to be done with all of this, especially since I'm not going to try to do this all in one go like how I seem to tend to try to do with extremely little to show for it. It doesn't exactly help that for the sake of what I want to "release" I only need to do about 40 spreadsheets out of 90 and need to keep those other 50 more or less secret for a while.

So, I'm not going to be doing much today, at least when it comes to Embargo:


1. Get the basic human classes done in both FFTPatcher and Excel outside of Reliquarian and maybe Hunter/Vanquisher.

2. Start editing the non-Accessory equipment in FFTacText.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on May 25, 2011, 10:47:11 am
I skimmed your monsters... and honestly, you're dedicating less abilities to them than I am, or at least was last time I drafted them.  Which again makes me seriously confused as to how you're so far gone on Ability space.  I can give them a better look over later, but I was sort of prioritizing a new release of my weapon editing tool.

How many unique classes do you have?  I'm thinking you're just sporting way too many classes, you only have so many sprites to work with too, after all...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 25, 2011, 11:40:19 am
(Let's see if I can try to remember off the top of my head through this headache. Or if I'll just typo the hell out of this first post like always.)

Well, I was aware that you had more abilities when it came to monsters, but didn't you use all your ability space on monsters despite the fact that your generic classes have a LOT less abilities than mine? It's not like there's that much ability room to begin. There's only like 300 spaces IIRC. Having to do 20 generic alone puts a significant dent in that, even if 3 of those classes don't even have unique abilities apparently and 1 still uses a separate "table" of abilities.

As for special classes, let's see. I'm going to assuming that we're including all special characters here, but I'm only going to note the ones that are likely to get more than one special skill (if they get a special skill at all). Let's proceed with the assumption that every new class needs at least 4 new skills and that most will have 8 at least planned if they have more than new one at all (and aren't a Lucavi):

1. Roderick - Entirely new ability set; first new sprite planned (for a non-generic).

2. Gaffgarion - Gets at least 4 new abilities.

3. Agrias - Needs at least a couple of abilities to differ her from Paladin.

4. Boco - Already has two unique skills and isn't getting anything more; palette swap of other Chocobos.

5. 1st New Special Character - Gets at least 4 unique abilities. Might share some White Magic or Clerical Magic. 2nd new sprite.

6. Mustadio - Entirely new ability set.

7. Cuchuulain - Gets at least 2 or 3 unique abilities.

8. Vampire - The only special generic enemy-only class at present that isn't undead; has at least 7 abilities at present.

9. Belias - Gets at least 2 or 3 unique abilities.

10. Lede & Celia - Need new abilities since Use Hand is stupid as is.

11. Elmdor - Will share some abilities with the Vampire class (or just have that skill set as his secondary). Needs new abilities since Draw Out's effectively dead/taken over.

12. Rafa & Malak - Already have entirely new, shared abilities. They'll be getting at least 1 unique ability from that differs from the other.

13. Beowulf and/or Beowulf's replacement - Need new abilities. Beowulf's potential replacement at this point would only be one unique skill; all she'd need is a new sprite, which makes her only the third character so far whom actually needs one.

15. Adrammelech - Gets 2 or 3 unique abilities.

16. First New Zodiac - Gets 2 unique abilities; probably ends up sharing one with Ultima/Altima. Already has a secondary planned. Fourth new sprite needed.

16. Elbidis & Zodiark - Could probably be dealt with as a greater version of Kletian. Zodiark is the far bigger problem.

17. Master Magician - Cloud's replacement is the most ability intensive of anyone at present since I would like to give him a full 16 abilities, but I'd honestly settle for like 8 really good converted ones since even 16 won't be enough. Fifth new sprite.

18. Steel Giants - Need entirely new skillsets. Now that Pride made Work and some other formulas actually useful to use, determining such abilities will be a LOT easier.

19. Hashmal - Honestly, I don't see him getting more than 2 unique abilities. He might even only get 1 like Zalera since his battle is going to be A LOT more difficult already with just the changes I'm adding and the changes already made to Fear.

20. Altima - If I wanted or had to, she could honestly just get away with stealing from every other Lucavi outside of unique Grand Ultima and maybe that other unique planned attack, really.

21. Skeletons - Planning on giving them maybe 3 or 4 unique abilities overall in addition to all their magic sharing.

22. Lamias - Need 6 unique abilities between the three of them; 6th new sprite; first non-player generics that need new sprites.

23. Tonberries - Need 6 unique abilities between the three of them; 7th new sprite; second and last non-player generics that need new sprites.

24. Hydras & Tiamat - Triple Attack and Triple Breath have to stay around for these to be worth using. Not sure what else they "need".

25. Uribo - If it sticks around at all, it will probably need a couple of unique abilities.

26. New Deep Dungeon Guy - Honestly could probably get away with taking a certain another character's skill set wholesale. Its more his minions that I'm worried about, especially before I ran out of ability space LONG before we even got to the point; 8th new sprite (maybe).


So, yeah, outside of like maybe 80 odd abilities going to only 10 different people, I didn't think I was spending or using too much space, especially since I'm planning on using only 8 new sprites at present and I know there should be room for that. Honestly, even with the changes I wanted to make to Deep Dungeon, pretty much every "boss" of that place was going to be a palette swap of some other generic and have maybe 1 unique ability, which is why I thought I'd run out of job space way before I ran out of ability space.

However, in addition to having to come up with 8 new abilities for Ninja's spot now with this whole Hunter/Vanquisher thing since I can't just override freaking useless Throw (or Jump or Math Skill or Charge....), I realized that even now that I'm already trying to trim the ability fat, I still won't have room for even half of these things it seems like.

So, yeah, if you have advice on being even more miserly than I was trying to be without sacrificing entire classes or niches, I'm all ears, because trimming down abilities to what I feel is the bare minimum--further ripping you off--and even going back to freaking Monster Skill doesn't seem like it would be cutting it.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Kagebunji on May 25, 2011, 11:50:26 am
Not to be mean or anything, but all-new sprites is kinda much. For now I heavilly suggest using sprites from Main Page, there are quite many of them lately.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 25, 2011, 01:12:51 pm
(Let's try this again while my computer actually moves at an acceptable pace.)

I don't see why the truth would count as "mean".

By "new sprite", I meant "sprites which need to be imported into the game" rather than "sprites which need to be created entirely", especially since I know how much work spriting is, which why I haven't asked anyone. I think only Master Magician actually needs an entirely new, custom sprite (that won't be used on a generic).

At the very least, I know for a fact that the sprites for Lamias, Tonberries, the Red Mage I'm using for Roderick and the one I'm using for the 1st new character exist. I'm pretty sure another one exists, but I need to double check that still. Additionally, Beowulf's potential replacement and Deep Dungeon's potential new master are so far on the periphery at this point that they can take pretty much any gender appropriate sprite for at least the next year or so if they even need new custom sprites.

So, yeah, I "only" need one entirely new custom sprite at this point and there's a good chance it will stay that unless the one I'm thinking exists doesn't actually exists. Then I'll need two at most and, outside of perhaps some sprite alterations to like Skeletons and some other things, that will probably be it. (Okay, that's not counting the generic sprites I'll have to replace of the Eastern classes and Paladin and Blue Mage, but those can wait and I'm still looking at the aforementioned section for viable options.)

Since we're on about this, though, how much room is there for new sprites to be imported into vanilla anyway?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on May 27, 2011, 11:55:20 am
Don't mind the fact I didn't reply to your last post sooner.  I'm trying to think of a decent way to go bare-bones on your classes here.

A quick thought though, keep your unique characters to roughly 6 skills total unless they're a character like Orlandu.  They usually don't need more.  Not sure how much that actually lets you save on skills, but it's something I've noticed when looking over my special units - it's almost impossible for me to ever justify one having more than 6 skills without their skillset feeling bloated.  Kinda makes me understand why Gafgarion originally only has two skills now.  Whoever designed him was going for elegance, unlike a number of other skillset designers the game must've had.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 27, 2011, 01:55:32 pm
(Ugh. I didn't even get any work done in that Excel file yesterday. Maybe I can still finish it by Sunday. ...Probably not.)

*minds the hell out of your neglect*

I can see how 6 would work for everyone except Mustadio and Master Magician. I'm honestly just aiming at 8 as a starting point, but, yeah, I'm not sure it will ultimately clear issues as well.

We'll see, though, and I'll keep it mind.

Given that I'm still not exactly in the mood to work on anything for some reason--I guess that I'm still bummed out from Monday--and that I have some IRL I still need to take care of yet would like to at least get some work done, I think all I'm going to do today is overhaul Illusionist. That and see if I can remember what the hell I had come up with for Reliquarian. I knew I should have written it down. Maybe I did somewhere in one those numerous messy Notepad or Word documents I need to go through still.

Sigh.

However, I do feel rather inspired with regards to Illusionist for once, which is pretty funny since during the break, I was heavily considering scrapping it. So that should get done today at the very least.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 09, 2011, 04:28:44 pm
(Ugh. I really need to stop getting distracted by other things, like TVTropes. Of course, still not feeling well and having to do a bunch of stuff IRL hasn't been helping either.)

I'm still working on this, even if I haven't done much work on it lately. I finished Illusionist like a week and a half ago and then set out to shore up Vanquisher and Reliquarian...only to realize that Reliquarian is as big a pain in the ass as Geomancer still is. I'll probably end up using the ideas I had for Reliquarian for Shrine Knight, but now I need yet another replacement for Samurai, that's actually physical or at least physical-ish. Sigh.

So, I've been trying to think about that...and been getting stuck on that again. I believe, once I get back from my appointment, some time between today and the weekend I'll finish up on that Excel spreadsheet and the Lucavi at least. I still need to see what's up with my emulator too.

Still, I'm alive or, at least, exist.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on June 09, 2011, 05:14:24 pm
Good to see you're still around.

I've been rather busy myself, heh.  It happens, as long as you're still working on things once in a while behind the scenes, we know the train's still chugging.  I still need to look through your skillsets later and find stuff you can pull out to help you get a bit more room to play with.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 14, 2011, 05:57:09 am
(*this is the sound of no real progress having been made again*)

Eh, you don't have to do that, especially given what a mess my ability list still is.

Ugh. I'd like to use the pretext of not feeling well enough again, but it's more that I've been hideously distracted by SSF4:AE of all things...; I was expecting to be distracted by AH3 or Pokemon, but no....

Anyway, given that something has come up for Tuesday, I'll probably be working on this all day Tuesday...provided I don't fall asleep considering I'm trying to stay up all night. I'll have to refrain from commenting on your equipment stuff on Thursday since I won't be here Wednesday.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on June 14, 2011, 04:13:16 pm
Lazy bastard.

Fine, I -won't- help you then!  Hah!  /lol.  Just tell me when you've got it being less of a mess.

Being distracted from work is easy though, so... yeah.  >.>

Alright then.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Shade on June 17, 2011, 06:24:30 pm
Can I be a betatester?
Just Asking.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 21, 2011, 11:15:12 pm
(Oh, universe. Why must you conspire to gain my insignificant ire?)

Sigh. It looks like I'm going to have to try to do a lot in the next four-ish hours if I want to get anything done before Friday because there's a bunch of shit--excuse my French, but this past week has been particularly annoying--that I need to look at on my DVR in the next 48 hours.

I'll see what I can do at least when it comes to my notes, though.

*mutters something under his breath about Samurai's slot*

Quote from: Shade on June 17, 2011, 06:24:30 pm
Can I be a betatester?
Just Asking.


Of course you can.

It would actually probably be beneficial given that we tend to have differing opinions.

Now I just have to finish at least an initial version of this before the world ends.

I'm going to need luck with that....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on June 21, 2011, 11:25:14 pm
Don't feel bad, if you poke around General, you can see how badly my computer asploded this time, so I can sympathize with your annoying shit.  Don't rush out a bad product.  That'll just leave a sour taste in everybody's mouth.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 22, 2011, 02:27:14 am
(Great. Now I'm probably going to be busy this weekend as well.)

Well, at least you have a legitimate excuse with your computer exploding. My computer's just kinda of sluggish, which means I should back things up, but that's its only real issue at present. Otherwise, my not getting things done is either due to distraction or laziness or "other things".

It's especially annoying when I go back and look at notes and see that things that I thought I had done, like deciding on certain status "solutions", still haven't been finished. I'd say I hope to have some progress done by next week, but hope is pretty much always a vain lie that inevitably brings disappointment.

So all I'm going to say that is that once this DVR stuff is done, I'll see what I can get done by basically throwing my face at wall repeatedly on Friday. It should lead to good times or much pain. Not sure if I can tell the difference at this point (in regard to general things, not just trying to work on this and undermining myself).
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 23, 2011, 02:53:23 am
(Ugh. Might as well do this now given how I've done absolutely nothing today in any area of my life due to being so damn annoyed by several things.)

So, I think I finally decided to do what I should have done from the beginning and just use the very same Berserker class that I suggested to philsov for ASM'd here (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6534.msg136611#msg136611) myself. I'll quote the main part of it just in case people don't want to click:

Quote from: The Damned on January 16, 2011, 05:15:04 amName: Berserker

(Crappy, Non-serious) Overview: The strongest of the physical classes, it uses the natural rage of a woman scorned to destroy all.

Innates: Martial Arts, Any Ground, Defense Up?

Equipment: Axes, Hat, Clothes, Acc.

Abilities:
Savagery:
Berserk: Adds Berserk, Regen and Haste to self or heals a significant bit to self and adds Berserk & Regen to self. (I can't remember if the latter is possible as a guaranteed thing.)

Takedown: Deals more damage to opponent at increased risk to self/recoil.

Cripple: Close-range attack that attempts to add Don't Act and/or Don't Move to target.

Move Obstacle: 100% Knockback attack, basically a much stronger version of the missing Dash.

Ground Shaker: Mimic Titan for humans, basically, especially since your Blue Mage doesn't have it. Hell, you could probably just straight up give them Mimic Titan with the monster changes.

Howl: PA-based self-AOE that attempts to add Slow to enemies.

Frenzy: Perserving physical attack. Would need to be weaker than the regular attack so not to outclass it.

Eject: Only distance ability. A direct PA-based Dispel Magic-ability. Should probably take at least a bit of MP given that Dispel Magic hardly gets used as it is.



Not sure what if I'll have it be female-only like I suggested to philsov, though Paladin might be better as dual-gender class even through that would make it even more difficult to balance Agrias. (Not that my lazy ass has gotten around to doing that.)

Similarly, there's obviously stuff that's going to need to be changed given how different ASM'd and Embargo are.

Regardless, this "solves" quite a few problems at all once:

1. Takes care of the Samurai problem.

2. Takes care of what to do with Draw Out--I've already decided what class to give it to keeping in mind the possible "support skillset" route that RavenofRazgis and formerdeathcorps might be able to implement.

3. Takes care of having to think up a significant number of new abilities just for once class.

4. Takes care of katana's spaces permanently, allowing me about 6 more weapon slots to use most likely.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on June 24, 2011, 03:16:30 pm
If it were dual-gender, would there be a purpose to ever using a female Berserker?

As for Agrias v Paladin... why does everyone make Agrias into a Paladin?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Eternal on June 24, 2011, 03:18:29 pm
Because Holy Knight is a pointlessly long name and doesn't have canon outside of FFT? =x
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: MysticKnightFF5 on June 24, 2011, 05:08:46 pm
Because having canon outside of FFT matters -TO FFT?-
Really Ety, did you even think that question through? This is FFT, where only FFT's canon matters.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RandMuadDib on June 24, 2011, 05:45:03 pm
Ffxii canon should matter too
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on June 24, 2011, 06:32:30 pm
I need to Q4E Luna.

1. "Holy Knight" is just as "pointlessly long" as "White Mage", "Black Mage", "Red Mage", "Green Mage", "Time Mage", all variants of the preceding with "Wizard" over "Mage", "Dark Knight", "Fell Knight", "Divine Knight", "White Knight", etc.

2. Why does non-Final Fantasy Tactics canon mean a damn for Final Fantasy Tactics, again?

3. How does anything you said begin to even answer my question?  I asked why people specifically make Agrias a Paladin so consistently since her character isn't anything like one in Vanilla.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 24, 2011, 08:28:29 pm
(So, I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted with regards to that DVR thing, though I at least got some things done before I got screwed over. Considering me, I suppose that's better than nothing.)

So, with Friday upon us, a seemingly needless change-over past and it being increasingly likely that I won't be near a computer all weekend, I'm going to try finally to get some work done and hit up mIRC again briefly tonight. I have to run a few errands first, though, so I probably won't be able to start for another two hours.

However, I feel I should address some things first.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on June 24, 2011, 03:16:30 pm
If it were dual-gender, would there be a purpose to ever using a female Berserker?


Limitless PMS?

*shrugs*

Rather difficult to say considering I still haven't really done stats or figured out what I need to change with Embargo's Berserker, though you could argue that about pretty much any remotely physical class for females at this point outside of Thief, Templar and maybe Archer/Marksman.

So, at present, the only in-game incentive to using a female Berserker if Berserker were made dual-gender at present would to be open up Paladin and maybe Mime. I suppose it also helps, going outside of mechanics, that female-only Berserker would be easier to do than dual-gender Berserker because I don't really see suitable custom sprites for (male) Berserker. To be honest, though, I can't say that I'm really seeing a good fit for male Paladin either at present, at least if I use that Mystic Knight sprite or something.

However, making Paladins dual-gender makes the Agrias issue even more annoying to try to handle, considering what a rut I'm still in for abilities with limited formulas and space. Speaking of which....

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on June 24, 2011, 03:16:30 pm
As for Agrias v Paladin... why does everyone make Agrias into a Paladin?


Whoever said that I was making Agrias into a Paladin? Paladin's a generic class. Queensguard isn't; Holy Knight still exists, at least for Delita and (Ch. 3) Wiegraf at present.

The only reason that I even brought up the difficulty of "balancing" the two is because they'll have a decent amount of overlap, even more so if Paladin is made dual-gender. Paladin and Queensguard/Holy Knight have overlaps partly because of history, partly because I killed some swordskills in exchange for making them more common with the ARH and partly because I wanted to pay homage to Beatrix from FFIX. It also helped that class-wise, Paladins are a lot more defined than "Holy Knight", which could literally mean anything, especially with how corrupt religion tends to be (in FFT).

She's not strictly a Paladin though. She's just most like one when it comes to generic classes and at present is the only special character besides the first brand new special character who shares the issue of having to directly compete against regular, generic classes unlike every solidly other planned special character.

I can't say why everyone else makes her an actual Paladin, though. Hell, I never understood a lot of things that seem to be a lot of fans' interpretation of Agrias. (*cough*Ramza/Agrias*cough*)

Quote from: RandMuadDib on June 24, 2011, 05:45:03 pm
Ffxii canon should matter too


Debatable.

I'm taking cues from FFXII (and pretty much every other Final Fantasy sans FFXI and FFXIII), sure, but the whole Ivalice Alliance coming together in anything that looks like a coherent history at present seems extremely murky at best and utter fanwank at worst.

They'll be references to FFXII due to the "corrected" Lucavi names and some of their new abilities and attributes at the very least, yes. However, you're not going to be seeing Balthier show up in this patch or anything like that.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RandMuadDib on June 24, 2011, 10:42:00 pm
that's too bad i like Balthier. I actually planned on using him to replace mustadio, who i have a grudge against for no justifiable reason other than his sprite looks stupid.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on June 24, 2011, 11:08:28 pm
(I agree that Mustadio's sprite looks a bit...goofy at times. I think it's his hair.)

Oh, it's not like I don't like Balthier or anything. He's the only playable character from FFXII whose outfit doesn't looking completely fucking stupid or random and that has regularly witty dialogue that doesn't sound forced.

However, Mustadio's rather vital to the plot even back in Vanilla, where being able to get half of the special characters depended solely on you allowing him to tag along. I also feel that he can be salvaged skill-set wise and an Engineer is pretty damn necessary to the plot comparative to a Sky Pirate given Goug's whole focus.

Balthier's presence would also mean having to make FFXII fit canonically with FFT, which is...head-achy. That or just having Balthier replace Cloud, which means that Mustadio would still be necessary and defeats what you seem to want to happen (to your patch).

Besides, Balthier's already in the PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics, so there's that as well.

With that said, good luck replacing Mustadio with Balthier.

*goes off to work now that he has far less of a headache at the moment*
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 07, 2011, 09:10:23 am
(I yet live! And I've actually done work this time!)

...Ugh. Why did trying to put almost everything in one place and updating things in FFTPatcher take about twice as long as I expected it? Even with the distractions, the fatigue and the other annoyances, given the lack of sleep (and the fact that I literally haven't taken time away to even shave), the Excel attachment that is now on the front page shouldn't have taken a week and a half. Especially not when I "had" to redact like half of it anyway.

But, yes, finally finished is FFT Embargo Class Tracker Redacted Ver. 1, which, like quite a few other things, is something I stole from someone else, in this case Eternal. It basically has all the (generic) classes, ability slots, excised abilities and statuses in the same place alongside a nifty key--ugh, thinking up two letter abbreviations for about 100+ class is so annoying. It will soon have skill set tracking, ASM tracking, ARH tracking and formulas with variables that actually mean something...as soon I get stats done and figure out to how to code. (So, possibly never.)

Anyway, I would ask that you please download it now. That said, it may say that it has suspect validation or something, but it isn't a virus or anything given how many times I've checked for one. With that admission, I understand if you're hesitant to open it and I am unable to force you to do so; I'm pretty much only expecting to hear back from RavenofRazgriz and maybe a couple of other people anyway at this point.

With that out of the way, I might as well list the most significant changes of the many ones I did:


  • Made the aforementioned Key, which has abbreviations for all classes and statuses, which means that I can finally get around to doing Equipment in FFTactext quite a bit more easily.

  • Stole the wonderful name of "Acolyte" for Templar from LastingDawn from that story suggestion thread that I've yet to get around to commenting on. Templar will now refer to an enemy-only special class that Rofel will probably end up using.

  • Made Vanquisher the new female-only class. It's also "appropriately" called Slayer (for now).

  • Made up Berserker's brand new skillset.

  • Trimmed down a few abilities for human generics.

  • Made up entire skillsets for Illithids, Lamias and Tonberries. Ghosts already technically had ones, but they're solidified now since they'll actually appear in the first iteration now.

  • Resolved all initial Blue Mage/Blue Magic issues except for Skeletons, which has to wait until I finish with every other Undead class.

  • Redid the Job Tree again on the physical side: Knight path goes Paladin and then Acolyte, while the Mediator path goes Berserker and then Dragoon. Slayer is the female-only class now.

  • I decided to completely kill Blood Suck/Vampirism status. So that's dead now. Amusingly, this affected the Fear abilities far more than anyone or anything else.

  • Similarly, I finally, fully decided that Wall status is dying and that Stop status can stay around (for now).



And then there were some more minor things like fixing things in FFTPatcher and deciding on future skills, much of which I'm still leaving as "CLASSIFIED" for one reason or another. Accordingly, I'll update the front page and respective class posts...tomorrow.

With that finished, I still have a woefully large amount of stuff to do even in just the immediate future:


  • I have to start on stats finally since it will at least allow my formulas to not look suspect variable-wise. It will also supposedly make everything easier according to RavenofRazgriz.

  • I need to completely redo my equipment with my much stricter standards now and the death of at least two status while keeping in mind at least three planned major changes to status over. I'll probably post my equipment on the forums this time given that foisting it on RavenofRazgriz has garnered nothing and was unfair of me to begin with.

  • I have to completely redo RSMs between my decision to use ALMA and the heavy shuffling of the physical side of things in addition to the realization of something about Soldier.

  • I still need to learn how to code.

  • I still need to learn how to event edit.

  • I still need to finish ENTDs, though I hope that will go much more smoothly now that RavenofRazgriz has informed me that the starting coordinate information I was looking is apparently just in Attack.Out. ...Even if that's unlikely to stop me from thinking that the map orientations in some places are still completely stupid/contrary.



I'm sure there are quite a few other things.

Before any of that, though, I have to catch up on everything I haven't been able to comment on in the past week and a half--more like two weeks--both here and on most other forums I visit. I also promised Eternal that I'd try to play at least a bit of Parted Ways, so I'm going to try to start that this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, I may not be around Sunday at all. It seems an appropriate day to review the abject failure that is my life for 24 hours straight and go back to the norm of not get any work done.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Pride on July 07, 2011, 09:28:55 am
Skimming through your .xml at the moment and I'll give more feed back when I wake up (or possibly soon depending if I continue to write stuff for my patch :P) but I do have an asm for White Wind in my thread found here: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6999.0

You probably also want to bump up the Y value for Aqualung or your Blue Mages will only do 20 damage, that's always the trouble with monsters...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 07, 2011, 09:57:35 am
(I really should go to bed, but considering it's already morning, I guess I'll just do more work to keep myself awake.)

Ah, so yours is the ASM hack I was vaguely remembering. Good to know that I was completely delusional about that like I'm beginning to think that I was about a certain sprite not that I've looked, what with being an indolent bum and everything.

As for Aqualung's pathetic Y value, yes, I am aware of this. As mentioned above, the formulas and variables are there to just be semi-thorough on the most basic levels. Half of those variables doubtless need to be changed even before fine-tuning occurs.

I already know how I'm generally dealing with the "Blue Mage" problem with regards to monster stats, though, so monster abilities will get especial attention.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on July 07, 2011, 02:22:32 pm
@Stealing something from Eternal:  HORRIBLE IDEA, TURN BACK NOW.  WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MIMIC DERPY HOOVES AT ANYTHING EVER EVER?  Lol.

@Blood Suck: You can change what the Vampire Status does (somewhat) by changing the skill in the "Blood Suck" skillset Elmdor uses.  Their AI won't change, but the skill they'll spam will.  This may interest you.

@Stats: It really does.  Designing skills and equipment is far easier when you know what's actually using them.

@Equipment List:  It's mostly that I'm an ADHD little fucker and the layout was hard for me to follow.  I have it like half-commented on sitting somewhere, but I've forgotten about it more than once with my myriad of computer issues and other things.

@Monster Stats:  I do have a handy Pre-Raw Stat Editor sitting in my Spreadsheet Shoppe that can solve this issue.

I'll download later when I have more time, I'm leaving in about an hour.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Shade on July 09, 2011, 04:39:49 pm
Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on July 07, 2011, 02:22:32 pm
@Stealing something from Eternal:  HORRIBLE IDEA, TURN BACK NOW.  WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MIMIC DERPY HOOVES AT ANYTHING EVER EVER?  Lol.


What was it?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 10, 2011, 06:55:10 pm
(Haha. I finally thought of a surname for Elidibs [since I'm pretty sure he doesn't have an official one] and another character a couple of hours ago, both of which I find fairly hilarious for different reasons.)

Let it be known on this day of abject failure that work shall be done!

As such, I've updated the first post again with Berserker and new changes like that. That's all I've updated so far, though, since I was reminded that I still have to redo like the placement half of the RSMs in the game now. That shouldn't take very long, I hope, but it's still something that I haven't done and that needs to be done before I can replace it, obviously.

So I'll try to do that later today, even though I still have a bunch of stuff to do that I didn't do yesterday due to how crappy I was feeling. I'll probably try to update the monster section at the same time.

I still haven't around touching stats yet, though. That will have to wait until tomorrow at least.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on July 07, 2011, 02:22:32 pm
@Stealing something from Eternal:  HORRIBLE IDEA, TURN BACK NOW.  WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MIMIC DERPY HOOVES AT ANYTHING EVER EVER?  Lol.

@Blood Suck: You can change what the Vampire Status does (somewhat) by changing the skill in the "Blood Suck" skillset Elmdor uses.  Their AI won't change, but the skill they'll spam will.  This may interest you.

@Stats: It really does.  Designing skills and equipment is far easier when you know what's actually using them.

@Equipment List:  It's mostly that I'm an ADHD little fucker and the layout was hard for me to follow.  I have it like half-commented on sitting somewhere, but I've forgotten about it more than once with my myriad of computer issues and other things.

@Monster Stats:  I do have a handy Pre-Raw Stat Editor sitting in my Spreadsheet Shoppe that can solve this issue.

I'll download later when I have more time, I'm leaving in about an hour.


He said as he left forever, apparently to enlist the help of Jenny Craig before deciding to finally kill her after she proved no longer useful to him. You monster!

1. Stealing: Eternal Edition - Stop reminding me that Friendship is Magic is so damn popular and yet I haven't watched it.

2. Blood Suck - I'm aware of this and I already changed what Blood Suck did. It's more that I decided to get rid of between it not having any historical links as a status, the things that using it mostly having other valid options (outside of a certain fear ability) and it not doing anything for the game--in fact, if anything, it hurts the game because of how stupid it makes the AI. I already have enough AI issues with regards to status that need to be fixed between Berserk, Confusion, Doomed (Death Sentence) and likely Frog due to what I'm trying to do with it that I don't need any more if I can genuinely get rid of it.

3. Stats: Now if only I had actual idea what to hell to do with them, though. Even looking at the BGM constantly and liking math (which I am apparently horrible at), it's still very much a "WTF" affair because of what I'm aiming apparently in the dark, with a blindfold on, with all my limbs tied behind my back.

4. Equipment List: Fair enough. Like I said, it was rather unfair of me to hoist it on you or, at least, on you alone when I could have not kept it so secretive and already fixed its shittiness a year or so ago by having it posted publicly. Oh well. A lot's changed since then, finally, so even if it wasn't utter tripe, it's like 80% useless now anyway. (Looking at you especially, Ammo.)

5. Monster Stats: I'll keep that in mind, even if, as I said above, I'm probably too "derpy" to understand how it actually works.

Quote from: Shade link=topic=6791.msg150378#msg150378 , date=1310243989
What was it?


It was his sleigh.

Oh, wait. Wrong "what was it".

I mean, it was just the Excel sheet idea, at least in this instance.

Speaking of thievery though, for my next trick, I'll probably still the Wand idea from Celdia, even though I'm still not too crazy about magicians having viable weapon-attack options (even as much I love Oracle). Still, I figure if they're going to be "last resort" options, there's no real reason to punish the player and waste equipment space by keeping them completely shitty.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 14, 2011, 07:20:25 am
(I still don't understand how the "total time logged in" thing counts up. According to it, I've only been logged in for less than 7 days...despite the fact that I never log in and I doubtless passed the amount of months ago. No matter.)

Okay, so the job postings at the bottom of the front page are now updated as much as they can be right now given that I finished RSMs Tuesday night. (Or was it Monday around midnight? Days bleed together for me quite easily.)

Regardless, that's done now. The monster stuff won't get touched just yet until I'm either done with Skeletons or stats, whichever comes first. Speaking of stats, I decided to excise that "stat distribution" category from all generic jobs since it only (presently) takes up space without anything to (presently) back it up.

Let's talk about the changes I've made to that and other things that I realized I forgot to make specific note of:

1. Xifanie's Fury hack: At present, I've decided not use it any longer, at least initially. I'm going to have a difficult enough time figuring out damage without adding that to the mix. And it doesn't help that I think it's still incompatible with ALMA. Of course, not using that and using the "no permanent Brave" alteration hack makes Brave(ry) Up less than worthless. I really don't want to have kill another RSM, so it stays around for now.

2. Gilgame Heart is dead now: Of all the things to die for being "too abusive", I'm sure Gilgame Heart was unlikely to top most people's lists. Still, it's rather counter to what I want to do with Gil and it can't be salvaged otherwise, so I was essentially going to be keeping it around for the same reason that I was trying to hang on Catch: just to have something there. So it's gone now.

3. Abandon is similarly missing: That's only "temporary" until I figure out a way to fix it, though. I might just bring it back with that "only boost by 150%" hack, but that doesn't feel like enough of fix to me at present. (Equip Katana and Equip Gun are also still "missing" for differing reasons.)

4. Mist will be 1/8 of Max MP, not 1/4 MP: I asked Pride for what I'd have to change to achieve it and he kindly provided me with the answer. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6999.msg150598#msg150598) Now I just need to figure out where to apply it since currently I've only one idea for it....

5. Soldier's changes: It lost Shield Break and Scream. The former because Knight lost it to Berserker and the latter because it stopped existing, though Scream's slot also went to Berserker as shown in the Class Tracker. It lost Brave(ry) Up to Paladin and Equip Axe to Berserker because I finally realized it shouldn't have more than 4 RSMs at most--maybe even only 3--due to PC special classes need for RSM space. Still leads to Knight, Mediator, Marksman, Priest and Wizard.

6. Knight's changes: It lost all its equipment-break skills to Berserker--geez, Berserker is more of a Thief than Thief right now--and gained Wizard's old Debarrier & Acolyte/Templar's old Magic Ruin, which means that it is now has one technique less than it had before. Its RSMs are the same. It now leads to Paladin, though.

7. Mediator's changes: It lost Scream, which is dead now. It's most likely to benefit from Draw Out's "death", though I've yet to decide how and that same "skill set" could quite easily go to Marksman, which could come back to claim its spot on the physical tree. It lost Reimburse/Gilgame Heart, but otherwise is the same RSM-wise. It leads to Berserker.

8. Marksman's changes: Its only change at present is that it lost Equip Katana for Equip Crossbow, which will now also allow for Longbows to be equipped. No class besides Marksman is going to be able to equip Greatbows now, which are probably going to get the largest overhaul of any piece of equipment because I only recently realized how much I had made them obviate Longbows. It still leads to Thief and Chemist.

9. Priest's changes: It lost Pray(er) and Shield/Wall to separate special characters. It remains the same RSM-wise. It still leads to Illusionist.

10. Wizard's changes: It lost Debarrier to Knight and Scathe is just dead because CT & linearity don't mix. Its RSMs are still the same, though I actual plans for MP Restore now; if only I had plans for Any Weather. It still leads to Geomancer.

11. Paladin's changes: Paladin probably has the most changes of any class that didn't need to have its skills just made up (again) like Berserker and Slayer/Vanquisher given that it made the shift from end-female-only class to "middling" Knight class. Its fall from grace necessitated that it got its RSMs entirely redone, it now (somewhat randomly) has Counter, Equip Shield and the arguably useless Brave(ry) Up. It also lost both of its immunities to Curse and Charm. It's skills have yet to change, but there's at least a decent change that it will trade Raise 2 for Priest's lesser Raise given how close they are now on the tree. On the flip side, that at least means that males have even more access to resurrection, though I just realized that now females don't since Slayer didn't (and probably won't) get any resurrection techniques. Hmm.... Anyway, this leads to Acolyte/Templar now. (It's technically the bearer of Samurai's spot now instead of Berserker.)

12. Berserker: The first new kid on the block #1, Berserker is basically what RavenofRazgriz's Knight are: people who break your equipment, your arms and your legs. They took Knight's equipment breaks (which ironically means that Paladin's are sure to keep Weapon Break now), have two "swordskill"-esque close-range attacks that hit hard while dealing detrimental status, a "get off" Auto-AoE attack that does respectable damage, a (mostly for testing) recoil attack and last & almost certainly least (because of the AI), a Critical-only Berserk inducement ability. RSM-wise, they probably have better RSMs than a lot of classes between having Adrenaline (Speed Save), Equip Axe (which will equip Flails as well) and Overwhelm (which I'm tempted to give them innately). This leads to Dragoon now. (Oh, and this took over Monk's place instead of Acolyte because I wanted to make Sand Rat Cellar and Lenalia Plateau more fair considering....)

13. Thief's changes: It still has Two Swords innately, though I'm still going to need to figure out how to balance that, especially since I'm not sure how I can nerf Two Swords just yet. Anyway, Thief's only change, besides to its skill set name, was that it got Secret Hunt back.

14. Chemist's changes: Similar to Thief, Chemist didn't really change outside of skill set getting name something more obvious yet somehow less generic. It pretty much has all its old RSMs back outside of Move-Find Item, which Marksman will be keeping. Its items are going to be under going quite a few changes though once I learn how to code and code all the status I want, especially with Blood Suck dying and RavenofRazgriz & FDC's plans.

15. Illusionist's changes: Illusionist finally got some teeth between Cold Flame and Night Terror. It lost Vanishga, though that might go to a special character (or two). Its RSMs are all reactions now between Absorb Used MP, Faith Up (Face Up) and Hide (Sunken State). It still leads to Summoner.

16. Geomancer's changes: Geomancer's formula are all MA-only now as seen in the Class Tracker. I pretty much tried to model them on ARENA due to how Nature's Wrath acts. There's a decent change that like half of them will die with RavenofRazgriz & FDC's plans. At present, though they still have the same RSMs, though Counter Flood is now called Nature's Wrath as seen above. Still leads to Dimensionalist.

17. Acolyte's changes: Well, the name, for one thing, given I used to call it Templar. But that will be used for "Temple Knight" now. It lost Magic Ruin to Knight and then got Soul Sphere in return. Given that Paladin took two its RSMs, it took Meatbone Slash and Equip Armor from Dragoon in addition to keeping Two Hands.

18. Dragoon's changes: It's still stuck with Jump (for now), but it got Dragon Spirit back from Blue Mage as recompense for losing Equip Armor to Acolyte (for now).

19. Summoner's changes: Its summons haven't changed yet, though one or two are quite likely to change. Its RSMs got an overhaul, though, between it getting Half of MP back from Illusionist and my consideration to have it trade Counter Magic to Blue Mage for Damage Split.

20. Dimensionalist's changes: Nothing's changed much for Dimensionalist outside of the fact that Stasis is just back to inflicting only Stop now with Wall having become Mist and with Blood Suck's death making it more likely that Stop sticks around. It might get another spell because of this, but I've other statuses to worry about.

21. Mime's changes: Mime hasn't change yet, though it's probably getting Unyielding and its innate status immunities will be changing. It might lose Counter Magic from its innates should the "trade" go through between Summoner and Blue Mage.

22. Blue Mage's changes: With every generic monster "done" except for Skeletons, it has 15 of its 16 abilities. As mentioned above, it's considering trading Damage Split to Summoner for Counter Magic. It also lost Dragon Spirit back to Dragoon. It has Unyielding (properly spelled) now and Fly still, though.

23. Minstrel's changes: Hide (the active ability) is dead, though I likely would have killed it anyway had Wall not become anything else. Its RSMs and Slayer's are same now that Slayer's taken up Paladin's female-only space, some of those RSMs probably should go to other classes....

24. Slayer: The second new kid on the block, though technically it was already around well before Berserker. I was just too stupid to think of three decent other moves before this time. Two done, one to go....


With all that said, I'm probably going to spend the rest of today transferring my old equipment over to Excel so that it's easier to redo ultimately. And then, finally, I'll maybe get on stats. Hurray....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: pokeytax on July 14, 2011, 07:03:31 pm
Quote from: The Damned on July 14, 2011, 07:20:25 am
1. Xifanie's Fury hack: ...I think it's still incompatible with ALMA.


Whoa, is this true? Because I would definitely want to fix that.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Eternal on July 14, 2011, 07:24:05 pm
That would explain some issues I'm having with Fury as well...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 14, 2011, 10:24:31 pm
(Eternal, smack me over the back of the head via PM if I don't get to you by tomorrow night.)

I haven't done anything just yet, but I feel like I need to answer this since I brought it up.

Quote from: pokeytax on July 14, 2011, 07:03:31 pm
Whoa, is this true? Because I would definitely want to fix that.


I haven't tested it myself since I haven't even attempted to use ALMA yet. I thought I had seen that said by someone or that it was known, but I might have imagined it in my almost constantly sleep-addled state.

It should still be tested to determine whether it's true or not, though.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 18, 2011, 05:44:00 am
(Ugh. Now I need to find zlib1.dll for ePSXe. Great.)

So, finally finished with that Excel spreadsheet for the equipment, though I need to go over it with FFTPatcher. I'll do that in the morning.

After I do that, then I can finally get around to stats and ENTD stuff...and finishing the ability/class tracker (crap, I still need to add those "Purpose" and "Element' tabs) and learning how to code...and learning how to do events...and deciding if I can actually make use of ALMA...and....

...I loathe existence.

Before I can even get around to that, though, provided that I can actually get ePSXe--since apparently PSX can't play it without blowing up--to work, I have to get around to playing Parted Ways like I told Eternal I would. Yeah....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: MysticKnightFF5 on July 20, 2011, 12:52:04 am
If I may suggest PA-based healing for Paladin. Like Chakra, except maybe more magical-feeling.
(EX. CT / Range / AoE / Etc)
It would certainly balance warriors against mages better, assuming you intended to buff mages and make them worth something late game.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 23, 2011, 09:07:59 am
(I got that PM, Eternal. Thanks for the settings. I'll try them out, though it will have to wait until tomorrow unfortunately.)

And now, for what is possibly my final act of consciousness tonight/this morning/whatever, I shall talk about some equipment stuff that no one besides maybe RavenofRazgriz will know what the hell I'm actually talking about. So this is more for the sake of notes than anything; I suppose it's sort of a drab "celebration" to say that I'm finally done with the Equipment part of Excel, at least initially.


1. Equipment Buffing: I'm probably going to have boost the WP and HP of most things by a factor of 150% even before I start doing stats...which I've still yet to touch for most things. Sigh.

2. New Classes & Equipment: Have tentatively been figured out for now, though they're of course subject to change, especially since I've already decided on at least a half a dozen things I'm changing.

3. Katana's replacements: I might just make Rapiers their own weapon type instead of having them interspersed with Swords given that this space is completely vacant now, especially given I have other plans for Draw Out's function now.

4. Mediator & Marksman: Are trading spots. Again. I can't promise that this will be the last time, but, eh.

5. Roderick's Double Spells: Are going in their respective fourth tier elemental slots. I don't know why the hell I let them invade the second slot of their respective elementals in the first place.

6. Barefists: Will be getting...some type of formula change eventually since they still need to be a credible last resort even without Martial Arts due to both Weapon Break and Steal Weapon still being around alongside Icewolf Bite.

7. Knives: They still need some type of advantage beyond having the most weapons that can be used with Two Swords/Dual Wield, especially since that ability is likely to take a hit and the strongest Knife can't be Dual-Wielded anyway.

8. Greatbows: Don't know what the hell I was thinking about when I allowed them to have both greater range AND power than Longbows. They're still going to have greater power than Longbows (as Knightswords due compared to Swords), but they'll probably restricted to less range, primarily 3. They still need some work, especially to be worthy of being available ONLY to Marksman.

9. Longbows/Bows: Are now available to at least Chemist and Thief even with Marksman trading places back with Mediator; I'll update the equipment list for things later, possibly as soon as tomorrow though that's unlikely. I figure that they needed to be able to be used by at least a couple of more classes given that Greatbows need to differ themselves from regular Bows and Soldier can equip almost everything else under the sun. Seventh Heaven needs to die and become some else given it's just a greater version of Silver Bow. Also, the Greatbow Sagittarius is switching places with the Longbow Ultima Bow between its range issue and Ultima Bow's sheer power being worthy of a Greatbow. Still need to decide on the formula for these....

10. Swords: Will be getting more regular sword places if Rapiers get their own spot, though then it will be even more difficult to differ the two (and the other 2-range weapons).

11. Knightswords: Are maybe going to stick with Brave formula for now unless I can find another decent use for Brave Up without Fury (initially) around. Excalibur's Item Attribute probably needs to be less insane, though it will have to change anyway due to Blood Suck having died.

12. Axes & Flails/Maces: Still need a (real) purpose, even if Berserker is around to open up access to them. It doesn't exactly help that there are still only 3 Axes at present either.

13. Rods: Are likely going to become like Celdia's Wand ideas even though I'll probably still call them "Rods" given that's what they've been referred to in every other FF game. Hurray for stealing! Just call me Zero. (I realized, however, that I need to edit the color of at least one of them because there's a particular coloration I want missing....)

14. Staves: Are basically just PA-using physical debuffers now. We'll see how that works, though I doubt they'll change much, especially since I can't think of anything else to make them "do" that isn't related to Movement, which I don't really want (probably).

15. Guns: Are still available only to certain special classes. I'm probably going to add one more Gun, though. I'm sure what to do about Equip Gun just yet since I'm tempted to have it around to give to Mustadio (among others).

16. Crossbows: Need a modification to their WP*WP formula. Bow Gun is probably going back to its original name. Hunting Bow needs something, though I might just use ALMA for that. In terms of sheer weapon power, Gastraphetes is probably already just fine given what it procs additionally.

17. Instruments & Books/Tomes: Are still in competition with each other, though there are currently a lot more Books and people that use Books than Instruments and people that use Instruments still. I might add one or two more Instruments, though. There's also the problem of them then having to compete with the "Rod as Wand" idea when it comes to being distance weapons that use MA, though I suppose I could just have one of them arc or something instead. I wonder what (graphical) issues that would cause, though...?

18. Spears/Polearms & Sticks/Poles: Also in competition with each other, though it's rather clear how they'll be distinct from each other even with wanting Poles to use PA rather than MA. Or, at least, it's clear until Rapiers step in like assholes. Hmm....

19. Cloths/Hides: Might honestly die because they violate my dislike of weapons that essentially serve as just secondary armor, i.e. P-Bag. Not sure if their 5 spots would become other weapons or another weapon type entirely, though I'm rather hard pressed to think of another weapon type that fits any of the generic classes AND wouldn't be redundant.

20. Thrown Items: Well, with Throw dead, even though I kinda want it to back eventually, I already know what these spots will become.

21. Shields: I'm tempted to allow all classes to use these like RavenofRazgriz has, but I'll see how it works without doing that first. Besides, I've stolen enough from him already.... Storm Shield is probably going to have to change and Mirrored Shield will probably end up changing back to its original "sin".

22. Helms & Hats: Are already distinct enough from each other that the only thing they really need are HP boosts, though Viking Helm probably needs a buff to its Item Attribute and Bone Helm & Oracle Hat need to be reigned the hell in. Still not sure if I should let every class be able to equip Hats like they can Clothes presently; presently, Hats are still not usable by all.

23. Hair Adornments: Need another category name given that they can be equipped by everyone and all classes, even if there are only 3 of them and two of them ARE hair adornments. Damn Headgear.

24. Armor, Clothes & Robes: Are already distinct enough from each other that they really just need some HP boosts. Although I must admit that a couple of Robes look rather overpowered, even with the small HP pool they have, due to their Item Attributes, and that I'm still having issues with the non-Elemental Outfits versus their respective Robes. Summoner Robe also needs something and the three non-store armors that aren't Maxmillian probably need nerfs to their Item Attributes.

25. All Accessories: Will probably get (slightly) more evasion.

26. Shoes: Dragoon Boots need to not be obviated by Spike Shoes. Marvel Shoes might just die.

27. Armguards: Guard Gauntlet possibly needs a bit of a buff. Might make a "Thief Gauntlet" or "Thief Gloves" if I've the room.

28. Rings: Probably need the most work of any the accessory types, though at least Coral Ring is easy to change.

29. Armlets: N-Kai Armlet is probably the only one that will remain the same, though the special Armlet doesn't need that much of a change given that it just needs to compensate for Wall leaving; two other Armlets also need to compensate for a status leaving. Diamond Armlet's Item Attribute needs to die in a fire.

30. Mantles: Outside of Dracula Mantle's immunity to Blood Suck no longer meaning a damn thing, mantles seem fine.

31. Perfumes: Four of the five of them are probably dying. With the Seasonal Breezes likely being done in, this is likely to become a miscellaneous category given the other things I've eliminated. I'm not sure if all 4 spots will become miscellany, though, and the only current idea I have needs ALMA, which I'm still iffy about.

32. Chemist Items: Already need a rather sizeable overhaul considering I need to change at least 7 items, but that can wait until I get around to abilities for everyone else.

33. Item Attributes: I apparently have 3 or 4 spaces left between an accidental repeat that no item is using, one (recently two) spot that's still unused, one spot that might go back to being unused and a couple of things that I feel are overpowered and might merge or...something.

34. Stat-Boosting Items: I have a hell of a lot of these. Perhaps too many if that's easy to get +6 in either PA or MA. I'm going to need to take that into account when doing formulas and/or stats.


Given that I still need to get around to at least starting up Parted Ways like I promised Eternal, I probably won't be able to update anything for the next week or so. Not a huge loss.

*goes back to pondering what the hell to do with Mist beyond that one thing*

Quote from: MysticKnightFF5 on July 20, 2011, 12:52:04 am
If I may suggest PA-based healing for Paladin. Like Chakra, except maybe more magical-feeling.
(EX. CT / Range / AoE / Etc)
It would certainly balance warriors against mages better, assuming you intended to buff mages and make them worth something late game.


Nurse is supposed to be PA-based, though it's been...disappointing given what I wanted to do. Maybe I'll just give then ARENA Chakra given that Monk is dead and no one has that ability type of ability; the closest thing is, what, Chocobos I think, particularly Boco.

It would mean I wouldn't have to waste an Inflict Status slot on All Defending of all things the very least, though....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on August 06, 2011, 12:05:48 am
(It's almost been two weeks already? Sigh.)

I'm still working on this or, at least, trying to considering impossible to get work done around here with all the news that happens except at the dead of night and all the sleep I have (not) been getting.

Currently "stuck" on abilities again, though it's more trying to figure out the purposes of classes so that I can finally fill in everything beyond Ch. 1--currently "stuck" on Gafgarion--since I've had Wiegraf and company done since at least last week. Boco and Flying Eyes will likely see a shift, but otherwise I don't think anything will change in Chapter 1 that isn't ENTD related since I have 12 new monsters to work with--I still need to do Skeletons.

Anyway, it occurred to me that none of my Blue Magic is actually Faith-based, which is...not what I was going for, really. So, there's a distinct change that I'll now be changing all Blue Magic to be Faith-based. Not sure about this.

Should (most) Blue Magic be Faith-based or not?

Any feedback on that or...any of the abilities from the class tracker thing would be rather useful considering it's been up for a month.

I might just take next week off at this rate considering I still need to get around to Parted Ways, though that's more my computer being disagreeable than anything else.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: RavenOfRazgriz on August 06, 2011, 09:19:49 pm
Blue Magic being Faith based or not is all dependent on your monster MA compared to human MA.  If you've brought them in line some, there's nothing wrong with it being Faith based, though you'll probably want some non-Faith MA based skills as well.  Could go either way, really, just depends on what your needs are based on what your other magic skillsets look like.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on August 21, 2011, 09:25:44 am
(I am returned.)

Ugh. I was away for more than a week working on that damn Excel sheet and I'm still didn't finish with everything, though at least I managed to finish most of it (finally) and I now know who gets currently gets screwed over when I've run out of (free) ability space. (Hint: It's Kletian, Beowulf and maybe Agrias.)

"Ironically", though, due to all my re-arranging and filling in everything else that was left blank before sans individual ability lists, I realize that I have more Inflict Status Code space, Skill Set space and Job space than I already thought I did. If only it were a fair trade off though, but life is never fair.

Also, quite a bit has changed, at least planning-wise since even just doing in stuff in FFTPatcher isn't really "work" for the most part. As always, a "list" is in order:

1. Sharing Means Caring: Hatred is a type of caring. Currently, I'd say a lot more classes tend to share things than I intended...and I still ran out of space at present, even with me continuing to minimize. I'm not sure how I feel about this, especially since I'm unsure much more I'll be able to "minimize" before I start feeling things are compromised. Speaking of which, we might as well talk about things that are on chopping block or that already got cut.

2. Black & White Magic: White Magic lost two spells over the "break": Umbra, partly because of Illusionist's Flash (which allowed me to save an ISC space) and partly because it went to someone else, and Proselytize, (again) to Illusionists; I'll update this in the job section "later". Given that I'm a "stickler" about White and Black Magic parity, this means that Bio 2 and Bio 3 are dying/combining with Bio and going to be used for other (still poisonous) things. Unlike White Magic, I haven't yet to implement this change to Black Magic yet. (Also, it lost Wall, to Roderick, but that was a while ago.)

3. Cleansing Purge: Speaking of White Magic, Esuna got nerfed. Hard. It know longer cancels like twelve different things. It's more in line with Choco Esuna--it actually shares the exact same ISC now--now, which also got weakened, but not as much; Choco Esuna, however, now only hits one unit at the cost of not going by Faith & being instant and I'm also thinking of making it exclusive to Black Chocobo since Choco Guard rather sucks. For this new weakness, Paladin got an ability to replace Bulwark (since Wall is dead/replaced by Mist[y]) called Cleanse that cures six things that Esuna doesn't, including Curse(d) and Undead. Cleanse is currently PA based. I'm tempted to bring back Chronos, though Dimensionalist is already bloated; also, Item is going to be getting completely overhauled when I redo equipment after stats.

4. You Get a Raise: Again speaking of White Magic and Pure Skill, White Magic again has Raise 2, now called Arise, having traded Paladin the lesser Raise ability. No changes to those just yet.

5. The Same Old Song & Dance: Of the classes most likely to change, Paladin, Minstrel and Slayer are at the top after Black Magic's aforementioned changes. It's only natural given the gender-exclusive swap that happened only a month or so ago and Slayer's rather...substantial lack of identity still. Paladin & Minstrel are also kinda bloated and both happen to have stat-affecting skills, which I'm still unsure what to do with, so there's also that.

6. Class Warfare: Speaking of "bloated", there's also Dimensionalist, but I honestly can't see myself getting rid more than three things there: Stasis/Stop, which might go to Illusionist (and then get replaced by something else); Expire, which might just die; Comet, which might become exclusive to Boco (on the player side). Then again, probably every generic could stand to lose something sans Soldier, Knight, Orator and maybe Marksman.

7. Speak Now: Oh, right. Mediator is called Orator now. I forgot to note that in my last post, though perhaps I hadn't decided back then. It's been two weeks since I've posted in here, after all. (Sigh.)

8. What's In A Name: It seems likely that for both character names and ability names, I will be going with the PSP and/or FFXII version in most cases. I'm not sure if I'll be calling "Magic" "Magick", though; that extra k has always seemed...pretentious--the same with "Technick" However, I definitely won't be copying the obtuse language of either game, so you can restrain your fury, Asmo X.

9. Please Describe the Name of Your Status: Similarly, I've decided to streamline all status names like how I'm trying to stream ability names (within the same skill set); I'm doing this by making all status names adjectival. This both makes the names look not as thrown together and allows me to not have to worry about abilities name as much, so I don't have to think of something "silly" for Protect & Shell; Haste & Slow might still become Accelerate & Impede, respectively, though--Reflect probably will be changing back from "Deflect", even though Deflect is technically more accurate. This is pretty easy for the most part since for the majority of them, all I need use is the "-ed" or "-ing" version of the word, though a couple are rather stubborn: I'm not sure what to do with Reraise, especially since it's the only preemptive status and not actually a word, or what to change Crystal into if I need to change it at all.

10. Please State the Status of Your Relationship: As with the above, some statuses interact with each other slightly differently now. As with the above, I'll update this in the status list "later"--getting rid of a certain glitch was (in theory) stupidly easy, I realized. I figure here is where I should mention that I'm considering getting rid of/replacing another two statuses because I saw how much ISC space I have left over (given how much is obsolete at present).

11. Treasured Friends: Can be stabbed in the back when situation calls for it, apparently. Treasure status is, actually, rather likely to die. The only real reasons I'm even considering keeping it around at this point is because a) I've already made impossible to learn skills from crystals since that screws up trying to plan on Learn on Hit and b) Ghosts are currently immune to Treasure and, unlike Skeletons, their abilities are actually planned for the most part. Well, both those and the fact that I still have no idea how to code and thus all my plans for new status haven't begun yet. Still, the benefits of removing it seem to far out way the negatives: no longer having to worry about an item becoming available too early or getting taken from someone with Maintenance, getting people to actually use Move-Find Item or Steal, getting people to do random battles for things other than (chance) equipment and being able to allow players to plan around a unit now only Crystallizing, which will/can only restore HP & MP.

12. I Hope You've Prepared A Strong Defense: She-Hulk smash! Heh. Imagine.... Anyway, Defending status is the other status on the chopping block. It either osculates between being too weak with stuff like Caution & Paladin's Nurse or too strong with things like when you have enough evasion for it to be really dumb & Belias's current Always: Defending innate. Even then, those four examples are pretty like 50% of all the instances that Defending even ever (even in Embargo) comes up outside of a couple of items, a couple of abilities and the actual Defend command, which players never use and the AI always uses (and wastes CT on) if they have access to it. Yeah...it just seems like it needs to die for something that doesn't automatically dispel on the turn immediately following. That or to be heavily refined in ways I'm not thinking of yet. Technically, only one of these "needs" to die for me to get maximum benefit out of all my status plans, but both of them dying would allow me to try with something else status-wise that I hadn't planned on being able to do.

13. Conjunction Unction, What's Your Function?: "Covering up the scenes of your horrible crimes, yeah." (I wish knew how to make song notes.) Anyway, Oil (or Oily or Oiled) isn't on the chopping block, I'm just...not sure about what generic to give it too as a stand alone or combined ability. Currently, it's the standalone ability of someone, but that person isn't a generic (obviously). Black Mage would seem like the most obvious choice, but I don't think Bio inflicting 100% Oil (or getting replaced by 100% Oil infliction) is the way. So, yeah. Not sure what to do, though I think someone needs it (or something purely dedicated to Oil status) since I realized that pretty much everything else that inflicts it is a -25% proc off some (Fire) ability or weapon, Burning Bow aside. I might give to Marksman or something.

14. I Mist You: For jacking Pride's Mist formula so readily, I have no idea what I want to do with this outside of one thing. It has the same problem of Oil when giving it to generics, except it's even worse because it would be rather...braindead to give to a mage, though maybe I'll give it to Priest over Reraise (even though that seems like a horrible idea). Also, because currently, nothing else even procs it or has it.

15. Red Magic: So, Red Magic has pretty much been completely overhauled between Roderick having Wall instead of Barrier, which is dead though I buffed Choco Barrier with its ISC, and actual representations of White Magic now between that, Astra (taken from Acolyte, which "needs" a replacement still) and Blink, which is White Magic in name only, really. Mute (his Mute) is going to die and become his fourth White Magic spell and Toxify will just become a greater Bio, probably; Slumber already went to someone else. So he'll have four spells from each side--the Double spells might change to something else, though.

With regards to his fourth-White Magic spell, I'm not really seeing much except for Aura, though, which I think is a stupid and overpowered spell, so I'd have to make it only restrict to self; I might just "borrow" Reraise from White Magic, though, since a generic having access to that status is arguably problematic anyway with trying to lessen the need for "sandbag". (Although, really, in this case, that's more a problem with Dragon Spirit than the Reraise spell). So, yeah. Shrug.

16. Cold Shoulder: Speaking of neglected elements of the game, Water still manages to have the least amount in the game and Ice is woefully barren for being one of the three more "primary" elements of Ivalice. Whereas equipment is (currently) a lot more even about this, it kinda hurts that there isn't a Lucavi of Water & Mateus isn't making it into the game, whereas Fire, Lightning & Earth all have Lucavi that are in the game and Holy, Wind & Dark are just a lot more prevalent now. I might just make Kletian an Ice mage/sorceror now to partly make up for this (and because I have no space) and I've plans for at least two "new" Ice techniques between Illusionist's Cold Flame and turning Pug Tonberry's Midnight Oil into a technique I wasn't aware from another FF game which fits a hell of a lot more.

17. Smooth Criminal: With Marksman back to being a class not on the "Speed" path, Thief took its Immunity to Confusion. I'm thinking about giving it and Orator an innate movement as well to go along with their innate immunity to something and innate Support to put it more in line with Chemist. However, I might just take Move-Find Item away from Chemist innately. I'm unsure yet.

18. Horrible Bosses: The head of the Deep Dungeon looks like it's changing again due to me figuring what I'm going to be doing with Elidibis/Elidibus (probably) just some hours ago. How noisome that is....

I think that's everything, change or plan-wise, that's happened in the past week or so. Or, at least, that's everything that I'm going to tell people. I'm probably forgetting something, especially since I've been feeling even worse than usual this last week. Still, that's no excuse for laziness and gross incompetence.

As such, I'll probably be spending the rest of today finally trying to start on stats and trying to finally get this computer "worthy" enough to be able to play Parted Ways without it slowing to a crawl or acting like it wants to blow up (or both) whenever I try.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on August 06, 2011, 09:19:49 pm
Blue Magic being Faith based or not is all dependent on your monster MA compared to human MA.  If you've brought them in line some, there's nothing wrong with it being Faith based, though you'll probably want some non-Faith MA based skills as well.  Could go either way, really, just depends on what your needs are based on what your other magic skillsets look like.


I saw this as soon as you posted it, but I hadn't wanted to say anything until I was done with the above. Rather sad that ended up taking more than two weeks.

Anyway, I know. It just seems weird to have a mix of both, even if Blue Mage is...Blue Mage and has always been a mage that didn't really act like a mage. As for human stats versus monster stats, they're (planned to be) a lot closer now since monsters have been buffed in other ways, though for the most part monsters will always be better than humans at the Blue Mage ability that humans can learn.

At least, that's how it should work in theory, so I'll probably fuck it up horribly.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on September 27, 2011, 08:38:54 am
(Note to self: Hunt down fdc before weekend. Also, hunt down Kalas for distracting me with that damn Chrono Cross (http://lparchive.org/Chrono-Cross/Update%2001/) lp for two days as I was trying to finally get finished last week. A curse upon his house.)

So, I've finally been updating things in this thread again over the past couple of days prove that neither this nor I have succumb to death. I'm just rather useless and lazy, so what should have taken like a...week or two at most took a month despite still having all the free time in the world. Go me.

Anyway, when trying to update the monster section with the 15 monsters I had initially skipped over--again, laziness--and such, I, as I suspected towards the end of my editing given how long it was taken, ran over the (invisible) word limit again. As such, I'll post earlier than I had planned and just put those here, making a formal post tomorrow since I should probably lay down now--not that I can go to sleep; boy, I am so screwed if I fall asleep today. Well, I suppose, I should probably go update the first post again anyway.

Thank you, everyone, for who has combined to express interest this meandering project by my indolent arse. I couldn't feel pressured without you:


Illithids - Briny and brainy squid-faced creatures of the deep, thought by many to be the most intelligent of all monsters and thus among the most dangerous even before their abilities to harm & destroy the minds of other creatures are taken into account. (May eventually be made into just one class of monster if there is ever a good sprite made for another creature absorbs Water.)


Common Abilities: Aqualung/Thought Eater/Mind Blast

1. Aqualung or Aqua Rake or Aqua Breath or whatever is currently only Aqua Soul by another name, meaning it's a weak single-target attack since it hasn't really been changed yet. Whether it gains a lot more power and remains single-target or gains slightly less power and becomes AoE is still something hasn't been decided yet.

2. Thought Eater is an life-draining ability that drains 20% HP while also inflict Addled at 100% currently; it's pretty much the primary reason that Illithids lost Concentrate and it might yet still need to be further weakened.

3. Mind Blast is a single-target attempt to make a target both Confused & Disabled; it can be resisted via Iron Will at present.

NEOILLITHID:

1. Move: 3

2. Jump: 3

3. Innate: HP Restore [NEW], Hamedo [NEW], Move Underwater, Move-HP UP [NEW] (Might be slightly overpowered, but Illithids are going to have middling PA at best anyway.)

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Ice; Weak: Lightning & Earth (I think, as with Water, I might have made too many things weak to Lightning, though Illithids have been weak to Lightning since they were just "Pisco Daemon" in vanilla.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Berserk, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

6. Unique Move: Thick Ink - Spits a viscous ink that makes the target(s) both Blind & Slowed from a linear range of 2.


SPIRALLITHID:

1. There's a decent chance that I'll switch the names/positions of this and Mindflayer given the direction that I'm going currently.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 3

4. Innate: Damage Split [NEW], Hamedo [NEW], Move Underwater, Move-HP UP [NEW] (Might be slightly overpowered, but Illithids are going to have middling PA at best anyway.)

5. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Ice; Weak: Lightning & Earth (I think, as with Water, I might have made too many things weak to Lightning, though Illithids have been weak to Lightning since they were just "Pisco Daemon" in vanilla.)

6. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Berserk, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

7. Unique Move: Eerie Soundwave - Merely a renamed Odd Soundwave, it is otherwise unchanged as of yet. I might make it discriminating, though.


MINDFLAYER:


1. As said above, there's a decent chance that I'll switch the names/positions of this and Mindflayer given the direction that I'm going currently.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 3

4. Innate: Teleport [NEW], Hamedo [NEW], Move Underwater, Move-HP UP [NEW] (Might be slightly overpowered, but Illithids are going to have middling PA at best anyway.)

5. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Ice; Weak: Holy & Dark (At least we get around from that weakness to Lightning here.)

6. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Berserk, Charmed & Sleeping.

7. Unique Move: Angel Whisper - Far less benevolent than historical ability of the same name, this "whisper" drives its target mad, filling them with murderous zeal as they set out to kill their former allies for "God". Inflicts Berserk, Faithful & Charmed on a single-target.



Skeletons - Merest frames of man that have willingly given up any shred of flesh and humanity for magical power, they roam the land looking for victims to test their arcane might on. (As with Illithids, there's a decent chance these might stop being generic monsters, though I want at least one generic Undead monster, so probably not.)


Common Abilities: Bone Toss/Dark/Leaf

1. Bone Toss is Skeletons only physically-based attack, though it's rather a lot as its a distance-based attack that necessarily has a CT because it will cause 100% Undead if it hits.

2. Dark is a rather basic AoE 2 Dark-elemental damage spell. I'm not going to lie and say that I was hit by a wave of inspiration for Skeletons despite how long it took me.

3. Leaf is a fearsomely named, non-elemental damage spell that hits AoE 1 and, currently, hits rather hard even though it's a (necessary) placeholder like the Aero spells.


WHITE BONES:

1. All Skeletons have rather generic names at present, unfortunately. Raven gave me the highly amusing name of "Pearly Wight", which Celdia promptly "stole" as well; personally, I won't be able to use it until I think of equally fitting/amusing names for the other two Skeletons. As someone who likes puns, I have failed at this, though Old Bones arguably is (a lame) one already.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 4

4. Innate [All NEW]: Regenerator, Magic Def. UP, Short Charge, Walk on Water

5. Absorbs and Resists/Halve: Dark, Resists/Halve: Ice & Water, Weak: Fire & Holy (Only new things are the resistances.)

6. Innate Status: Undead

7. Immune: Crystallized [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Poisoned & Doubtful [NEW] (Technically has more due to Always: Undead, but, eh, most of those aren't a positive things, which is why it has so many immunities. Can now be affected by Regening, but also by Reraised.)

8. Shared Abilities: Protect, Shell & Regen - So many damn things have Protect & Shell right now that it's rather...questionable. That combined with the fact that Mighty Guard rather obviates both of those (even if single-targeting at present) makes it even more likely to change. Then again, it's not like they can take anything else from White Magic, at least without screwing over the two or three other monster families that are supposed to clerical units.

9. Unique Ability: Mighty Guard - Stolen from Tonberries, this is currently a lesser Aegis/Mbarrier that proves Protected, Shelled & Hasted, but not Regening or Reraised. The Hasted aspect may become Regening or even Reflective later, though.


BLACK BONES:

1. The "pun"-based I'm thinking of here is "Charred Ribs", but I don't like that all that much.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 4

4. Innate [All NEW]: MP Restore, Magic Def. UP, Short Charge, Walk on Water

5. Absorbs and Resists/Halve: Dark, Resists/Halve: Ice & Water, Weak: Earth & Holy (It could no longer be weak to Fire due to having actually that spell.)

6. Innate Status: Undead

7. Immune: Crystallized [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Poisoned & Doubtful [NEW] (Technically has more due to Always: Undead, but, eh, most of those aren't a positive things, which is why it has so many immunities. Can now be affected by Regening, but also by Reraised.)

8. Shared Abilities: Fire, Ice & Bolt - As with Protect & Shell, it seems like too many people have these at present, but that might just because of all the "Squires" in Chapter 1. They're at least differed enough to still be useful to a monster, though Short Charge is rather useless here I just realized....

9. Unique Ability: Flood - Rather damaging Water-element spell with a wide AoE of 3 that will need still need some adjusting in light of a couple of Roderick's new spells.


OLD BONES:

1. The "pun"-based name here that I'm leaning toward here is "Demilich", which is a good deal more likely to be used than "Charred Ribs" for a couple of reasons.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 4

4. Innate [All NEW]: Arrow Guard, Magic Def. UP, Short Charge, Move-MP Up

5. Absorbs and Resists/Halve: Dark, Resists/Halve: Ice & Water, Weak: Fire, Wind & Holy (Probably needs that third weakness to Wind to not be horribly overpowered. We'll see though.)

6. Innate Status: Undead & Floating (And thus technically immune to Earth.)

7. Immune: Crystallized [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Poisoned, Regening, Slowed [NEW] & Doubtful [NEW] (Technically has more due to Always: Undead, but, eh, most of those aren't a positive things, which is why it has so many immunities. Got immunity to Slowed because it didn't lose its immunity to Regening like the other two.)

8. Shared Abilities: Haste, Slow & Stasis/Stop - As with the others, this selection of skills from a human class is a bit questionable, especially given how much the AI tends to whore Haste & Slow. However, I can't think of much other else that would fit and either not be overpowered (like Polymorph) or potentially screw over another set of monsters.

9. Unique Ability: Time Slip - Currently using Sleeping status a placeholder, it would inflict ???? & Stopped to a single target (at present).



Ghosts - Much the opposite of skeletons, who are shells with what many Ivalicans would call a soul, these roaming, lost unfortunates are spirits without shells who drain life from the living, often unintentionally as many refuse to believe they are actually dead. (Even if both Illithids and Skeletons became non-recruitable, "special" monsters, these would doubtless remain generic.)


Common Abilities: Frost/Drain Touch/Possess

1. Frost was previously Frost Dragon's ability, but it replaced the otherwise untouched Ice Soul, which means that now Ghosts have access to an Ice-element percentage damage ability that causes 100% Slowed. That might change, though at present they're the only monster who has only three abilities if not in Critical.

2. Drain Touch is...still just vanilla Drain Touch, except "Dark" and absorbing of less life now. Meh.

3. Possess is a single-target Self-Destruct that adds Hasted, Charmed & Doomed to the victim, which is precisely why it can only be used in Critical and why, much like Bombs, Ghosts are guaranteed to be on the lower side of the HP pool for monsters. In fact, Ghosts are pretty much guaranteed to have the least HP of all monster families.


SPECTER:

1. Move: 4

2. Jump: 4 [Might get an even higher Jump just because even with Teleport & Always: Floating, it really shouldn't be taking any damage from falls.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Damage Split [NEW], Defense UP [NEW], Teleport

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark, Resist/Halve: Water, Weak: Fire & Holy (The only new thing is resisting Water. Like Skeletons, I was going to make them resist Ice, but they'll already be evasive as Hell and be capable of going kamikaze on anything with Possess, so they need to be "weak" to magic.)

5. Always: Undead & Floating (No need to waste an innate on Levitation movement.)

6. Initial: Transparent (Might get rid of this depending on how dumb it makes the AI.)

7. Immune: ???? [NEW], Crystallized [NEW], Petrified [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Reraised, Frogged [NEW], Poisoned, Regening & Misty [NEW] (...Yeah, they easily have the most immunities of any monster class, even more than Tonberries. They might lose something, but I can't tell what since they "need" all of this--the most likely thing is Frogged, even though they don't have physical bodies to turn into Frogs.)

8. Unique Skill: Touch of Sadness/Touch of Despair - This "bad touch" can be resisted by Iron Will (presently), but is otherwise still close-range and would cause ??? & Slowed.


WRAITH:

1. Move: 4

2. Jump: 4 [Might get an even higher Jump just because even with Teleport & Always: Floating, it really shouldn't be taking any damage from falls.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Blade Grasp [NEW], Defense UP [NEW], Teleport

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark, Resist/Halve: Water, Weak: Fire & Holy (The only new thing is resisting Water. Like Skeletons, I was going to make them resist Ice, but they'll already be evasive as Hell and be capable of going kamikaze on anything with Possess, so they need to be "weak" to magic.)

5. Always: Undead & Floating (No need to waste an innate on Levitation movement.)

6. Initial: Transparent (Might get rid of this depending on how dumb it makes the AI.)

7. Immune: ???? [NEW], Crystallized [NEW], Petrified [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Reraised, Frogged [NEW], Poisoned, Regening & Misty [NEW] (...Yeah, they easily have the most immunities of any monster class, even more than Tonberries. They might lose something, but I can't tell what since they "need" all of this--the most likely thing is Frogged, even though they don't have physical bodies to turn into Frogs.)

8. Unique Skill: Touch of Rage - This "bad touch" can be resisted by Iron Will (presently), but is otherwise still close-range and would cause Berserk & Slowed. The current Slowed aspect of this and Specter's ability (which is more likely to keep Slowed) is part of why I might want to change Frost: it might be as redundant as it is potentially overpowered.


NECROPHOBE:

1. Move: 5 [Will probably be reduced to 4]

2. Jump: 4 [Might get an even higher Jump just because even with Teleport & Always: Floating, it really shouldn't be taking any damage from falls.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Iron Will [NEW], Defense UP [NEW], Teleport

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark, Resist/Halve: Water, Weak: Wind & Holy (Weakness to Wind instead of Fire is just part of what makes it the odd one out.)

5. Always: Undead & Floating (No need to waste an innate on Levitation movement.)

6. Initial: Transparent (Might get rid of this depending on how dumb it makes the AI.)

7. Immune: ???? [NEW], Crystallized [NEW], Petrified [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Reraised, Frogged [NEW] & Misty [NEW] (It isn't immune to Blind like the other Ghosts and lost its vanilla immunities to both Poisoned & Regening, meaning its the only Undead monster that can be Poisoned.)

8. Unique Skill: Fate Transfer - This terrible fate too can be resisted by Iron Will (presently). It's still close-range even though it's no longer what it was once, which was something that cause Undead & Slowed. However, upon realizing how stupid this was for something that could only heal itself through Drain Touch, Fate Transfer instead became something that causes Addled & Doomed, which is part of the reason it remains close-ranged.



Lamias - Replacements for Uribos, these half-snake women manipulate emotions and ensnare both men & children especially using a false version of that already most venomous of feelings: love.


Common Abilities: Captivate/Snake Dance/Fire Kiss

1. Captivate is just Allure by another name, though it has been weakened to no longer be guaranteed on the opposite sex. This means it's technically shared with humans, though this time "only" by NPCs.

2. Snake Dance is a Auto-AoE 2 physically-powered (and evadable) attempt to cause Slowed, Immobilized or Disabled because, hey...snake tits. Currently, it discriminates, but is Direct to compensate for this.

3. Fire Kiss is a fiery blown kiss that causes "love sickness" if hits and thus causes Poisoned & Charmed as well as Fire-elemental damage of 10%. Was originally going to drain life, but I felt that a bit much.

BLANK LAMIA:

1. Move: 3 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 3 [Yet unchanged]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Alertness, Counter, Concentrate (It might lose Concentrate, but like Illithids before it, its PA will be rather middling.)

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Earth, Resist/Halve: Water & Dark, Weak: Fire & Lightning (And this is what I mean about too many enemies seeming weak to Lightning.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Oily, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

6. Unique Ability: Innocence - A healing ability that causes Addled & Doubtful in those who partake of the meat offered since, for some reason, I've wanted a "poisoned food" ability ever since I thought of a hack and something has to use "Please Eat"'s unique animation.

LILITH:

1. Move: 3 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 3 [Yet unchanged]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Alertness, Critical Quicken, Adrenaline/Speed Save (Considering giving it Hide/Sunken State over Critical Quicken, but the AI is rather dumb about Transparent....)

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Earth, Weak: Lightning & Ice (And this is what I mean about too many enemies seeming weak to Lightning.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: ????, Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Oily, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

6. Unique Ability: Chronos Tears - The Lilith cries false tears that capable of Stopping any target without an Iron Will. Doesn't work on monsters as with every other ability Iron Will currently affects, but unlike most of those other abilities, this will intentionally stay unable affect monsters since I kinda want Lamias as a whole to be disadvantaged against other monsters with all their evasion. Anyway, this used to be Blank Lamia's unique ability, but I figured it was more fitting for an emotionless monster to make other people empty shells rather than cry fake tears.

MORRIGAN:

1. Move: 3 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 3 [Yet unchanged]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Alertness, Counter, Concentrate (It might lose Concentrate, but like Illithids before it, its PA will be rather middling.)

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Earth, Weak: Lightning & Ice (And this is what I mean about too many enemies seeming weak to Lightning.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Oily, Doubtful & Charmed. (Not immune to Faithful so that it can possibly use White Wind better than humans.)

6. Unique Ability: White Wind - The ability that I'm perhaps most wary of given that it does its historical thing, thanks to Pride, and restores HP based on the amount that user has at the moment--it cannot hit the user in this case unlike in some previous versions because I'm already worried that it might be busted with its range of 3 and AoE 1. It might just become Auto with an AoE of 1.



Tonberries - Ever-shuffling, lantern-holding, knife-wielding, cloaked reptilian/amphibious creatures that have left many as lifeless as their dead and cold yet beguilingly innocent yellow eyes.


Common Abilities: Chef's Knife/Devil's Candle/Debarrier/Cripple

1. Chef Knife is THE Tonberry ability...which is why it needs more refinement than it currently is, especially since the status it's going to use isn't even coded yet.

2. Devil's Candle is an Ice-element ability that also uses an uncoded status to help Tonberries corner people.

3. Debarrier is the same as Knight's ability.

4. Cripple is the same as Berserker's ability and possibly at odds with Chef's Knife, at least it currently is now.


PUG TONBERRY:

1. Move: 4 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 132/4 [Yet unchanged, though I'll admit it would be rather...amusing to see a Tonberry used a stepping stone.]

3. Innates [All NEW]: Concentrate, Damage Split, Move in Water & Adrenaline/Speed Save.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Holy; Resist/Halve: Dark; Weak: Lightning. (Yeah, something else weak to Lightning. But, hey, they're carrying knives for Shiva's sake. So don't blame me. Blame yourself or God.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Addled, [Blood Suck], Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Immobilized, Disabled & Doomed. (Yeah...this is what I meant when I said that Tonberries got quite a few immunities. To think that I might "need" to make the immune to something else because they're time-locked--I'm keeping them from being immune to Slowed & Stopped because otherwise it would just be [even more] ridiculous.)

6. Unique Ability: Karma - Currently just a faithless version of Illusionist's Terrorize given that I don't want to have anything (recruitable) do Shock or Climhazzard damage (yet, if ever).


TONBERRY GUARD:

1. Move: 4 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 132/4 [Yet unchanged, though I'll admit it would be rather...amusing to see a Tonberry used a stepping stone.]

3. Innates [All NEW]: Concentrate, Damage Split, Teleport & Adrenaline/Speed Save.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Holy; Resist/Halve: Lightning & Dark; Weak: Wind & Water. (Yeah, they need to weak to two things if they're getting those resistances.)

5. Initial Status: Nothing. (Just noting this since if Defending ends up staying around, Tonberry Guards will most likely end up getting this or maybe even getting Always: Defending. Have to defend the King, after all....)

6. Immune [All NEW]: Addled, [Blood Suck], Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Disabled & Doomed. (Yeah...this is what I meant when I said that Tonberries got quite a few immunities. To think that I might "need" to make the immune to something else because they're time-locked--I'm keeping them from being immune to Slowed & Stopped because otherwise it would just be [even more] ridiculous. Tonberry Guards can be Immobilized unlike Pugs.)

7. Unique Ability: Everyone's Grudge - Hey, your own personal version of single-target Grand Cross. Enjoy (while you can).



HOLY TONBERRY:

1. Move: 4 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 132/4 [Yet unchanged, though I'll admit it would be rather...amusing to see a Tonberry used a stepping stone.]

3. Innates [All NEW]: Concentrate, MA Save, Damage Split & Walk on Water.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Holy. (Currently the only monster to absorb something and then have NO other weaknesses. This may change, especially since it can technically heal itself....)

5. Initial Status: Faithful

5. Immune [All NEW]: Addled, [Blood Suck], Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Immobilized & Doomed. (Yeah...this is what I meant when I said that Tonberries got quite a few immunities. To think that I might "need" to make the immune to something else because they're time-locked--I'm keeping them from being immune to Slowed & Stopped because otherwise it would just be [even more] ridiculous. Holy Tonberries can be Disabled unlike Pugs, though might not be enough.)

6. Unique Ability: Ray Bomb - With Priest's Holy likely to remain weaker than in vanilla, something needs to put the Holy in "Holy $#!t."
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on September 28, 2011, 04:24:31 am
(I still hate double posting, but, whatever. This should be done soon rather than later so I can start on actual work.)

Just going to re-post this from the original post before anything else:

To make navigation easier:



  • Generic Human Classes: Part 1 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140447#msg140447) & Part 2 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140448#msg140448)

  • Status Effects: The only part so far (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140688#msg140688)

  • Generic Monster Classes: Part 1 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg141973#msg141973) & Part 2 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg156257#msg156257)




With that again said, I have actually been doing some work over this past month oh so slowly. Sans Paladin, Minstrel & Slayer, the generic classes are finally looking rather solid/stable now even if most could still use some improvement and/or consolidation. *looks at Marksman and Summoner in particular*

However, I want to get around to actually on working on stats more (since I finally started modifying them... by only two more things beyond the initial six I'd forgotten about) as well as redoing all equipment (sigh) since I want basic damage from the beginning to be around 40. I also still need to decide on what new weapon type (or two) to add among other things. I might get around to posting an attachment for my own, horrible first draft of equipment so that I can provide people an example of what not to do. At least, I could probably get some amusement of Raven chewing me out for how horrible and stupid some of it is; I imagine he'll have a conniption fit just because my old Diamond Armlet, heh.

However, let's not talk about what is still only to be, especially as slowly as I go, and instead talk about what's finally been done beyond just the five monsters above.


1. Black & White Matters: It feels appropriate to start out with talking about Black Magic and White Magic considering those arguably caused the biggest changes this side of monsters and Blue Magic. Well, moreso Black Magic than White Magic given that the consolidation of all three Bios caused both a parity issue and a restructuring issue. With all Bio spells being consolidated into Miasma ability for Wizard, Black Magic fell from 13 spots to 11 spots, would have been fine since White Magic had already been at 11 for a while. ...Except that I still wanted generics to have access to Oil(y) status and considering that it would benefit Wizard the most, giving them Unction seems liked like a pretty obvious option--I was considering just making the Oil part of Miasma's proc, but I didn't want to make it Random or Separate and I felt that giving 100% multi-target All Oil(y) & Poison(ed) to a generic would have probably been a bit much.

2. White & Black Matters: ...Of course, given the want of parity and the fact that White Magic would now have 11 spells to Black Magic's 12, I had to give it something else as well. I had already given it back Raise 2, now "Arise", from Paladin, but that was at the cost of it trading Raise to Paladin since there's no way Priest gets to monopolize (greatly restorative) resurrection again, especially if it's keeping Reraise. So my choices were to either give it back Umbra, to give it back Slumber or to give that Misty-inflicting ability since no class has that still. Well, with regards to Umbra, giving that back to Priest would screw over Illusionist again, so that was a no-go. Giving it back Slumber meant that it would have to compete with Drone (Mimic Daravon) again, which was iffy since even if I've felt Mimic Daravon's multi-target was kinda...stupid, Mediators (now Orators) didn't really have much else & didn't have anything to get around Iron Will (Finger Guard) still. Giving it an MP-restoring ability, even if it didn't hit self, was something I didn't really want to do since I felt that it would become too mandatory/useful a skill set, like how I feel Item (still) is in...pretty much every patch, including this one (at present).

Thus I gave it Slumber, now "Repose", since I felt that was the least "evil" option given that Orator was likely getting some anti-Iron Will options anyway and Drone really did need be toned down beyond "can hit self if you're dumb enough to use it up close"; it can still hit yourself, but I imagine that only ever come up if you're Charmed or Confused. Also, White Magic got re-ordered so as to "help" the AI, even if it bugs me like hell that the Cures are separated like that; Arise is intentionally that low on the list, though I might raise it up--pun not intended--later depending on some things like the AI's performance with other skills.


3. Red is the New Grey: In doing all of this, I figured that I would have to give Roderick (Rad) yet another makeover since when we last left our lovable, magical sellsword, he was still very much a mess. He was only capable of rather boring Black Magic-esque things and Wall & Astra, having stolen from Priest & Acolyte respectively. So he was perhaps usable, but not very "exciting" or overly useful for someone who was actually supposed to be a special character now. He also didn't feel very emblematic of what a Red Mage was supposed to be: a mage that combines the best of both lower level Black Magic & White Magic. The White Magic variations had been conspicuously absent, the Black Magic variants were too caught up in trying to emulate Doublecast & were thus lacking and he didn't have anything from either of the basic skill sets otherwise.

As such, I'm rather pleased to say that after thinking about it for a couple of hours, I think I was able to make up a much more useful skill set for him. I'll list these quickly and go into them into depth later, sooner rather than later if anyone wants to know what the unique skills (among humans) he has at present exactly do: Fire, Ice, Bolt, Water/Aqua, Cure, Protect, Shell, Raise, Wall, Blink, Shock (Double Bolt), Bio, Water II/Aqua II/Watera/Aquara, Refresh, Deathforce and a 16th, "mystery" skill that won't reveal just even if you ask.


4. Four Use Death: As might be gathered from Roderick having a skill named Bio in the above, when I spoke of condensing down Wizard's previous Bio spells into one, I just meant with regards to Wizard itself. There are still multiple Poison/Bio spells--there's actually more now than before given there's 4 as opposed to 3. Wizard has Miasma, Roderick has Bio, Gafgarion has Toxify and Cuchuulain (Queklain) has Scourge (and all the other three presently, being the King of Impurity). They double in damage by tier and hit with more serious (guaranteed) statuses effects the higher one goes. So Miasma does 6%, Bio does 12%, Toxify does 25% & Scourge does a massive 50%--they are all Dark elemental at present and only Miasma is multi-targeting.

Currently, I'm considering switching Miasma and Bio around a bit to both do away with some possible confusion (seeing as more people are familiar with the name Bio, though I considering just naming Miasma "Poison" as generic as it sounds) and to allow myself to give Roderick a multi-targeting version of his if it did less damage (since I'm otherwise worried about obviating Miasma). If that comes to pass, then Roderick's Bio (which does 12% and, being a combination of Miasma & Unction, adds both Oil[y] & Poisoned) would drop to 6% and become multi-targeting and Wizard's Miasma would do 12% but still "only" add Poison. Obviously all of these need further refinement due to the 100% status thing--thank you, formula 0E--and the (amount of) percentage-based damage, but this is where they are now.


5. Iron Breaks, Wills Bend: Orator--Mediator is named that now since I don't think it was last time I updated--got two new physical skills to get around the now quite usable Iron Will. One is them is Shatterchord, which is actually a skill that's shared with Vampires (who need two more skills now, but that's not important) and which is an aiblity that does distance damage but has recoil. The other one is the unique and far more worrisome "Mixed Massage", which is a physical attack (probably only usable with Orator's weapons and maybe Bows, Rods and/or Guns) that is guaranteed to proc a status from Orator's skill (or a status equivalent to it), but at random. It's going to be the weakest among anything that uses 2D and it currently costs 30 MP, but it has weapon range at present, which might still be a bit much.


6. Not in my Nature: While Geomancy hasn't gotten any official changes as of yet, as I told Raven, I'm going to be condensing its currently 12 skills down to 6 skills. What I do with them after is rather...up in the air considering I want Geomancy to be more than just a terrain-based skill set, but current limitations and the inability to do the Support model for some of the skills that should be more tertiary (like Jump or Throw) is rather restricting that. I already have a replacement skill set in mind for it (as with Dragoon), but I'll probably condense those abilities even I can't implement that (yet) given...space issues among other things.


7. This is my Illusion: Besides Wizard, Priest & Orator, no class really changed much beyond Illusionist (despite everyone stealing from Acolyte). Illusionist got three moderate changes: Cold Flame became Ice-element instead of non-elemental, Mesmerizing Lights got toned way the hell down to only be single-target now (since I don't know what the hell I was thinking letting it be multi-target Charm or Sleep) and it got Proselytize (even though that was a while ago). It still technically needs another skill since Aero and Aero II/Aera are just placeholders...but I just right now realized the perfect thing to give it even if that, too, is a place-holder; I also just realized what to replace Terrorize with in the likelihood that it dies, but that too can wait.


8. You Are Undone: Speaking of Acolyte, it now has a new ability (to replace the now completely dead Astra that Roderick end up murdering for Deathforce, the lovable monster) to combat Dimensionalists specifically: Undo (or, alternately, "Return", though I like "Undo" better). There's no real reason to say anything about it when it's in the classes section outside of pointing out the fact that I'm somewhat uncomfortable that it steps on Dispel Magic's toes. I suppose I could just let not negate Hasted or Floating, though. (Similarly, I'm not going to say anything about its "parallels" of [Choco] Esuna or Cleanse.)

Acolyte really needs more physical abilities, though I've a couple of ideas.


Sigh. As usual, this is getting longer than I had wanted without saying (as) much (as I had wanted). In my sloth, I did do some other changes, though mostly to characters I'm not going to talk about right now or two monsters, which are both right above and links to in two places

As such, I'm going to make another post later this week just for questions & general direction and (vainly) hope that I actually get some responses from at least a couple of people this time. At present, I'm going to end this particular post on a question that I had asked before, but no one answered even though people apparently do care about it (if IRC is any indication):

How do people feel about using the names and/or language from the PSP version (without making things obtuse)? I've heard that people dislike them, but whenever I've asked, no one has said anything. Don't me make stick pretentious 'k's on the end of Black Magick, White Magick and other "Magick" and the like for the sake of continuity with other Ivalice Alliance games only to find out that people hate the crap.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: 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)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: MysticKnightFF5 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on October 14, 2011, 10:22:32 am
(Fuck. I had wanted to done with several things by now, not just one. Figures.)

Even with me getting distracted by certain Things (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8faq5amdK30) 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....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: MysticKnightFF5 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?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on October 27, 2011, 09:11:41 pm
(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]
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: MysticKnightFF5 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on December 03, 2011, 04:52:29 am
(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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on December 03, 2011, 10:58:27 am
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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on February 29, 2012, 04:39:16 am
(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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Pride on March 06, 2012, 12:17:42 am
Hoping to see this more regularly updated!
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 19, 2012, 01:02:36 am
(...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....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 31, 2012, 04:29:48 am
(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 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.20#msg140688) 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Panda_Tar on March 31, 2012, 07:07:22 am
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 (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on March 31, 2012, 04:27:18 pm
(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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: 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...)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: 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.

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 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?action=emailuser;sa=email;uid=3632).
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 30, 2012, 05:10:32 pm
(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 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?action=emailuser;sa=email;uid=3632).


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 (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8716.0)'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".
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on April 30, 2012, 05:27:41 pm
Back up your hard drive right fucking now.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo[center][b]Chocobos:[/b][/center] [spoiler=Ye
Post by: The Damned on May 01, 2012, 01:13:34 am
(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 (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cactuar). 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Solifuge on May 13, 2012, 02:50:19 pm
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 (https://docs.google.com/#home) for backing things up, if you want things out in the cloud where you can retrieve them on any machine. Also, ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/) is here. They have a tab for PS1 modding, and it's still active.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Pickle Girl Fanboy on May 13, 2012, 05:07:51 pm
Some SaGa Frontier names in there.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on May 23, 2012, 04:53:04 pm
(I should probably change that poll to something less of a farce even if Reraised isn't guaranteed to be dead just yet.)

I hadn't wanted to update until I finished on stats, but it feels rude not having replied to Solifuge in all this time when I've been obviously been for everyday of the past couple of weeks.

As ever, thanks for being patient with me. I've actually made quite a bit of progress in the past couple of weeks and have made an especially good amount of progress in planning in just the past couple of hours I've been awake before starting to type this up.

(I perhaps would be even further had I not been forced to spend the first three hours of this morning trying to restore the damn audio to this computer after I idiotically deleted it cleaning unused programs out. Oh well. Lesson learned.)

With the usual thanks out of the way, the first announcement shall be that I think I've decided on the "final" re-arrangement of classes; I have perhaps said this before though. Regardless, I might as well announce this formally:


Chemist dies in a fire...of Mossfungus poisoning.
Thief is no-longer available to the player.
Newest, "final" classes are Scholar and...Dimensionalist?



Now, I know what you're thinking after you get past mourning Items and Steals is probably something incredulous: "But isn't Dimensionalist already a class whose name you stole from Raven, you spoony, thieving bard?"

My answer: "Kinda."

Even before taking the name from him, I was having reservations and thoughts about several issues that have now been taken to the logical conclusion. It will become obvious what I meant in my next post given that post will pretty much be all about class changes, but for now I'm just going to let anyone who cares speculate while I ride this konami of faux hype.


With that out of the way, I suppose I might as well address some other things beyond Solifuge's post since I so love to whore numerical lists:


1. Chemist is pretty much deader than dead: Chemists will still appear in cut-scenes and still be referenced in-game, but they probably won't ever appear in battle in Embargo now. I might use their sprites for in-battle generic Engineers like 1.3 and its ilk, but I'm not entirely sure about that.


2. Items will, for the present, probably die rather than become universal: They will most likely make into the Embargo's first "full" release considering Zareb has shown that's functionally possible despite the problems that still exist. What capacity of universality those items maintain is almost impossible to say at present. For right now, however, I'm going to leave them out for at least "testing purposes"; testing purposes is basically to see how I would fair without Items and how other people will as well. As such, this will probably apply to at least the first "beta", so it's just a heads up. I might just use their space for "something" else in the meantime depending....


3. Thieves, on the other hand, will still be around as enemies: They'll be showing up primarily in the Chapter 1 and the beginning of Chapter 2 and at least one battle of Chapter 4, though that will likely be optional. They'll probably show up in Chapter 3 a bit since Ninja are completely out (still).


4. Likewise, Steal will still be available to the player: You just won't be able to Steal steel still because Steal Weapon is still dying. I won't reveal the class it's going to just yet, but trust me, I'm doing my best to have everything make at least some sense. Surprisingly, having Steal go to this class was a rather easy decision after another epiphany I had yesterday/last night; in fact, it seems so damn obvious now, I feel like smacking myself.


5. Snake Eyes: Gambler didn't end up getting in because it felt rather hypocritical to make a class based around "randomness" when I at least (mentally) chewed someone out for that in the past couple of weeks--not talking about weapon procs, Raven. Also, it was because I couldn't think of enough "random" skills that were a) good and b) something the AI would use. "Roulette" and "Luck" might still come up, though, not that you know what those do (yet).

Similarly, Sage didn't make it in as a generic because it's basically uber-Red Mage, which steps on Roderick's toes. Ranger didn't make it in as a generic I'm already having difficult time trying to come up with usable skills for Marksman.


6. Stopped now stops almost all status: I actually made this change at the beginning of May, but I don't think I pointed it out even if it's already in the status list in this thread: As a warm up to Stopped likely eventually ignoring attacks right out, it's currently immune to most statuses being added to it. While this is perhaps somewhat counter-intuitive given the skill set it's a part of, it's difficult to argue against it making "sense". To make up for this (and prevent potential abuse), it currently counts as a KO, however temporary. I still have to test how wonky that will make the AI act, though, which should be genuinely fun and interesting.

(Hmmm...I actually just had an intriguing, fruitful thought as to where to go with Stopped....)


7. Frogged now longer counts as KO: Speaking of not-knockouts, Frogged now back to counting not as a KO, which is something I also changed about a month ago. Instead, I'm going to steal from ARENA and just have it be canceled by Dying now. (Note to self: Add that to the status list on Friday.)


8. Silencing the Silenced: A rather minor change and one that I've done to other statuses without announcing it, but I figure since Silenced is back, there's no point in me "hiding" this so to speak: Silenced will no longer be able to inflicted on those already Silenced. The reason for this will become quite apparent eventually, though I'll say that part of it has to do with a likely (minor) change I'm making to Orator now.


9. Confused will currently die and become formerdeathcorps' Exposed: Since I don't want to kill Reraised off just yet and since I've yet to think of any constructive changes that can save Confused and since I don't want to steal from formerdeathcorps even more just yet, Confused will die for now. I figure that, even as much as I would like to be "faithful" to Final Fantasy history and have Confused in the game, especially since it's been around in almost every iteration from the beginning, I shouldn't be slave that history. I'm not going to agree with Nietzsche beyond that, though, and so I've decided to "steal" formerdeathcorps' Expose status rather than "invent" another status; it's not like I hadn't thought of it before myself given Edgar's Debilitator from FFVI--I just thought it would interfere with the other plans I had for status, elements and monsters, but it shouldn't.

I've already decided on four or five abilities it will be part of, though admittedly only one of those will be available to (generic) humans at present. Much like my indolence with Addled going back to Silenced still, this will necessitate thinking of Confused as Exposed in advance before it's coded; it's only really on a bunch of things that also add Blind and the crappy "Confusion Song" of Paladin that's dying. Regardless, I'll have to try to force myself to put it on more things, even if at present its stuck with an infinite duration. This is still infinitely better than Confused between weaknesses being 1.5 instead of 2 and taking formerdeathcorps' cue to have it be canceled by at least Protect and Shell; there is a minor exception to this with one item among my Tomes that Exposed's existence rather...complicates, but those things might need a (large) overhaul anyway since, like a certain Stave or two, they might be surprisingly overpowered.

As for when or if Confused might return, I am unsure. I'll be honest and say, at this point, Vampiric/Vampirism (Blood Suck) has a better chance of returning than Confused does presently. Regardless of what happens, Exposed is here to stay.


10. Knight's name becomes Fencer: Something else I've been pondering for a while, even before I conceived Embargo, mostly because of the change of (generic) Squire to Soldier and that cut-scene the first time you're in Dorter. Outside of the huge amount of now necessary shuffling that's going to happen, this will mostly be a change in name only; I seriously think half of the classes are seeing some change at this point because of said shuffling. Much like Thieves, though, "proper" Knights will still be around as enemies. (Note to self: Change this on the front page when posting on Friday.)


11. Blind is no longer blocked by Sleeping: Another minor change that I've undone that I feel should be pointed out, especially since there's no evidence of this one unlike the others. Blind is already kinda screwed over by getting canceled by Dying and still currently getting canceled by Regening now; it doesn't need further impediments, especially with all the equipment that blocks it too.


12. Martial Arts is coming back: I need more already-coded Supports at present, bare-fists don't have a solid formula right now and it's not broken if it's not innate, especially if its "watered-down" to 25%, though I'm not sure I'll do that actually. This is even more apparent if Two Swords isn't innate on anyone else either with Thieves no longer being generics. At present, it will be named "Brawler" even if that's rather "meh", at least from the name-scheming I want.


13. Breaks are breaking up: Well, Weapon Break has already been on a different set from Shield Break, Head Break and Armor Break for quite a while, but there's a decent chance that Shield Break might separate from the other two now as well. Let me clarify that this is not because Weapon Break is dying; unlike Steal Weapon, it's staying alive.

*resists urge to link to Bee Gees song*

Regardless of why the split is happening, it seems rather unlikely that the player will be able to affect all pieces of an opponent's equipment--weapon(s), shield, helm, armor, accessory--through any combination of sets on one (generic) unit. At most people will probably be able to affect only 4 of the 5 at once.

As such, I feel it's only fair to ask the obvious question, especially since I realize it undermines Maintenance (though that's already getting a buff): Would people be okay with this?

(Much like the poll, please bear in mind that while I will take any direct [reasonable] responses with regards to this into consideration, they may not ultimately sway my opinion even if the majority of people aren't okay with it. It will probably at least stay so divided for the Beta.)


All that finally said, the next post will be entirely class-related and detail the shuffling that's going on with human generics and probably some generic monsters as well. I'm also going to try to finally get up stats for human generics (up to Lv. 50) and my increasingly seemingly ill-planned redone equipment up around that same time. I'll try to have this all done by Friday, but try not to get your hopes up.


Quote from: Solifuge on May 13, 2012, 02:50:19 pm
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.


Eh, it's possible. Kinda difficult to tell what goes on in one's subconscious (if one even believes in such a Freudian thing), even with as much rumination as I do. I'm honestly just used to thinking and talking about myself that way, so I don't really consciously do it much of the time or think it's a huge deal when I do consciously do it; I also honestly can't really accept praise as well and I realize how much I self-sabotage at times, so there's that too.

That said, I was being sincere about feeling that I've been lazy about this (and a lot of other things) far too constantly and I don't want to disappoint (even more) people by getting their hopes up for something that might not even ever get completed; I rather hate the idea of "hope" since it's pretty much always a lie.

Regardless, nihilistic tone of that last line aside, I'll try to stop self-deprecating so much when I post since it does seem rather attention-whorish and my posts are long enough as it is.

So you all have my deepest apologies.

Quote from: Solifuge on May 13, 2012, 02:50:19 pmAnyway, 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 (https://docs.google.com/#home) for backing things up, if you want things out in the cloud where you can retrieve them on any machine. Also, ModDB (http://www.moddb.com/) is here. They have a tab for PS1 modding, and it's still active.


Oh, I see. Thanks. I'll take a look at ModDB. Bookmarked it just now.

I suppose I should consider using Google Docs, even as wary as I am of giving them yet more of my information. I was made away of it sometime last year when Eternal used it for Parted Ways, just never though to use it, but maybe I will....
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 09, 2012, 05:28:22 pm
(Let's see how quickly I can do this considering how utterly I'm screwing myself over right now. Probably not quick enough, especially since I kinda need to get Sunday back...)

So, despite disappearing for almost a month from FFH in general again and having not posted in here in about 45 days already (ugh), I have been working on this. In fact, I've probably just massively screwed myself in real life quite a bit by working on this so constantly, including how long it took to update the front page before this post. I've been really meticulous about it since I want to all the space and stats done piece by piece and accounted for so that then I only have slightly alter things rather than overhaul them again.

Regardless, I feel I need to update this before I can "stop" (read: slow down...even more) for a bit considering I promised it and I'm behind as it is.

As such, I've updated the front page's original post & class posts and, far less substantially, the status effects section. I'm delaying touching monsters until I fully decide on some ENTDs and redone equipment.

That said, before I get to condensed class updates, I'll talk about other things:


1. Feeling Blue: Considering how much Pickle Girl Fanboy has mentioned Saga Frontier in the past few months, I find it funny that at the same time I've gotten more and more sure about my final character. As such, I can finally reveal that the "mystery mage" that was initially to garner Elidibus's attention was the character Blue from Saga Frontier. His magick was supposed to be Faithless considering that he doesn't hail from Ivalice, but, instead, from "Hell", given I was going to take him from right after his "ending" in that game. Sad to say that won't happen now, though his and Cloud's replacement is a lot more relevant to the overall plot now and even more deeply involved with Elidibus.


2. The Greatest Mage: Speaking of Elidibus so much, I feel somewhat haughty mentioning this, but I actually managed to progress the story excellently during the last past month. Elidibus's motive has entirely been figured out now as has pretty much everything in the major story sans some screwing around with Adrammelech and Zalbag that I don't really have to do, per se. I've even figured out what I'm doing with a couple of maps that I hadn't even really thought about before last month.


3. Time Out: So, to further elaborate what I meant about Dimensionalist being the "newest" class, the newest class is actually Temporalist. However, that took over Time Mage's spot since Dimensionalist and Temporalist are split halves of Time Mage that focus on space and time respectively; getting rid of Blue now seems doubly ironic. Dimensionalist is thus the class that took over Calculator (since Animist took over generic Thief's slot), so technically it's "new"; this even though it also has more of the abilities that the old composite Dimensionalist had.


4. Rosenconfused & Guildereraised are Dead: As I updated in the status effect section, alongside Treasure & Chicken being gone forever no matter what happens, Confused & Reraised have died at least temporarily. They have been replaced by Imperiled (formerly Exposed) and Blessed respectively, though the former has yet to ASM'd; the latter also needs ASM'd, but that's more to prevent Blessed from Reraising people like it now shouldn't. (Let be known that I did see that Reraised slightly won out to not die in the last poll, which isn't surprising. Let it also be known that I also saw that only 11 other people voted, which also isn't surprising.)


5. Poll the Dead: Speaking of polls involving the death of things and that may very possibly be rigged, the new poll is now much simpler: "Who should live? Beowulf or Reis?" Like the old poll, I won't necessarily be bound by this, but it will be interesting to see if nothing else and I probably should have polled on it earlier. Unlike the old poll, I won't vote on this one at all to avoid showing (most of) my bias.


6. Exercise Caution: During the last month, I came to the decision that not only is Defending not dying, but it will be rather integral to something I want to do. It has presently been renamed "Cautious". That's it for now though since it's presently not on any active abilities yet, though that will doubtless change; it's planned to be on at least one of Paladin's abilities, but currently the formula I want doesn't allow for status to be added, so....


7. Shield Me From Harm: Speaking of Paladin, despite the fact that I feel I have to do equipment over again (hence why I'm still not posting it just yet), I have come to another "conclusion": all generics will now be allowed to use Shields for the meantime. It was something that Raven wanted to do for his patch and, as much as I was initially wary of it, I figured "screw it", especially given my current shields and their interchangeablity. As a consequence, though, Equip Shield is now completely freaking useless, though I have a (shield-related) idea about how to bring it back.


8. Itemizing RSMs: With Chemist having died in a fire, Auto Potion and Throw Item have gone with it as far as usability goes as well. To make up for these three losses, I have brought back the three RSMs that, without certain ASMs, I consider rather overpowered: Concentrate, Martial Arts and MP Switch. We'll see how this goes.

Also, Equip Crossbow now "Equip Ranged", which allows for Crossbows, Longbows & Guns even though Guns can't be used by generics innately otherwise. Similarly, Equip Polearms will probably allow for Staves to be equipped too and Equip Katana/Knife is now planned to be Equip Magegear, which will allow for Rods, Tomes & Instruments to be equipped; that would essentially make it the magickal equivalent of Equip Ranged.


9. Actively Selected Mechanics: Much like RSMs, I decided to actively look over and update the overall ASMs that I'm "borrowing". It's easier to make a list in this case since the front page doesn't have what I excised:


13. Oil takes 2x damage from Fire; Blind takes 2x damage from Dark. (I'm still unsure if this works.)


15. Fury hack. (Technically not new, just wasn't planned to be used in the initial patch.)


10. Damage Split returns 25% instead of 50%. (Currently a possible "placeholder", but a great one.)

11. Minimum Brave and Maximum Brave for all units. (Just increasing Minimum from 00 to 01.)

12. Minimum Faith and Maximum Faith for all units. (Just increasing Minimum from 00 to 01.)



12. Constant Faith. (Even more necessary than the Fury hack, in my eyes.)

13. MP Switch Overflows Damage to HP.

14. Remove Female-Only Equipment. (Probably not necessary since already done manually.)


1. Change brave gain by chickened units. (Changed to +5.)

2. Change brave gain by Brave Up. (Similarly changed to +5 for now.)

3. Change faith gain of Face Up. (Similarly changed to +5 for now.)

4. Blind and Confuse overrides concentrate/transparent accuracy bonus and now divides accuracy by 2 (v3).  Will affect monsters and humans equally. (Obviates Razele's old Blind hack. Have to decided whether this will transfer to Imperiled in Confuse's case.)

5. Guns take bow accuracy penalty at night.

6. Don't Act/Deep Water cancels W/S-EV.  Don't Move cancels C/A-EV.  This is only the physical half for now.

7. Abandon sets C-EV to 60% instead of 2x.  Intended to work with Xif's global C-EV hack and the above DM hack.

8. Remove item duplication (v1).  This deletes the best fit feature.

9. Defend is +25% to A-EV during Battle. (A "start", but that's more because of what I intend to do with Defend now.)

10. Chemist item skillset allowability.


1. Float becomes weak against Wind; Oil becomes weak against Fire. (I don't want Float weak against Wind, though. Will use formerdeathcorps' hack where Blind is weak against Dark if I ever find out that it works.)


1. Blank support ability over Short Charge adds 25% bonus skill and is presently called "Focus". (Honestly not sure if I'll keep since it's a flat bonus IIRC.)


1. Short Charge rounds CT down instead of up. (This might not be necessary; it might actually make Short Charge even more problematic.)

2. Slow is 25% Speed penalty. (This, on the other hand, mostly definitely is.)

3. Blindness status reduces accuracy by XX%. (It will likely be 50%. It might become less, though, at least a third, if not 40%.)

4. Abandon only increases evasion by 50%.



10. One-Hundred and One Stats: Part of me being a meticulously slow bastard was me finally working on stats. For now, growths are all uniform, though that may change back.

At present, MA kinda gets too high, PA can probably get a bit higher and I still have to "fix" the MP raw stat since even with an MP growth of 8, MP still starts and ends way too low for my liking; making MP growth less than 8 has it grow too fast for me, especially for in terms of leaving gaps between the "warrior" paths and the "mage" paths. I also need to up HP raw stat too, if only for Mimes with its current restrictions.

Presently, the game is still "supposed" to go up to "only" Level 49 or 50, but like growths, I may theoretically be open to returning to Level 99 as the ceiling.

Overall Growths:

HP: 7
MP: 8
PA: 50
MA: 50
SP: 255


Soldier:

HP: 146
MP: 172
PA: 100
MA: 100
SP: 140


Fencer:

HP: 215
MP: 80
PA: 115
MA: 80
Sp: 130


Marksman:

HP: 170
MP: 65
PA: 120
MA: 70
Sp: 145


Orator:

HP: 145
MP: 190
PA: 70
MA: 125
Sp: 165


Wizard:

HP: 120
MP: 220
PA: 85
MA: 175
Sp: 135


Priest:

HP: 130
MP: 225
PA: 90
MA: 160
Sp: 140


Paladin:

HP: 235
MP: 200
PA: 135
MA: 110
Sp: 125


Berserker:

HP: 190
MP: 75
PA: 145
MA: 75
Sp: 150


Scholar:

HP: 100
MP: 210
PA: 75
MA: 145
Sp: 160


Animist:

HP: 180
MP: 215
PA: 100
MA: 140
Sp: 160


Geomancer:

HP: 155
MP: 235
PA: 100
MA: 170
Sp: 135


Illusionist:

HP: 110
MP: 245
PA: 90
MA: 165
Sp: 140


Acolyte:

HP: 205
MP: 205
PA: 130
MA: 150
Sp: 140


Dragoon:

HP: 195
MP: 130
PA: 150
MA: 90
Sp: 135


Dimensionalist:

HP: 160
MP: 240
PA: 95
MA: 190
Sp: 140


Temporalist:

HP: 165
MP: 250
PA: 95
MA: 185
Sp: 145


Mime:

HP: 255
MP: 50
PA: 140
MA: 140
Sp: 140


Summoner:

HP: 150
MP: 255
PA: 80
MA: 180
Sp: 120


Bard:

HP: 175
MP: 230
PA: 110
MA: 200
Sp: 155


Dancer:

HP: 200
MP: 195
PA: 160
MA: 155
Sp: 155



With that finally out of the way and me barely hanging on to consciousness despite all that I need to do, I might as well get on to the generic class changes. I'll be talking about every class, though Animist will only be about RSMs not (just) because I'm being secretive, but because I haven't decided what I want to replace in Blue Magick yet since I've yet to go over monsters meticulously:


I've generally decided on job level stuff for now, but I'll put that elsewhere.

Before I forget again, here's what I've decided with elements for now:

- FIRE tends to be the QUICKEST.
- ICE tends to cost the LEAST MP.
- LIGHTNING tends to have the MOST RANGE.
- WATER tends to have the MOST AoE.
- WIND IGNORES REFLECT.
- EARTH IGNORES (MAGICKAL) EVASION.
- HOLY IGNORES COUNTERS.
- DARK tends to be the STRONGEST.

Wind and Dark are the likeliest to change at present.


1. No longer shares Magic Ruin with Fencer, but instead Shield Break.

2. No longer shares Take Aim and Charge (since they're dead) with Marksman, but instead shares Blinding Bomb and Oily Bomb.

3. Got to keep Equip Change for now even though that's probably going to die. Same goes for Move-Get Exp and Defend, though the latter is probably not going to die now.


1. As noted in my last update forever go, these are technically different from Knights now, which will show up as an enemy-only class.

2. Lost Blade Dance, which is now entirely dead.

3. Got back Shield Break from (old) Berserker, which it now shares with Soldier.

4. Magic Ruin now subject to Silenced.

5. Debarrier now subject to Reflective since it now is Weapon Range, but only cancels Protected & Shelled in addition to damage. Costs 10 MP at present.

6. Due to Reraised's (perhaps permanent) death, Checkmate now cancels Reflective & Misty at 100% in addition to damage. It costs 10 MP and is close-range only though.

7. Keeps Defense UP, Cover (Caution), Pushback (Counter Tackle) and Equip Sword.


1. Lost Take Aim and Charge since they're both dead now.

2. Got Head Break and Armor Break back from (old) Berserker.

3. Got the new ability Arrow Deluge: AoE 1 magickal Water attack that currently does random 5-hit attacks.

4. Sonic Boom is now an Auto AoE-1 Wind element attack rather than range 4, AoE 1. It is no longer planned to be bound to a specific set of weapons.

5. Kept Arrow Guard, Attack Up and Explore (Move-Find Item). Technically gets a "new" Equip X ability in the shape of Equip Crossbow becoming Equip Ranged instead of just Equip Bow. So generics will now be able to use guns, but only if they have Equip Ranged on presently.


1. Lost Provoke to (new) Berserker.

2. Praise and Preach got reduced from +10 to +8 "Brave" and Faith, respectively. Still can't self-target.

3. Undermine got renamed "Caution" and got reduced from -15 "Brave" to -10 "Brave".

4. Reject similarly got reduced from -15 Faith to -10 Faith.

5. Pacify got renamed "Refute" now cancels Berserk, Charmed, Faithful & Doubtful and no longer cancels Confused (since that no longer exists at present).

6. Mixed Message reduced from 30 MP to 20 MP and loses  Berserk, Hasted & Doomed. It still can cause Random Cautious, Silenced, Slowed, Faithful, Doubtful, Charmed, Sleeping, Immobilized & Disabled, so it will probably get lowered further. It is still the only Speechcraft that ignores Silenced and Steel Will.

7. Kept Steel Will (Finger Guard), Monster Talk and Train.

8. Lost Focus [Support], partly because Concentrate is coming back and partly because I felt that Focus, at least as it was worded, seemed slightly overpowered; that's dead now.

9. Gained Move +1, though they may switch places with Flee since I'm unsure how early I want this to come.

10. Kept its immunity to Charmed.

11. Kept innate Monster Talk of course.


1. Lost Miasma to Geomancer and ??? & Focus (ability) to Illusionist.

2. Got Unction back from Priest, which ignores Reflective but not M-EV.

3. Gained new abilities Curse, which ignores M-EV, but not Reflective, and Leaf, which ignores Reflective, but not M-EV.

4. Names of magick changed to more common ones, i.e. Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, etc. Similarly, decided to finally implement -ra and -ga system.

5. Kept Any Weather, Magick Attack Up and MP Restore.


1. Lost Unction to Wizard, Repose to Illusionist, Might to Geomancer and Reflect to (new) Dimensionalist.

2. "Lost" Reraise...when it became Bless. Even if Reraised status comes back, I'm admittedly hesitant to give it back to Priest.

3. Gained the new abilities of Recharge, Charm and, eventually, Blindna & Poisona. The latter pair both ignore Reflective.

4. Cure also now ignores Reflective; Cura & Curaga, though renamed, still don't.

5. Arise hesitantly got an increase from 50% HP to 66% HP.

6. Kept Share Blessings (Distribute) & Magic Defend UP.

7. Lost Regenerator to Temporalist.

8. Gained Any Ground. Meh.


1. Lost Regen to Temporalist, Mind Ruin to Acolyte, Cover (ability) [REDACTED] and Confusion Song, which just died.

2. Also technically lost Cleanse, though it's more that its "Cleanse" became Basuna and then Scholar got an ability named Cleanse.

3. Gained Nurse, Silent Voice and Saint Cross.

4. Basuna, Silent Voice, both Ruins & Raise are subject to Silenced.

5. Only Silent Voice & Raise don't ignore Reflective.

6. Kept Brave Up and Counter.

7. Lost Equip Shield as noted above.

8. Gained Unyielding.


1. Basically a new class that's a combination of now non-generic Thief and old school FFIII Viking. Before "dying", it gave all its breaks away since it was getting theft, which covers less with Steal Armor and, more recently, Steal Weapon dead; gained new "Mug", which likely doesn't work as it is should yet.

2. Got Provoke from Orator; otherwise, everything else is newly made for Berserker sans old Berserker's Envenom.

3. Kept Adrenaline (Speed Save), Equip Axe & Overwhelm from old Berserker.


1. New class that shares Wall & Dark, but otherwise has entirely new abilities.

2. Gained Maintenance, Equip Magegear (Rods, Tomes & Instruments) & Flee. May trade Flee to Orator for Move +1.

3. Became immune to Sleeping since Poisoned doesn't fit.


1. RSM-wise, only kept Share Pains when it fell from being one of the last classes to more middle of the road.

2. Gained the revived Brawler (Martial Arts) and Secret Hunt, which it currently shares with non-generic Thief.

3. Became immune to Imperiled since being immune to both Doomed and Dying would be a bit much for an early class, even if Imperiled is arguably stronger at present.


1. "Lost" its entire skill set...to Gaia Revenge, which means the now only 6--down from 12--condensed Elemental abilities can only be "used" via Reaction at present.

2. Gained an entirely new skill set of 11 skills, half of them having to be made up and the other half taken from or shared with other classes. Their new skills are more like regular magick in terms of MP costs (I hope), Silenced and Reflective.

3. Kept Gaia Revenge (Counter Flood) & Walk on Water. Gaia Revenge shouldn't be usable while Silenced, but we'll see.

4. Lost Any Ground to Priest...because it's probably going to die anyway but Priest needed something.

5. Gained the equally weak Absorb Used MP.

6. Currently still got to keep innate Any Ground, Move on Lava (which is now definitely dying, even innately) and Walk on Water.


1. Lost Aero & Aera/Aerora, which went to Geomancer above, and Mesmerizing Lights, which just died.

2. Gained Repose, ??? and Focus.

3. Admittedly still unsure what in Illusion Magick will ignore Reflective sans for Refresh and maybe Vanish, which still has a good chance of dying.

4. Kept Faith Up & Hide (Sunken State), though the latter is likely to die considering Transparent's iffiness, especially for mages.

5. Lost Absorb Used MP to Geomancer.

6. Gained the returned Abandon, which still really needs to become a support in my eyes.


1. Lost Return to Temporalist and Soul Sphere & Rain of Lances, which both just died.

2. Gained Osmose (Spell Absorb/Steal Magic), which it shares with non-generic Thief, and Mind Ruin from Paladin.

3. Kept Equip Armor & Meatbone Slash.

4. Lost Two Hands to Dragoon.

5. Gained Two Swords, which it shares with non-generic Thief.


1. Kept Equip Polearm, which is now likely to include Staves, and Jump +3, which I've finally thought of useful solution to.

2. Lost Dragon Spirit to Mime, partly because Reraised is dead, so I'm not sure what to do with it.

3. Gained Two Hands from Acolyte.


1. "Technically" new since it's no longer in Time Mage's spot.

2. Took Levitate, Immobilize, Disabled, Gravity (old Quarter), Polymorph, Comet and Doomsday from old Dimensionalist since it focuses on spatial magick.

3. Got Reflect (back) from Priest.

4. Gained Half of MP & Fly and took Self-Levitate with it when it split from Temporalist.


1. Technically the actual new class despite being in Time Mage's spot between the new name and it getting less skils in the split.

2. Lost Expire because [REDACTED].

3. Kept Hasten, Slow, Undo, Quicken, "Stop" and Doom (Countdown) from old Dimensionalist.

4. Got Regen from Paladin and Return from Acolyte.

5. Kept Critical Quicken & Short Charge after the split.

6. Lost Self-Levitate to (new) Dimensionalist.

7. Gained Regenerator from Priest.


1. Can now Mimic Blue Magick.

2. Can no longer Mimic Summon Magick.

3. Can still not Mimic Bardic Song & Battle Dance.

4. Actually has RSMs now as something of an experiment.

5. Gained Alertness, Concentrate, Dragon Spirit and Move-HP Up.

6. Lost immunity to Cursed, Frogged, Blind & Undead.

7. Kept immunity to ???, Silenced, ???, Oily, Berserk & Poisoned.

8. Lost innate Counter Magick, Defense UP and Magick Defense UP.

9. Kept innate Counter.

10. Gained innate Alertness, Gaia Revenge and Move-HP Up.


1. Now comes even later, rather appropriately, which makes it having the second most amount of Learn on Hit Only spells somewhat easier, even if Animist comes earlier.

2. No longer can be Mimicked at present.

3. It's Learn via JP Summons and Learn on Hit Only Summons have switched greatly again. Of the revealed ones, Ifrit is back to being Learn via JP and Leviathan & Carbunkle are back to be Learn on Hit Only.

3. Hades/Lich is still dead and never coming back.

4. Slyph is now entirely different since Temporalist got Drain and because Wind element life absorb was always iffy.

5. Kept Counter Magick & Move-MP Up.

6. Lost Half of MP.

7. Gained Mana Shield (MP Switch). Yes, seemingly insane to put MP Switch & Move-MP Up on the same skill set when vanilla at least separated them.

8. Gained immunity to Doubtful & Doomed since its "complex class" now.


1. Still share their RSMs due to sex segregation.

2. Neither can be Mimicked still.

2. All of Bardic Song subject to Silenced save for Vox and Shatterchord.

3. All of Battle Dance ignores Silenced save for War Flamenco and Magickal Masque; "War Flamenco" is a renamed "Polka Polka" and Magickal Masque is a renamed "Disillusion".

4. Battle Dance got three new skills: Silence Samba, Tempt Tango and Brakedance.

4. Both skill sets ignore Reflective completely.

5. Both kept HP Restore, MA Save & PA Save.

6. Both lost Move +1 and Move-HP Up.

7. Both gained the new ARENA Movements Holy March and Warpath since I need more movements, but these are probably *way* too abusable by players even with plans. So they have to come last.



I probably forgot something.

EDIT: And thing was to proofread, apparently. Also, to link to this post on the front page under "stats" and to update the status effects list with Blood Suck's planned replacement, even if I'm mostly keeping it secret. Also, given it was revealed an hour ago, I've "borrowed" formerdeathcorps' fix for Chemist.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on July 17, 2012, 06:56:00 am
(Oh, hey. One entire person has actually voted....)

Well, that of course took way too long, like always.

Regardless, this post is just a mini-update to say that the surviving statuses that you can know about have all been updated. (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6791.msg140688#msg140688)

I went over all my status stuff on the weekend, so now I know what needs to be coded still and what needed to interact with what or change and such. Also fixed the formatting and Defending's new name, though anything else would be repeating what I just did. So go read that post if you actually care.

Regardless, I was contemplating starting equipment over "today" (read: yesterday/Monday), but I figure that I have to do monsters over again first given "procs" and crap. So I started to do that...only to get immediately stuck at Boco while going over Chocobos and then fall asleep. Sigh.

I'm probably going to take things slowly here as I said in the last post, but I "should"--not that I will--be finished with that by Sunday. It depends on how horribly this week goes, what with not being off to great start already despite last Sunday being kinda nice for unproductive reasons.

Regardless, I might release my terribad second wave of redacted equipment around the same time. Not really seeing myself releasing the updated redacted EXCEL sheet of abilities & classes any time soon again considering how huge that thing has gotten.

P.S. I've also decided I'm no longer using the ASM that makes Poisoned 25% of cur HP per turn given that I realized that obviates Demi among other things; it's back to being 1/8 of Max HP per turn. However, I won't be excising it until the next time I actually touch the original post.

EDIT: Ugh. It's way too easy to miss manual coding mistakes due to the way this forum works. The url is now fixed.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Dome on July 17, 2012, 07:01:23 am
Voted for Beowulf
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Kagebunji on July 17, 2012, 07:18:57 am
Quote from: Dome on July 17, 2012, 07:01:23 am
Voted for Beowulf
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: Taichii on July 17, 2012, 09:23:41 am
voted reis.. wanted to see what reis' job would be if she were not to be a dragoner...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: DarkShade on August 05, 2012, 01:02:59 pm
Quote from: Dome on July 17, 2012, 07:01:23 am
Voted for Beowulf
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on August 05, 2012, 05:22:44 pm
(I find it "funny" how you have to go into "Edit Poll" to see the results of something despite a "View Results" option.)

I thank all ten people who have voted for voting thus far, but I should point out that I would rather prefer if people didn't post in here just to say who they voted for. Thank you.

I would have said something earlier, but like always, I had expected to be done with what I was still doing by now and I'm not. Monsters are still vexing me and I have other, more important real life obligations still occurring and piling up as always.

However, given pretty much everyone has real life obligations and I've decided to work on weapons again, I'm still doing "work". So, I should at least have the newest weapons down by Friday. I'll probably only post an old, redacted list for them though; it wouldn't be terribly outdated though.

Preferably I'll also have re-stating of humans' MA and maybe PA done with by that time as well as all Move-Find Item spaces, relevant descriptions, and some tweaks to Chapter 1 and other ENTDs (since I already changed those a year ago). I might even be done with overhauling all equipment, again, and giving monsters (and special classes) new moves (and skill sets), again. (Ugh.)

I will not, however, be done with stats for even (generic) monsters, especially given how differing they're all going to have to be. They should be done before August ends at latest, though. Maybe even the week after this coming one.

Speaking of which, outside of posting to ask that people not post just to say whom they voted for, I'm posting to say that tentatively, the current poll will be closing by this coming Friday. It may be open for a week after that, but at present I'm possibly going to switch it with a poll about what the new weapon type should be (if I don't decide myself). The poll will change to something else, though.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 13, 2013, 02:48:42 am
(And...obviously by "this coming Friday", I meant "this Friday coming up...in nine months".

Even more amusingly, given the poll problems that the Human Advancement thread still has, I'm not even sure if I can change if I knew what to change it to.)

Well, it's not like I haven't been working on this. So despite the thread being dead, Embargo isn't--hell, it even has a different name now, though I'll save posting that for whenever/if I ever manage to get out a working patch for people to test at least. I've mostly been hung up on monsters still when existence isn't busy being abysmal, and then getting even more into ARENA than I already was in the past three and a half months hasn't exactly helped my focus.

Still, that's no excuse. For some "sick" reason, I keep wanting to wait to fully update on a Friday just to save a small bit of face I suppose, but that's basically my usual inanity and damn pointless, which is why I'm updating at least a bit now. I am going to try to update more fully tomorrow because I have finally just redone doing monsters (to my "satisfaction") barring Cactuars and a bit of trouble with Avians (both of the Aevis and Chocobo variety).

Anyway, on top of monsters, I just had a rather significant plot revelation that I think people will find rather enjoyable, even if it relates to the end-game. I'll leave that as a surprise for way (way) later though.

For now, in preparation for tomorrow (or Sunday, whichever), I'll just a post a list of the new abbreviations and then explain the changes. I should note that this is normal monsters only:


1. Yellow Chocobo (YC)
2. Brown Chocobo (OC)
3. Green Chocobo (GC)
4. Red Cap (RP)
5. Blaknamy (BY)
6. Gobbledeguck (GK)
7. Fiery Balloon (FB)
8. Living Grenade (LG)
9. Primed Explosive (PX)
10. Ose (OS)
11. Couerl (CU)
12. Grimalkin (GR)
13. Blank Lamia (BL)
14. Lilith (LI)
15. Morrigan (MO)
16. Iced Flan (IF)
17. Flaming Pudding (FP)
18. Shock Jelly (SJ)
19. Beta Wolf (BW)*
20. White Fang (WF)*
21. Hellhound (HL)*
22. Flying Eye (FE)
23. Ahriman (AH)
24. Plague Horror (PH)
25. Axebeak (AX)
26. Steel Aevis (SA)
27. Cockatrice (CC)
28. Cactuar Rogue (CR)*
29. Snowtuar (ST)*
30. Flowering Cactuar (FC)*
31. Dryad (DD)
32. Treant (TT)
33. Feywood (FW)
34. Minotaur (MU)
35. Bull Devil (BV)
36. Sacred (SC)
37. Common Malboro (CM)
38. Ochu (OU)
39. Lord Malboro (LM)
40. Humbaba (HB)
41. Lesser Behemoth (LB)
42. Greater Behemoth (GB)
43. Common Dragon (CD)
44. Frost Dragon (OD)
45. Flame Dragon (LD)
46. Pug Tonberry (PT)
47. Tonberry Guard (TG)
48. Holy Tonberry (HT)


*Monster probably exclusive to Embargo and thus probably not shared with Human Advancement.

As for why some of these changes came about, I'll put that in a spoiler since much of it is probably boring to most people (even though its rather concise compared to most things I write):

1. Chocobo(s): Only decided about a couple of days ago that Chocobos need to be even more in line with their FFT:A(2) counterparts to degree, hence Blue Chocobos "dying" and merging with Green Chocobos, though that's more just a dye-job and rename, and Black Chocobo being replaced by non-Flying Brown Chocobos among normal monsters.

2. Goblins: Outside of a slight shift to Red Cap's abbreviation becoming RP since Red Chocobos will probably exist again and Gobbledeguck being shifted to GK for unrelated reasons, these didn't change much name-wise.

3. Bombs: These probably changed the most of any class since all of them changed names since felt that the names were still kind of "bland" and would, in-universe, be potential cause for confusion that people would likely have tried to do away with rather swiftly in the language. So, for the most part, the latter two Bombs became something like puns and the first Bombs name is just a reference to some type of Bombs often being called a "balloon"; the "fiery" is there, again, to get rid of Blandness without being a generic color description.

4. Panthers: Of these, only Grimalkin got changed it and kept having to be shifted due to something in the past couple of days. It's "settled" at GR, even if that "annoys" me since it's less specific than "GK" previously was, but whatever.

5. Lamia(s): These didn't change name-wise and even with my liking of Jot5's name choice for the Class A Lamia, "Morrigan" will probably remain the name of Class A Lamias in Embargo (and Human Advancement).

6. Flans: These also didn't change and are also unlikely to change.

7. Wolves: Beta Wolf replaced Alpha Wolf as a normal monster. That's about it.

8. Flying Eyes: Doomgaze got changed "back" to the Plague Horror name from Wars of the Lions. That's it.

9. Aevises: These didn't change at all, though Axebeak and Steel Aevis's names may yet change as may Cockatrice's abbreviation.

10. Cactuars: Flowering Cactuar's name was finally allowed to take "FC" instead of "LC" for reasons I'm still keeping secret, though it's partly related to the names shuffling around just yesterday due to Chocobo stuff.

11. Treefolk: On top of deciding to use the Magic the Gathering-esque name for the group as a whole finally, Feywood now uses "FW" instead of "FY", due entirely to the aforementioned mysterious shuffling.

12. Bull Demons: These didn't change and are really unlikely to change.

13. Malboros: Great(er) Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat switched names, so the former became the Lord Malboro with the appropriate change in abbreviation.

14. Behemoths: As per the above, Great(er) Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat switched names, so the latter became the Greater Behemoth...and then got boosted to being the Class A monster of the group because Dark Behemoth got kicked out of normal monsters. In its place comes the Humbaba, which is the "Least Behemoth" I suppose since Lesser Behemoth is now Class B. They can all kick your ass even harder now though.

15. Dragons: These didn't change at all.

16. Tonberry(s)/Tonberries: These didn't change at all.



I'll do a much bigger update this weekend--as in April 13th or 14th, 2013--that goes over moves and everything. Every single monster got some type of change.

Tree EDIT: Dryad's and Treant's abbreviations were changed from DY and TR to DD and TT respectively.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
Post by: The Damned on April 22, 2013, 07:08:14 am
(...And I have obviously learned nothing about not promising specific dates that I inevitably fail to meet. Hurray!)

Speaking of failure, the "real" update took so damn long because even just redoing things by noting the update caused me to the notice the absurd amount of embarrassing typos and omissions in it. Good times.

With the majority of those fixed now (though I'll have to go back and do that for the actual post eventually), I can present the (current/latest) overhaul. For the most part, these changes are "definite", baring coding issues and changes and other fixes. The parts most likely to change, like RSMs, aren't getting post for that reason (and...other reasons).

I was partly held up by Aevises, who admittedly still under reconstruction due to issues with Blue Mage and things like Petrify, but I'm not going to wait on them anymore. Most of their stuff is decided on anyway. It's just half of their skills that are being a pain.

Without further ado:


Chocobos:

Notes:
1. Brown Chocobos replace Black Chocobos as normal monsters, though Black Chocobos still exist. Green Chocobos replace Blue Chocobos entirely, though it's barely a change really outside of name and slight color; they'll probably even be a sort of bluish green or greenish blue since it's mostly cosmetic and those colors are pretty close anyway, especially in Japan(ese).

2. I'm not including Boco here still since this is normal monsters. "Ironically", he's a Black Chocobo now though, which used to be a normal monster.

3. The Classes of these are fixed now, with Green Chocobos definitely being the Class A ones while Brown Chocobos are "only" Class B despite being more offensive than Green Chocobos and Yellow Chocobos being the most common ones still despite having revival.

4. Choco Guard no longer exists on normal monsters and not just because Defending "died"/is planned to get a massive change. In its place, Choco Flame exists on Brown Chocobos, which Black Chocobos were going to get anyway.

5. Still a minor aside, but due to historical convention, Chocobos are (still) now the only monsters who be entirely going off the rather boring [Insert Color Here] [Monster Name] naming scheme. They shall (continue to) remain as such.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Chocobos: Weak: Dark.
2. Yellow Chocobos: Resist: Ice.
3. Brown Chocobos: Resist: Fire.
4. Green Chocobos: Resist: Water.


Shared Shared Affinities: Immune: Blind, Oily & Disabled (NEW!...and tentative).

Shared Abilities:
1. Choco Cure: Much the same in its instant healing. However, I've now decided that it will definitely be stronger than vanilla AND have a chance to add Regen(ing).

2. Choco Ball: No longer Black Chocobo's exclusive move and not just because they "left", this is physical distance move of Range 3 that may or may not be Direct and may or may not self-damage. It will definitely have a chance to add Oil(y) and Blind though as well as possibly another status.

3. Choco Barrier: This will now definitely add Protect(ed) & Shell(ed) at 100%, but in a Linear Self-Auto AoE of 1 rather than a non-Linear Auto-Self AoE 1 that saw me being ambivalent about its success.


Yellow Chocobos (YC): Still the "sharing" ones, they have innate Distribute and are the first monster you're likely to get that can resurrect with their Choco Revive Down, a close-range, instant, but not all that restorative skill. (Immune:  ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)

Brown Chocobos (OC): The replacement "surly" ones, these are the "desert" type chocobos...despite their being only two real desert areas in Ivalice. As such, they may take over Reds' canon aspect of being the "mountainous" ones, but that's of little import at present. Regardless, they are quite use to heat and flame and can us their own Choco Flame to barbeque or at least Slow down attackers with Fire elemental damage; Choco Flame will can a secondary status besides Slow(ed), though that's dependent on whether its Embargo or Human Advancement. (Immune:  ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)

Green Chocobos (GC): The "skittish" ones (still), they are (still) the only mountable monster at present that can walk on water despite my making it so that very few monsters are(heavily) disadvantaged by water. They have now exclusively have Choco Esuna, which is back to being AoE 1, but will actually differ from Esuna now, especially since what Esuna cancels will remain "nerfed" across both versions. (Immune: Poisoned.)



Goblins:

Notes:
1. No longer quite monster Monks, they're more like monster (Embargo) 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. With "Steal Weapon" for sure dying in Embargo and being iffy in Human Advancement, where Thief is actually still available to the player, Gobbledeguck ends up not having Steal abilities like either of its brethren.

4. Regardless, "Ogre Run" is dead.

Elemental Affinities:
1. Red Caps: Resist: Fire; Weak: Ice.
2. Blaknamy: Resist: Lightning; Weak: Ice.
3. Gobbledeguck: Absorb: Ice; Weak: Fire.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Poisoned, Charmed, Doubtful & Blind (NEW!).

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

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

3. Eye Gouge: Now adds Blind & Disabled instead of Blind & Confused, partly because Confused is dead in Embargo at present.


Red Caps (RP): 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. (Immune: Sleeping.)

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. (Immune: Disabled.)

Gobbledeguck (GK): A goblin who tried to overcome its aversion to Ice and end up becoming absorbent of Ice at the cost of constantly shivering and chattering all the time it, its skin is hardened by ice crystals and it is quite good at using Ice to heal itself and hurt others. Additionally, it attempts to steal both health and magick through the obscure hume spells of Drain and Osmose respectively. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)



Bombs:

Notes:
1. 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]. I then stuck "Fiery" onto as a part of an "obvious" description loophole--bet you can't wait for "Wet Mindflayers" (Gone Wild). Other than, the other names are based on "puns" since, as aforementioned, in-universe it would both help to cut down on possible confusion between non-monster explosives and Explosives; that and it would just be something humanity would do.

2. Drench is now quite unlikely to die, seeing how it's been done to not be either useless as broken as it once was in its doubtless absurd AoE 3 form. It being exclusive to Fiery Balloons is still up in the air, but I'm already having space issues, so....

3. It needs repeating (again) 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. Ever. They probably won't show up until Chapter 2 at this point.


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


Shared Shared Affinities: Immune: ???, Undead, Petrified, Poisoned, Regening, Oily, Immobilized, Reflective. (Reraised might still be here if it wasn't dead...in Embargo at least; in Human Advancement, it's still up in the air whether Bombs will be immune to Reraise there.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Fiery Emission: Currently a quite long range, magickal Fire-element attack meant more to cause a "spark" with its ability to perhaps add Oil on top of damage than to BBQ anything to death.

2. Fire Breath: Back on Bombs as a whole and shared with Flame Dragons as the usual Linear Range 2 Fire-elemental attack since it just makes too much damn sense for them not to have it otherwise it should still exist.

3. Blow-Up: Currently still the only "Shock"-based attack in Embargo, though that may change with Dimensionalists maybe getting Balance, it is also still has Auto-AoE of 2; it is still, however, now Critical Only currently. Due to the recent release of Journey of the 5 revealing its possible, its damage will probably "only" (HP Lost/2) rather than equal to HP Lost; I'm still not sure if it should be Fire element though.


Fiery Balloons (FB): Bright red orbs of death, it doesn't take 99 of these to kill you. Now the sole Bomb with the ability to Drench its foes and cover them in Slowing Oil, it's more of a support unit than the other Bombs, but no less dangerous. (Immune: Slowed.)

Living Grenades (LG): Heavily armored Bombs, they are sometimes said to still be often employed by inquisitors for their supposed strength against unbelievers, earning them the nickname Hell's Furnace despite no clear confirmations of their use. Said also to be wielders of the mysterious Chaos Fragment. (Immune: Blind.)

Primed Explosive (PX): Bombs made from darkest and most sinister flames, they harness fiery power that cannot be held at bay with Fire-proof means: the dreaded Flare spell. In addition to that dread magick, they hold the equally dreaded ability to Prime their enemy and turn them into a bomb of sorts. (Immune: Berserk.)



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 to clarify, Blood Suck does still exist, though it too has a changed a bit in that it no 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 (still) not really sure what color Grimalkin and possibly even Ose should be. Couerl is staying the same golden (brown) color though. Ose probably stays a reddish brown and Grimalkin is probably a purplish brown. Brown colors for everyone!


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 Status Affinities: Immune: Cursed, Slowed, Disabled & Doomed.

Shared Abilities:
1. Poison Claw: A single-target, 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 be servants of Hell who stalked in shadow, 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. (Immune: Faithful & Doubtful.)

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. (Immune: Berserk.)

Grimalkins (GR): 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 it in a crashing line for their Big Wave attacks. (Immune: Oily.)



Lamias:

Notes:
1. Lamias (still) now "replace" Illithids (as normal monsters) instead of outright replacing Uribos, which is now Cactuars' "job".

2. Lamias are intentionally weaker against monsters than they are humans because monsters really, really don't care about mammary glans.

3. Innocence and Fire Kiss are still 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. Unlikely to be any of this distance or at least 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.

6. Lamias now share the first two spells in the Dark series.

7. Morrigan has traded "White Wind" to the Behemoth Humbaba for the formerly Dark Behemoth only Night, which is now definitively called "Stardusted Night"

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


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Confused (in Human Advancement at least), 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, Charming them from up to three panels away. Other monsters of Ivalice are immune to this type of allure.

2. Snake Dance:  Disarming dance that currently potentially affects those in Auto-AoE of 2, regardless of allegiance, with Slowed, Immobilized, Disabled or ??? (Confused in HuA) 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.

4. Darkra: Much like Skeletons, stronger Lamias can use the stronger abilities of the Dark as well.


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 they listen to the pained croaks of those they have turned into Poison Frogs, but this has never been confirmed. (Immune: ??? in Embargo, Poison(ed), Frog(ged).)

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

Morrigans (MO): Conjectured to be something like Lamia royalty, these green-framed serpentine mistresses are masters of the Stardusted Night[/b], able to call upon shadow to lull all present into  deep sleep. It is said that they even have spoken to some, offering the gift of eternally peaceful repose for the mere price of eternal bondage.... (Immune: ??? in Embargo, ???, Sleep(ing).)



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 have only one shared ability...which is Common Malboro's "unique" ability "Goo". Or it was, rather. It's now Acid, which is basically just a rename but also a technique that Common Malboro no longer has.

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

4. Oh, right. These are Skeletons' "replacements" as normal monster.

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 Status Affinities: Immune: ???, Berserk, Frogged, Reflective, Disabled. (They used to have way more than this, but this is more than fine and should be actually fair; they might become immune to Petrified again, though. They're no longer immune to Undead for...story reasons. Hehehe.)

Shared Ability: Acid - Ranged ability that causes damage and can Poisoned, Immobilized or Disabled randomly.


Iced Flans (IF): These even harder than normal monstrous desserts are masters of Ice magick, capable of casting Blizzard, Blizzara, and Blizzaga 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 almost demands Fire be used to soften them. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Stop(ped) in Human Advancement.)

Flaming Puddings (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 like Fire, Fira or Firaga or its arguable pinnacle of Ardor, a Fire-elemental magick with wide, explosive range. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)

3. Shock Jellies (SJ): Rubbery yellow slime encases hard yellow eyes full of loathing, ready to electrocute or at least electrify any that fall in range of its powerful Lightning magick. Whether emitting Thunder, Thundara or Thundaga 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. (Immune: Cursed.)



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 Initial Floating status rather than Innate Floating status or Self-Levitate (Float movement) like it should have had. Initial status tends to override things anyway though....

2. Doomgaze's name has been changed "back" to Plague Horror (as from War of the Lions).

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--probably way too many--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 despite their massive overhauls. Whether or not they'll still be able to be affected by Steel Will is up the air now though.

5. Piercing Gaze is now dead and the Flying Eyes no longer have Reflect either.

6. Finally "decided" on how to pluralize Ahriman, though that may yet change: Ahrimen. (Still tempted to go with "Ahrimani" though admittedly.)


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Flying Eyes: Weak: Wind.
2. Floating Eyes: Absorb: Dark; Resist: Holy; Weak: Lightning; Immune: Earth (by virtue of Floating).
3. Ahrimen: Absorb: Dark; Resist: Earth & Holy.
4. Plague Horrors: Absorb: Holy; Resist: Earth & Dark.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: 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. Stare: Distance AoE 1 magickal attack that damages all in its gaze, whether friend or foe, and has a chance to cause ??? in Embargo or Confused in Human Advancement.

2. Holy Circle: Imported from Human Advancement's Paladin to Embargo, meaning Paladins & Flying Eyes in both versions have it now.

3. Stun Gaze: Now shared by all Flying Eyes, it has a random chance of Disabling, Immobilizing or even Slowing all the limbs of the target.


Floating Eyes (FE): Prying eyes of prurient indolence, they bob up and down, moving quickly only to flee when damaged. Of course, damaging them is difficult in the first place given the liberal use of their Charm Gaze, a hypnotic gaze that causes the afflicted to slip into a state of Charmed servitude or deep Sleeping. (Immune: Disabled & ???; Always: Floating.)

Ahrimen (AH): Eyes of evil malice, their stare is compared to that of the Devil, capable of bringing Blinding, Poisoned & Cursed misfortune upon any who fall under its Devil's Gaze. (Immune: Cursed & Poisoned.)

Plague Horrors (PH): Said to be the eyes of death itself and hence why images of the reaper have only hollow sockets, these monsters' unblinking gaze whimsically 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 varying but all terrible fates of Doom's Gaze. (Immune: Undead & Doomed.)



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--well, Green Chocobo now--as the monster next in line to get one possibly.

3. With the changes I plan to make to Petrified, these will be the monsters most affected by that. (Still need to test those changes...and learn coding. Sigh....)

4. (04/27/2013) Okay, so Aevises are no longer "under construction". In fact, they become the first monster to vary between both Embargo & Human Advancement though more are likely to follow: Steel Aevises in Embargo get Twister while in Human Advancement they get the hitherto missing Aera/Aerora spell. In addition to that, Feather Bomb becomes both shared and upgraded, Beak gets and upgrade and Stone Breath dies, becoming Stone Gaze. Beak may go back to being shared though. I'm not quite sure.


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


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Blind, Petrified, Poisoned & Oily. (No longer universally immune to ???, though they haven't been for a while. They may become Immune: Immobilized since I might do that for all Fly)

Shared Abilities:
1. Shine Lover: Being lovers of beauty, these avians take quite good care of themselves, able to meticulously clean their feathers and even the skin of others to bolster their resolve and their speed.

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

3. Feather Bomb: To further aid its ability to hunt prey, the Aevises have the unusual ability to trap energy within feathers and then discard them, leaving to shortly blow up and fill an area with quill-sharpnel, even from a distance.


Axebeaks (AX): The most aggressive of the aevises, it is no surprise that it much enjoys divebombing down upon its prey, with such speed and ferocity as to cause heavy damage with its Beak. Given the Cockatrice does not possess a monopoly among its kin with regards to petrification, an Axebeak's already devastating beak can Petrify its prey, turning them into a shiny statue waiting to further carved and polished before being eventually eaten. (Immune: Blind & Doomed.)

Steel Aevises (SA): The heaviest of the birds is not markedly less aggressive, though due to its weight it is generally less mobile than its brethen, preferring more to snipe from a distance with its feathers as it closes in. When it does close in, though, it quickly prefers to summon Poisonous Twisters, a sudden swirling tornado centered around the aevis that draws in and destroys all with flesh less than steel. (Immune: ??? & ??? in Embargo/Confused & Addled in Human Advancement and Floating in both.)

Cockatrices (CC): The most poisonous of the known aevises, it said even its very breath can fell almost instantly. Whether this is actually true is still unknown, as most close enough have met either its rending steel-hard beak & claws or been subjected to its lethal Stone Gaze, meaning they have already been felled.




Treefolk:

Notes:
1. I decided to go with Treefolk over Woodfolk as the family name as it is far more amusing to use the former. (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. I'm more definite on Feywood not needing to be plural.

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 Status Affinities: Immune: Undead, Petrified, Floating, Frogged & ???.

Shared Abilities:
1. Leaf Dance: An Auto-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 still really tempted to name this "Petal Dance"...and have it add Confused, at least in Human Advancement.)

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 damage and Immobilize and/or Slow enemies in a wide yet discriminating area of AoE 2 at range 3.


Dryad (DD): 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. (Immune: Immobilized.)

Treant (TT): 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. (Immune: Disabled.)

Feywood (FW): 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. (Immune: Stopped.)



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 has long since been addressed (at least temporarily), and they share perhaps too much with Orator now.

2. I said the above even before I recently (read: around mid-March 2013) decided to give them three more Orator skills across the board, partly because of Bull Demons' story importance to at least Embargo. I'm not quite sure how they'll act in Human Advancement, though even with the "death" of Orator there, they'll probably be no less talkative. Still, it feels somewhat unfair to a lot of the other monsters....


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 Status Affinities: Immune: ??? (in Embargo)/Confused (in Human Advancement, Sleeping, Immobilized & Doubtful. (Lost immunity to Chicken's replacement...a while ago. Got two new immunities, though one of those is patch specific since Confused no longer exists in Embargo.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Wave Around: Charging their axe with lightning, they then it 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 focus primarily on violence. They are easily angered, lashing out with Rejections and Provoking insults that would make even the most surly Mediator blush when not lashing out with their axes. They will even thrash about like a petulant, overgrown child, shattering the ground in their pale mimicry of Titan with their Earth Shaker, a trait they and the Ochu curiously share. They can Converse calmly as well, but it's usually just as a distraction for another monster's deleterious blow; never listen to them. (Immune: Faithful & Blind.)

Bull Devils (BV): Channeling the anger that so steers the Minotaur to ever fouler ends, Bull Devils utilize a Curse of Rage that causes the afflicted to become Cursed by Berserk feelings, losing one's head figuratively before often literally losing it to the blade of the Bull Devil's axes. Even when not dabbling in blacker magicks, they possess an underhanded eloquence that can be used to Praise, Caution or even lull with a Drone as any silver-tongued devil, which is precisely why they too should never be listened to. (Immune: Cursed & Blind.)

Sacreds (SC): Monsters or perhaps even actual demons that would openly mock Ajora more than with  just their mere presence, they claim to know the "truth" behind Ajora. Among their ludicrous claims, they are often reported saying that they can Preach, Refute or even Befriend better than any benighted human preacher or philosopher. Their blasphemies go further still, as they are able to utilize not only Raise, but the vaunted Holy to smite actual true believers. Increasingly, some have begun to think of them as God's punishment, itself a crime quickly labeled as blasphemy. (Immune: Undead & Berserk.)



Malboros:

Notes:
1. Yes, I am aware that Ochus aren't really related to Malboros, at least outside of FFT. As much space (sprite-wise) and time as it might potentially save me to just make it a separate family of monster, I'm going to continue to run with Ochus as Malboro "cousins". This rather than replace them with another types Malboro and separate Ochus into their own family of (same-looking) three entirely.

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

3. As aforementioned under Flans, Common Malboros previously shared "Goo" with the deadly desserts. Flans then decided to be assholes and hog "Goo" all it for themselves, re-branding it as "Acid" before claiming legal rights. Common Malboros plan a class action suit.

4. Speaking of "legal issues", Greater Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat switched names, with Greater Malboro becoming "Lord Malboro". Please address it as such.

5. Cloying Breath is now exclusive to Common Malboros (for now) and Common Malboros & Lord Malboros now share Aero (for now) because air does not distinguish between class...unless you're a filthy Ochu. Oxygen's too good for those guys. [/speciesist]


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

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Blind, Poisoned, Doomed & ???. (No longer universally immune to Charm or Confused.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Constrict: Whether with tentacles that looks like green ropes or thorny vines, 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 only to be able to focus on one 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 hysterical Blindness, emetic Slowness, Poisoning, Silence through throat swelling and even immediate deep Sleeping or severe ???, it is best to never get close enough to partake of it.

3. Aero: Shared only by the Common Malboro and the Greater Malboro. Same as the hume spell.



Common Malboros (CM): These plant-animal hybrids are fond of swamps, but picky neither about environment or food. They can breathe a Cloying Breath that greatly differs from the more infamous Bad Breath of Malboros as a much more pleasant, sweet smelling breath used for alluring prey...and mates alike. Non-Malboros targets breathing in the Cloying Breath experience either Charmed delusions or even an immediate Sleeping state and the results of these effects are...less than lovely. Thankfully it takes breathing in a lot of the breathe to be affected unlike the repellent Bad Breath. (Immune: Sleeping & Petrified.)

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 carnivorous and violent if awoken, thrashing about violently with an Earth Shaker that puts the Minotaur's to shame. They are even capable of twisting the ether and mist into a likeness of the Aqua spell somehow. There's a reason "Let sleeping Ochus lie" is a proverb. (Initial: Sleeping; Immune: Immobilized & Floating.)

Lord Malboros (LM): Older in age than the Common Malboro, their production of Fruit, goo and Cloying Breath has mostly "dried up" and they even have begun to upon a petrified looked at the end of their tentacles. They are still hearty and long-lived though. As such, in dire straits, they can still exhale a wretched, Putrid Breath capable of felling even the toughest warrior. (Immune: Sleeping & Charmed.)



Behemoths:

Notes:
1. I finally decided to make Dark Behemoth a special-only monster. At present, it is not Always: Undead, however, given that I already have a bunch of those anyway between Ghosts, Skeletons and other things that got bump in the night. 

2. The new monster is named "Humbaba" and is the new "class C". It takes White Wind from the Morrigan class of Lamia. Humbaba will probably of a greenish coloration. It may end up moved to Class B. Not quite sure yet.

3. The two previously existent Behemoths get moved up a "class" as a result, with Greater Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat "switching" names, the latter becoming "Greater Behemoth".

4.  The previous entire shared moveset of pretty much dead. Like "Disaster Warning" died a year ago (sigh), "Mark of the Beast", "Luck's Nadir" and, to a degree, "Comet" died, which is part of the reason why Dimensionalist is losing it.

5. "Ironically", the long-dead "Cursed Wail" returns, though it is massively changed.

6. I'm still debating if I "should" make an RSM like a "Counter Comet/Meteor" when I start (finally) changing RSMs. Counter Magick or Counter Tackle are likeliest to end up dying if that is made though.

7. These were previously the only monster family to resist more than two elements as a whole, though now with Humbaba's inclusion, that's been "broken". Oh well.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Behemoths: Resist: Fire & Lightning; Weak: Water.
2. Humbabas: Absorb: Ice & Wind; Weak: Dark.
3. Lesser Behemoths: Absorb: Wind; Resist: Ice.
4. Greater Behemoths: Absorb: Earth; Resist: Ice.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Confused (now Human Advancement-only), Cursed, Floating, Charmed & Disabled. (Technically got one more immunity since Confused/Confusion is HuA only at present, but those immunities aren't shared.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Cometeo: All Behemoths are capable of calling down debris from the sky that can bring devastation, though the extent of its destruction on any given person or area is directly tied to random caprice of the sky and the foul magick that backs it.

2. Cursed Wail: Marking the target through sheer magickal force of will now rather than needing proximity or physical contact, any Behemoth can afflict any unfortunate within its sight from  with a heavy, constant Curse that causes great pain and eventually death.

3. Gore Abyss: Attempting to surround a Behemoth to take it out is just as ill-advised as trying to apply oil to a Bomb. Like the disasters they bring about and embody, a cornered or even just opportunistic Behemoth will thrash about wildly, goring and bludgeoning all near it with its sharp horns and tremendous weight & strength. Wounds inflicted by this tend to be horrific and are often susceptible to ???, Silence if damage the throat or lungs. a Doomed fate if more severe or at general Slowing of the afflicted.


Humbabas (HB): Long thought to not be closely related to other Behemoths despite their similar looks, these beasts manipulate their environs not to calamity but instead to restoration, being able to call a chilly yet soothing White Wind that restores the body. Still, given the supportive nature of this wind to their more destructive brethren and its innate ferocity, they are still disasters by association. (Immune: ??? in Embargo and ???.)

Lesser Behemoths (LB): Even the lesser of these disastrous beasts is capable of bringing utmost calamity to any area, capable of creating sudden Tornadoes of such wide-berth destruction that it is difficult to escape their paths unscathed  even with the length of time that they take to create. (Immune: Imperiled in Embargo, ??? and Poisoned.)

Greater Behemoths (GB): The heaviest of the cursed beasts of burdens that spread, this particular Behemoth spreads that curse through the very earth it treads upon, they can create devastating Quakes to ravage the landscape if given enough time. (Immune: ??? in [i}Embargo[/i],  Immobilized and Poisoned.)



Dragons

Notes:
1. I'm sure I mentioned this more than a year ago before the initial version of this, but "Green Dragons" have been "Common Dragons" for a well over a year. I might change the Common here to some else eventually since it and Malboros (still) sharing that slightly irks me, but it's far better than "Green".  I can't really use "Lesser" here either due to the same issue with Behemoth.

2. I'm still not sure as to the fate of Dragoons (in Embargo) 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. (Dragoner is probably dead though, at least in Embargo.)

3. At present, these all have still initial Reraise(d) in Human Advancement due to Dragon Spirit, but since Reraise(d) still needs a change overall and since Reraise(d) might be staying dead in Embargo.

4. Dragons were pretty much the only family to not get any changes to their moves, but instead  see (only) changes to their elemental and status affinities. Lucky them.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Dragons: Resist: Earth. (I still need to check if Fly even works for them sprite, though. I still can't remember.)
2. Common Dragons: Absorb: Lightning & Wind; Resist: Fire; Weak: Ice & Water.
3. Frost Dragons: Absorb: Ice & Water; Weak: Fire & Lightning. (It's actually absorbed Water for a while; I'm not sure why it wasn't noted.)
4. Flame Dragons: Absorb: Fire & Wind; Resist: Lightning; Weak: Ice & Water.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Floating, Poisoned, Doomed, Petrified & ???; Initial: Reraise(d) (in Human Advancement at least--may get initial: Blessed in Embargo; shrug).

Shared Abilities:
1. Dragon Roar: Releasing a deafening 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 blow lands 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 loves to hoard, though this tends to take all of its concentration. (Immune:  Cursed, Berserk & Faithful.)

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 regardless of clime, 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, oddly making little distinction between freshwater and salt water. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement, Slowed & Charmed.)

Flame Dragon (LD): On the other hand, this dragon is rather peculiar about its habitats, tending to not venture very far from the again active Bervenia Volcano, where most of them nest. When and where it does venture forth, however, its devastating Flame Breath is sure to leave a trail of destruction as it rains down from the sky. Even the very Wind from its wings is a Choking Gust akin to the Poisoning, sulfurous gasses of that troublesome volcano. (Immune: Oily, Sleeping & ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)



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 regards to these guys being (rather) stronger than the average. As such, I'll (still) try to temper that more later on as statuses, RSMs and formulas as well while 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; it's partly balanced by also being the only monster to resist no elements at all.

3. Similarly, at present, Tonberry Guard is the only generic monster still capable of using Teleport.

4. They got Dispel (Magic) over Debarrier a long while and still retain it, though that's still kind...meh. As such, they all got other additions partly between Dispel (Magic) not being enough and "needing" to have Holy Tonberry not be such an outlier even among its brethren.

5. Finally, yes, I'm aware that my Tonberries (still probably) 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. I think the most recent, pilfered additions have done are a decent step in that balanced direction, but they might yet need more.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Tonberries: Absorb: Holy.
2. Pug Tonberries: Resist: Dark, Weak: Lightning.
3. Tonberry Guard: Resist: Lightning, Dark & Ice, Weak: Wind & Earth. (Now weak to Wind instead of Ice, which they now resist.)


Shared Statues Affinities: Immune: Cursed (in Embargo)/Addled (in Human Advancement), Floating, Frogged, Disabled, Imperiled (in Embargo)/Confused in Human Advancement) & Doomed.  (Yeah...they might still have a bit much, though like Flan [and Bombs], they were sadly [even] worse once upon a time. They lost immunity to Undead [universally], Hasted & Slowed 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, though. Cursed immunity is now patch specific currently for...reasons.)

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: The icy-chill of a cold flame marks the Tonberry's chosen victim of the moment, making it more difficult for that selected target to escape between the injury, induced sluggishness and even the possibility of ???.

3. Dispel: The same as hume spell.


Pug Tonberry (PT): With its ability to reportedly swim for days in pursuit of its target, it is no surprise that it will aggressively stalk its target over land as well. For what reasons it Stalk/Pursues its victims so aggressively to corner & kill them is unknown, though it does so with the utmost preparation. Its seemingly boundless stamina may come from its ability to use the spell Regen, though some have speculated the reverse is true. Regardless, it can also use the inverse spell of Bleed to further press its advantage on unlucky targets that its knife or foul candlelight cannot yet reach.  (Immune: ???.)

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 or death have heard repeated whispers of "Everyone hates you!", "This is Karma!" or "Behold 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. It has been determined that in addition to their ability to teleport, they can manipulate space to create Walls and even manipulate the mist to use Esuna. (Immune: Immobilized.)

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. This rare monstrosity has been said to be able to Bless its followers with holy magicks such as Arise or even Reraise, though this has yet to be confirmed by captured, tortured cultists. (Immune: Undead.)



Embargo-Only Normal Monsters


Wolves:

Notes:
1. These are Ghosts' "replacements" as normal monsters.

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 Beta 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. Alpha Wolf has been made its own special monster and taken Wishing Star with it, causing the "creation" of Beta Wolf and its Interceptor Fang.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Wolves: Resist: Dark
2. Beta Wolves: Weak: Wind.
3. White Fangs: Absorb: Ice, Weak: Fire.
4. Hellhounds: Absorb: Fire, Weak: Holy.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Blind, Disabled, Doomed & Faithful (NEW!).

Shared Abilities:
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.


Beta Wolves (BW): De facto leaders of wolves when Alpha Wolves are not around, despite the contested nature between the cold climes of White Fang's preferred territory and the harsh reality of Hellhound's volatile nature. Their Interceptor Fang is a lunging maneuver meant more to cause distraction and rage that is suspected magickal in nature, opening the target to attack by the rest of the pack, than do significant damage. (Immune: Berserk.)

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. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Stopped in Human Advancement.)

Hellhounds (HL): More direct than either of its counterparts, red eyes peek out from burning environs before its dread, poisonous Bushfire sprays out, marking its target in venomous, burning oil. (Immune: Curse(d), Poison(ed), Bless(ed) & ???.)


Cactuars:

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

2. Yes, I know the names are (still) rather lackluster--pfft, "Snowtuar"--and everything, but I really don't have much to go off here even historically (http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Cactuar). 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 offer 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 really better and Cactoids are technically 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 do 1,000 (read: 999) damage. Also not sure how I'm going to address the "problem" of fixed damage ultimately, even if I'm definitely "nerfing" Auto Potion in both games.

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 a snow white (or light blue) and Flowering Cactuars would be a flowery pink.

7. As of just a few hours ago, Belief Theft is dead. In its place, Power Theft.


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 Status Affinities: Immune: Undead, Petrified, Blind, ???, Frogged & Doomed. (Lost immunity to Charmed, even if that ??? is arguably a positive status, which is partly why they gained immunity to Frogged instead.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Steal Accessory: The same as the hume Thief.

2. Power Theft: Cactuars aren't just interested in shiny trinkets, but often steal the energy of passer-bys as well, sapping them of strength as sure as the desert heat. It's unknown whether they do this for mischief, malice, sustenance or some other reason. The only thing that has been reported is that while the technique is dangerous, capable of easily fatiguing its target and even causing bouts of immediate Sleeping in some cases, there have been few deaths reported because of it. There have been many reports of missing lone desert travelers though....

3. 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 supposedly counting as many 1,000 needles fired in this manner, though on average its far fewer, numbering in the 100s.


Cactuar Rogues (CR): As with human Thiefs, these green-clad desert-dweller delight in playing dirty to make their escape or just cause havoc, gleefully kicking up a sudden Sandstorms to Blind and Slow anyone who attempts to corner it or its brethren or even just catches its beedy eyes. (Immune: Immobilize.)

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 seemingly enjoy sending miniature but highly dangerous Snowstorms towards people who stumble over their territories or whom they actively seem to stalk. (Immune: ???.)

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



Now let's see if I can get some actual work done for once. (Probably not.)


Isolating EDIT: Wolves & Cactuars get "segregated" from the fourteen other monsters shared with Human Advancement. Besides that, Aevis is no longer under construction.