A.I. Q&A

[TrueLight]

It might have been Cheer Up or Dash. Although, Dash was probably turned into Bullrush.

[Dokurider]

Yeah, it can't be Dash because it's exclusively attached to Counter Tackle. Anything that effects that move effects Counter Tackle, otherwise we'd have Counter Focus lol.

[reinoe]

I've noticed something weird about MIME A.I.  It looks like Mimes use some sort of alternate, inferior A.I. programming.


Anyone who's tested Mimes can see that they will just blindly charge the enemy as if berzerked.  We've also seen that sometimes the Mime will not even mimic an action.  But from what I think is most problematic is that the Mime A.I. will just randomly not even attack the enemy, even if they could down a unit.  I temporarily swore off Mimes altogether but I went back on that to make a joke team "Lazy Town".  But then the mimes do their typical frustrating thing and refuse to attack units in critical status.

[CT5Holy]

Wait, what? I don't think I've ever seen a Mime not attack an enemy when they could. Could it have been due to height difference? You can't punch a unit 3h above you.

That said, Mimes can't do anything on their own other than attack, so that might be a reason as to why they just charge forward? /shrug
Though now that I think about it, non-Mimes who can only attack move kind of passively, if I recall correctly. Like they'll only move a couple panels forward instead of max range. But it's been a while.

[The Damned]

(Might as well do this now before I forget even though it wasn't what I came on for at present.)

No, height was not a factor, CT5Holy. This particular instance or, I should say, this latest instance took place during the match between reinoe's Lazy Town and Truelight's Little Devils that Dokurider recorded a couple of weeks ago. It happens at around 5 minutes in where the Oiled Mime just...leaves the just-Critical, Nameless Dancing Priest alone for some reason despite the fact that he could have easily murdered her rather than walking back and become magick bait.

Additionally, if you go to about half a minute before that, you'll see that this is yet another battle where a Mime fails to mimic something, in this case Life Song. I've noticed, at least recently, that on average, Mimes fail mimic at least one thing per match (provided the mere average time of 10 minutes and 3 rounds).

Between those two things, which have been around since Vanilla, it's why I no longer use Mimes either. Them being able to use non-weapon equipment and equip RSMs will help diversify them and might make them actually usable, but it's not going to solve this particular problem, unfortunately. (Not that I was expecting it to, especially since FFMaster himself wasn't even aware of it until rather recently.)

[The Damned]

(Might as well do this as well before forget this too.)

So, xyzqvw joining and making a great new team that made the mistake of trying to use Persuade reminded me of two things:


1. Most people aren't going to read through the Balance thread discussion [and shouldn't be expected to in most instances].

2. I should have done this a while ago, as with most things.


So, mostly for newer players, I will at once make a list of currently unusable or otherwise "broken" weapons, a list of abilities that are currently usable or otherwise difficult to manipulate the AI into using and then a list of the Berserk AI behavior I've noticed. That last one is more for myself though, since, of course, I have too many Notepad and Word documents as it is; I really need to consolidate those....

At the same time, there's no point in making a completely new thread for any of these (at present), even if I have to double post in here, so they can (and should) go here (for now).

****

We'll do the list of weapons that are either "unusable" [read: shouldn't be used] or not working as they should with me explaining why (if the reason is known).

spoiler: List of "Unusable" Weapons in 138d ARENA

1. Shieldrender (Sword) - Its "Shield Break" special ability is just not working for some reason despite the Shield Break skill being perfectly fine.

2. Bow Gun (Crossbow) - Similar to Shieldrender, its "Armor Break" special ability is just not working for some reason despite the Armor Break skill being perfectly fine.

3. Spell Edge (Ninja Sword) - Its "Spell Absorb" special ability isn't working for some reason despite the Spell Absorb ability working fine. It at least adds +1 MA (I think), but...yeah.

4. Holy Lance (Spear) - Its "Holy Bracelet/Breath" special ability only activates once since special abilities can only activate once per hit as a general rule, so it's (even) less powerful than it would appear.

spoiler: Weapons That Are, For Better Or For Worse, Not As They Appear in the 138d ARENA Master Guide

1. Repel Knife (Knife) - This is possibly adding Don't Act and Haste separately instead of All or Nothing despite it seeming fine in FFTPatcher. Needs more testing.

2. Mage Masher (Knife) - This is actually casting the Samurai ability "Bizen Boat" on hit rather than Silence. Seems to be at rather high percentages as well, like 50+%.

3. Short Edge (Ninja Sword) - This is actually causing Oil at 50%, not 25% as it "should", which it will (probably) keep when version 139 comes out.

4. Masamune (Katana) - The "Dispel Magic" special ability of this seems to be activating at far more than 50%, but it's rather difficult to tell. Still quite a good weapon even if it's "only" working as it should.

5. Rainbow Staff (Staff) - This is actually non-elemental. It hasn't been All-Elemental for a while, but FFMaster keeps forgetting to change it in the Master Guide.

spoiler: Rainbow Staff & Crystal Shield Addendum

Before I forget again, I've been meaning to put out a general notice:

Due to the nature of how "neutrality" is achieved here, these should not be repaired with White Robe or Thief Hat since they will otherwise nullify those items' halving effects.
is fine though.

spoiler: And Since People Keep Asking Getting Confused About P Bag & Light Robe With Regards to Poison

If one is Poisoned when they have either piece of equipment equipped, then attempting to add Regen again, whether it's via Nurse or something else, will not get rid of the Poison status. This is because the unit is still, as the game sees it, under Regening, so despite being able to normally refresh status, that doesn't apply here for whatever reason, probably because it's an "Always" status and you can't refresh something that's infinite. It's been like this since vanilla, but it's way easier to notice in ARENA for several reasons.

So, either bring something to cure Poison or block Poison if you're using either piece of equipment or prepare to end up ironically having a worse case of Poisoning than if you weren't constantly Regenerating.

****

This is where we'll talk about ability stuff.

spoiler: Unusable Abilities in 138d ARENA

At present, there are two of these:

1. Persuade (Mediator) - The AI just seemingly refuses to use this despite it normally being completely in love with curtains abilities that send CT to 00. Anyone who has played all the way through Vanilla can attest this with Altima using Return 2 like it was going out of style. This is even more bizarre since a) the AI will still use Last Dance, b) Persuade was buffed recently to hit AoE 1 instead of AoE 0 and c) FFMaster did nothing to change the AI Behavior for Persuade otherwise. So...yeah. It's a mystery as to why, but even the current "restraints" for Preach and for Solution that I'll get into a bit later seem to have no affect on this.


2. Tsumazuku (Ninja) - The reasons for this not getting used are a bit more clear: It just doesn't do enough damage or anything special enough to justify the AI using it, apparently. This despite the AI gladly using Breaks as a Attack when it really doesn't have to. Regardless, this is almost certain to die by next version, unlike Persuade which may linger on a bit, so that's all I'm going to say about it.

spoiler: Abilities That Are Difficult to Manipulate in 138d ARENA

I'm not going to mention Quickening since a) Dokurider already went over that in-depth here and b) I'd much rather that move die in a fire than continue to plague ARENA into 139. Moving on.

1. Protect, Shell, their Level 2s, Iron Will/Wall and Protect, Shell, Regen & Reraise statuses in general - Unfortunately, for the most part, the AI won't use these at all unless a) the unit(s) it's targeting has already suffered HP damage and b) the unit doing the targeting can't otherwise heal the unit. So, basically, instead of being preemptive as a human would use, the AI almost always uses these abilities reactively. On top of that, the Wall spell for White Magic is currently almost completely outclassed by the Chivalry ability Iron Will, especially since Reraise is on that same skill-set. Outside of damage, the AI will use Regen if the unit(s) targeted is Poisoned though and the Regen spell did get a boost in AoE recently. So...keep that in mind.


2. Bullrush (Squire) - This is less a note because the AI won't use it and more because the AI will use it, but can't see the recoil damage it will take apparently Unlike, say, Grand Cross, where the AI can see it's hitting itself, the AI for some reason has always been utterly blind to recoil damage from things ever since vanilla. So it's entirely possible that it will send itself into Critical or even out kill itself being Bullrush happy.


3. Nurse (Paladin) - Likewise, this move is here not because the AI neglects it, but rather because it tends to focus on it way too much because it has both Defending status--the only positive status that non-Critical AI will abuse more than Haste--and healing; the Regen aspect is just a nice bonus. As such, if the AI has so much as a scratch, then it will probably Nurse itself to the exclusion of almost everything else in the majority of instances, even if it could, say, maybe kill an enemy; this tendency tends to slightly decrease if it already has Regen, though it doesn't lessen that much. Similarly, a unit with Nurse will almost always start-off the fight by Nurse itself even if it isn't injured just because the AI loves the Defending & Regen combination that much. So plan accordingly.


4. Heretic (Thief) - This move is probably the most difficult to use of all of the ones I'm about to talk about, partly because seems like the AI will only use itentirely reactively much the above. Only, it's even more difficult since Innocent status is a neutral status and thus the AI is far less likely to "buff" itself with it. Generally, the AI will only use this if it gets the chance to use this right before it would be hit with a detrimental (possibly damage-only) Faith-based spell and couldn't do something else, like say stab the caster in the face. As such, it's primarily (read: only) used alongside allies with Lore that are faster than unit with Heretic, who is typically a Ninja so that it has the extra benefit of boosting the elemental -tons. It might have other uses, but that's generally it; this is why Heretic is most likely going to Ninja in 139 under the name "Mushin (no Shin)".

Oh, and one more thing of note with regards to Heretic: do NOT use it with Refute. For some reason, neutral statuses like Innocent or Faith (or Charging or Performing) are viewed as viable targets on allies when it comes to the current Refute, so it will just end up as a waste of MP and action.


5. Preach (Mediator) - Until about a month ago, I would have been convinced that the AI just wouldn't use this ability either, but apparently it's just *really* picky about using it. It won't use this unless it is almost literally the only action it can take. If it can buff itself with something else, then it will use that over Preach (unless it's maybe Innocent; possibly). Same goes for attacking an enemy physically even if it will do absolutely paltry damage; I still have yet to understand why the AI does this in general, especially when it can automatically see the CT resolution of things. This is to say nothing of having other, more valid attack options or access to healing (that's needed).

As such, the best way for using this is giving it to a mage (or mage ally) that has a healing weapon, whether its Healing Staff, Murasame (the Katana) or a (close-range) elemental weapon that rest of the team absorbs; if the enemy actually absorbs that element, than in this case it's for the better. Still, the AI will tend to use this on itself first before it goes for any ally, so it's probably for the best if the unit is can actual mage (or Mediator) due to the necessity of Talk Skill (secondary).

As with Heretic, it's best not to use this with Refute if possible as well as, unlike Heretic, being best to avoid Finger Guard.


6. Solution (Mediator) - The polar opposite of Preach, I've actually never seen the AI successfully use it. However, formerdeathcorps (and I think someone else as well--Dokurider?) has said that it basically needs the same restraints as Preach for the AI to use it. So there you go. It's basically Preach that shouldn't be used with mages.

Like Preach, it too shouldn't be used with Refute or Finger Guard if so avoidable.


7. Refute (Mediator) - This ability tpp is less that AI is unwilling to use and far more that it's too willing to use it, partly because this ability (unfortunately) cancels every status save for Dead, Crystal, Treasure and Jumping. This means it also cancels Charging & Performing...which a unit with Refute will gladly "save" its allies from if there are no enemies doing either in range; I'm personally guessing it does this because both status negate evasion, which is uniformly bad and thus the AI ultimately views those as "bad conditions". That said, I'm not sure what the reason is for it going after Faith or Innocent statuses in neutral circumstances, especially since the AI is generally blind to what a non-Charging or Performing opponent can even do.

Regardless, don't use it around ally Dancers or Bards or with Faith (Rod) or Innocence if so possible. Thankfully, 138d should be the last iteration where one has to worry about this though since I've been trying to get people behind the idea of breaking Refute up into a cancel most negative statuses abilities and a cancel most positive status abilities. That would ultimately be a minor boost and in no way include the ability to cancel Charging, Performing, Innocent or Faith as it does now.


8. Stat-down Dances and Magic Ruin & Power Ruin - It's best to only ever use one of these per unit since the AI will a) arbitrarily switch between them otherwise and b) generally won't stop spamming the move if it has nothing else to do even if that particular stat has been reduced to 1 already. This is provided it even uses them though, in the case of the Thief's Ruins which seem...troubled as of late; that may just be because of Quickening's general existence though.


9. Stat-up Songs and Accumulate, Alacrity/Focus &--sigh--Quickening - Like the above, it's best to generally only focus on one of these. Up to two can work though, if only because Songs, when compared to Dance, have the benefit of a) higher accuracy--much higher now, for some reason--and b) being proactive rather than reactive or predictive since you build your team to abuse stat-up Songs far more easily than stat-down Dances.

Additional word of advice: When it comes to Cheer Song, the AI will generally be useless at using it past Speed 10, which is when it will start getting another turn before the CT for the previous Cheer Song is over. Half of the time, as with most other Songs and Dances, it will for some reason re-select and start the song over even if the Song (or Dance) was just about to resolve otherwise. The same goes for Battle & Magic Song past Speed 13. Let's just say it's part of the reason why Last Song tends to get used way more than Cheer Song.


10. Life Song & Nameless Song (Bard) - So, it would seem that the AI finally will use Nameless Song in ARENA...but only after one of its allies (or itself) is damaged and generally to the exclusion of Life Song. So, basically, only having one of these on a unit will ever work, especially since in the case of Nameless Song, the AI tends to not shut up even if it's allies are all fully healed after it starts singing. As such, Life Song generally sees a lot more use due to its flexibility and surety.


11. Dances (and Songs) in General - Due to the nature of Dance, another disadvantage that it has compared to Song/Sing/Bardsong is that generally you can only ever two Dances on a Dancer before you just start wasting JP. Unless Bards, where you can probably have up to four Songs effectively (Life Song, Angel Song and two of the stat-up songs), you can generally have only Witch Hunt and one other Dance on a Dancer for them to be useful; that Dance is most often Nameless Dance just because it's the most reliable one besides Witch Hunt (since Wiznaibus by itself isn't killing one anymore, especially with as unreliable as Mimes can be).

Finally, another disadvantage that Dance has compared Song is that, unlike Song, Dance cannot refill its own MP. As such, it's more difficult to use Iron Boots (or Genji Armor or Move=0) since a) it needs either Punch Art Secondary, Summon Magic Secondary, Absorb MP or MP Restore to heal itself and b) it generally won't interrupt its Dancing to use Chakra unlike how a Bard will to sing Angel Song. The latter happens even if this leaves it Dancing like an idiot while "No MP" comes up again and again.

spoiler: Difficult to Use RSMs

1. Counter Tackle (Squire) - Generally all the same problems as Bullrush, only magnified since for Counter Tackle to trigger you probably need to have taken damage already unlike Bullrush. So it's more likely that the AI will send itself into Critical or Death if this is used. It also is unfortunately generally inferior to Counter because of this.


2. Defend & Caution - Pretty much never used at present despite Defending status being potentially quite abusable due its lack of changes and the AI loving to use the status. The AI loving to use the status so much is part of the reason why Defend Support never sees any use though: the AI will gladly eat up Actions Defending if it had nothing else to do. This can, supposedly, be used to keep your team together CT-wise if you want to, but so far no one has yet to do it, much less attempt it.


3. Maintenance (Chemist) - A rather unrated ability, it should still be noted that it has the "minor" problem of being perceived by the AI, which means they will thus never potentially waste turns potentially missing Breaks (or Steal Accessory) on you. So it's a bit of a double-edged sword in that case against units with those types of abilities, though it's still worth using depending on one's set-up.


4. Counter (Paladin) - This is not so much difficult to use as it easy to mistake for being simpler than it actually is. When the description says "in range" this means that, for most instances, you cannot Counter anything weapon with a different range than you even if it's otherwise in the range of your weapon can fire in by targeting behind that person. For instance, this means if you're stabbed in the face with a knife while you have Counter on with a gun, you're never going to shoot back. You'll only shoot back if someone else is shooting at you...even if it's with Books or Harps...somehow. The only weapon exceptions are the Range 2 ones, i.e. Spears, Poles & Cloths, since those can target both Range 1 and Range 2 spaces anyway.

Thus the more atypical a weapon's range is, the less likely that it will trigger Counter, which is why Throwing Knife, Books & Harps should almost never be used with Counter since it will be only capable of countering those very same (few) weapons (and really close gun-shots). Crossbows also kind of suck with Counter since you'll only ever be Countering other Crossbow users (or, again, close gun-users).


5. Projectile Guard (Archer) - Again, no difficulty of use. I merely want to make a note that, for some reason, the AI seems to tend to focus specifically on a Projectile Guard unit if it has a projectile weapon. This despite the AI being otherwise blind to reaction abilities. It will do this even if that unit has more HP and is less of a threat than a nearby enemy in many cases, so Projectile Guard is more useful than it seems...provided you actually fight those types of weapons--if not, then it's dead-weight of course.


6. Counter Magic (Wizard) - These counter Spellguns as well and that's all there is to say of interest at present.


7. Flee (Thief) - Due to AI stupidity that's been around from vanilla, the AI generally tends to make poor use of this if has any means of being able to instantly heal itself. If it does, then the AI will almost always heal itself first, negating Flee's bonus as it most likel brings itself out of Critical, and then move. I'm personally guessing it was programmed to be this seemingly idiotic about healing because it was/is more or less trap-blind unless it had/has Move-Find Item in vanilla. Said behavior is otherwise rather detrimental to ARENA, where there are no longer any traps, but I don't see it getting changed any time soon, especially given how low a priority it is compared to everything else.


8. Meatbone Slash (Samurai) - All I have to say about this is that, unlike Counter, it seems like it activates more generally within a weapon's range. Also, unlike Counter, it's a) guaranteed to hit and b) always does non-elemental in its damage. That said, much like Counter, this won't magickally go through your ally, so it's entirely possible that you'll brutally murder an ally by mistake. Oh well.


9. Move=0 (Scholar) - This is more useful than it would initially seem besides just making it nigh-impossible for your mages to oh-so helpfully impale themselves on enemy swords as quickly and as idiotically as possible. Beyond making it so that they can't move, it also makes the unit get its turn about 20+ CT quicker since they have no Move; I'm not sure why this is given Don't Move obviously doesn't allow this, but that's how it seems to work. Additionally, for some reason, this doesn't "kick in" until after they've taken their first turn; it's probably for the reason that Always: Berserk and such act kind of "wonky" on the first turn...which is to say I have no idea why that is still.

But, yeah, this has more use than just being usable with Lore because of it, even that's what it's primarily used for. Currently testing to see the Speed bonus will still apply with Iron Boots (or Genji Armor) on due to the aforementioned Don't Move difference.


10. Faith Up (Bard & Dancer) - This is actually even more permissive than one would expect, as it seems to activate from any remotely magickal thing, even things that don't use Faith such as Song. It also thus triggers at more than magickal damage since it also triggers off the Cure spells. In addition to that, due to the (necessary) change to the reaction trigger to go off more than just Brave, this feeds back into itself, becoming more and more likely to trigger the more it goes off.

(Not really sure how much Brave UP differs in comparison to this, though that seems less permissive. Then again, pretty much no one uses that and barely anyone uses this...for some reason.)

****

Finally we come to various things I've noticed about Berserk's AI, including just how idiotic it can be at its nadir:


1. The Berserk AI, besides generally going for the nearest target, will determine said nearest target solely by the way its facing when it gets its turn. Even if a more wounded or vulnerable target is right behind it, if there is an equidistant one right in front of it or to the side of it that has more health or is less vulnerable, it will go for that one.

2. The Berserk AI will similarly generally attack from the front even when it can move to the back or the side and otherwise would be more accurate in its attacks.

3. By that same token, the Berserk AI will happily indulge in attacks that have absolutely 00% chance of hitting, whether it's because of obstacles or height differences or even just that much evasion. As such, Salty Rage tends to be even worse on distance weapon users unless the terrain is relatively flat (and/or they're using some type of Longbow).

4. The Berserk AI will still attack units that it is otherwise healing if they are nearest one. This usually happens due to elemental absorption, but can happen with Healing Staff (and only Healing Staff after my suggestion to make Murasame [the Katana] immune to Berserk a while ago).

5. Similarly, the Berserk AI will NOT move on to a target that it can actually hit or hurt if either 3 or 4 occur. It's literally dumbed down to "find nearest enemy target; try to kill however ineffectually".

6. The Berserk AI will, when Charmed and not able to attack its actual allies, instead eat up turns attacking empty panels so that it doesn't hurt the actual enemy. Guess it has to get that rage out somehow instead of conserving CT like it would otherwise do when moving towards its target.

7. The Berserk AI will, mysteriously, on very rare occasions just not attack the unit in front of it...for whatever reason. Obviously, healing the unit or not being able to actually hit isn't what stops it in these instances, so I am completely mystified as to what is.


Ugh. I feel like I'm forgetting something (like always), but this is long enough as it is.

[Gaignun]

the AI seems to tend to focus specifically on a Projectile Guard unit if it has a projectile weapon.

Are you sure about this?  The AI tends to attack the target that suffers the most damage.  In your tests, were the targets with Projectile Guard also the targets that suffer the most damage?

[AeroGP]

I recommending putting this information in the beginner's guide, which is pinned to the forum and which we expect most newcomers to read first.

[Dokurider]

You're probably thinking about Dorter Thieves vs the Four Horsemenn, Damned. Remember said Thief with Projectile Guard was tied for lowest HP, was Always: Undead, the closest unit and was the most threatening damage wise. So the AI had every reason to shoot at him from their perspective.

Most users of Projectile Guard are units with low HP to begin with or are units that can't afford to take all but the lowest damage.

[Dokurider]

Quickening and Heretic. This pairing has come to my attention ever since watching Dol's Counter team fight. In spite of Quickening's unwillingness to be used alongside any skill that uses MP, it all too happily ignored Heretic and Quickened away. Naturally, I needed to test this out. Now these tests I ran aren't complete, but I think the initial reports will be interesting anyways.

Notes: I built a companion Time Mage Lore unit so that Heretic can be activated. Quickening unit is always assumed to be Move = 0 unless stated otherwise.

Test 1: Ninja/Steal. Skills: Quickening, Steal Heart, Steal Accessory. Lore disabled.
Successfully used Quickening.

Test 2: Ninja/Steal. Skills: Heretic, Quickening, Steal Heart, Steal Accessory. Lore enabled.
Did not use Quickening, but used Heretic.

Test 3: Ninja/Steal. Skills: Heretic, Quickening, Steal Heart, Steal Accessory. Lore disabled.
Did not used Quickening or Heretic.

Test 4: Chemist/Steal. Skills: Items, Quickening. Lore disabled.
Successfully used Quickening.

Test 5: Chemist/Steal. Skills: Items, Heretic, Quickening. Lore disabled.
Successfully used Quickening.

Test 6: Chemist/Steal. Skills: Items, Heretic, Quickening. Lore enabled.
Successfully used Quickening and Heretic.

Conclusion: idk. Maybe Quickening reacts to Heretic if the other skillset has access to MP skills, whether they even have said skills learned or not? I'd have to use it with other classes to confirm or deny.

[The Damned]

(Hmmm...interesting...even if I still want Quickening to die in a fire.)

As for your question, yes, the Four Horseman match was one of the instances I was thinking of where I've seen this happen, but hardly the only one. However, it may be for reasons that you and Gaignun have put for since I'm definitely not sure about it. It just doesn't seem like it's always motivated by HP and such as it "should be"/usually is. Then again, distant weapons have a much great field of influence, so perhaps that factors in.

I'll try and test it out, but unlike the test I just ran for xyzqwv, this probably won't be confirmed until Saturday one way or that other and that's being (naively) optimistic given everything else I have to do.

That said, Dokurider's question reminded me of something else I should do on Youtube after I de-unlist everything....

I recommending putting this information in the beginner's guide, which is pinned to the forum and which we expect most newcomers to read first.

Will do...eventually. I need to proofread and fix the above once again (after I get back from my walk), for starters, then add in more glitch and general status information not in the Master Guide at present if I put it there.

I'll try to have that done by...next Monday I guess. Shrug.

[reinoe]

Another A.I. question.  This one re: frog.  The A.I. seems fully conscious of the fact that Frog cures frog.  I know this because back when FROG 2 was an actual spell frogged units would try to walk into the AoE to heal themselves.  However we've seen units cast "frog" on the opposition while frogged, but units won't cast the same spell on themselves or their allies to heal the status.  Why is that?

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Because the AI is set to only consider enemy units when using Frog.  The AI is very black and white when it comes to considering which skills to use, which is one of the reason FFT doesn't have skills that are like "Heal all allies in AoE, hurt all enemies" nor has anyone really cared to add one.

[reinoe]

I've awakened Smaug to ask him one question!

Re: quickening, does it trigger if you only pull skills from the "Steal" skillset?

Like if I only have Steal Accessory, Quickening, and Steal Heart?

[Dokurider]

No, they can be any skill as long as they don't use MP at all. Remember, you also need at least two other skills learned and Jump only counts as one skill, but not Elemental.

[Malroth]

Because the AI is set to only consider enemy units when using Frog.  The AI is very black and white when it comes to considering which skills to use, which is one of the reason FFT doesn't have skills that are like "Heal all allies in AoE, hurt all enemies" nor has anyone really cared to add one.

So thats why my latest test had a black costume blackmage with plenty of MP sitting in a corner doing nothing instead of netherfireing themselves to full

[reinoe]

This isn't really an A.I. question but...

Skip forward to 5:20.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s1p9bJheVo

The Ninja kills the lancer.  But the lancer gets right back up.  At the time the lancer was killed it had a CT of 54.  The Lancer has a speed of 12.  Now before the lancer revives another unit Crystalizes.  How  exactly is the lancer able to get back up?

Speculation that the timing is like this...
Ninja kills lancer: one "unit of time happens": during that time the dead unit crystalizes and the Lancer's ct increases: one more "unit of time" happens: during that "unit of time" the lancer revives.

[Gaignun]

So thats why my latest test had a black costume blackmage with plenty of MP sitting in a corner doing nothing instead of netherfireing themselves to full

Curiously, the A.I. does seem to be capable of using single-target elemental attacks to heal itself.  Ninjutsu and Holy come to mind. 

[reinoe]

I have another question for the folks who know FFT A lot better than me...

How many "Angel Songs" per turn will go off when the unit casting the spell has 8ct?  9ct? 10ct?

[Malroth]

Angel song goes off every 4 ticks 

A 8 Speed units alternates between 13 and 12 ticks per turn

A 9 speed unit takes 12 ticks for its first turn and then 11 ticks each for its next 9 turns

A 10 speed unit  takes 10 ticks per turn

an 11 speed unit takes 10 ticks for its first turn then 9 ticks each for its next 10 turns
12 speed takes 9 ticks for its first turn then 8 ticks for its next 2 turns

So an 8 speed unit will get 3 angel songs off between its turns unless it skips movement then only 2
a 9 speed unit will get 2 songs off between most turns with a small chance of a 3rd happening if movement happens every turn
a 10 speed unit will get 2 songs off between turns weither or not it moves
an 11 speed unit will get 2 songs off it moves but only 1 on turns it doesn't
12 speed can get off 2 songs only if it moves every turn