Calculator -> Blue Mage

[VincentCraven]

Well, it's because that MA*7 is laughable that I boosted damage, but if we're okay with it doing around Geomancy damage, then it shouldn't be a problem.

My 'Mighty Guard' adds wall to the character and immediately surrounding units. I'd rather not try to balance Blue Mage by making skills lots of MP when Summoner already does the same thing. I wouldn't even dream of making Blue Magic more powerful than Black Magic without adding a charge time, and that would completely screw up monsters.

[Edit: When I start changing the descriptions, I'll make sure to indicate which monster skills Blue Mage can learn on each of the skills and probably include the list in the Blue Magic description, if we decide to make them only learnable Blue Mage style]

[VincentCraven]

Okay, Blue Magic is only learnable Blue Mage style because no other class works this way. This will allow me to add places where a good skill can be learned much earlier, but the chance is in the midst of a difficult battle so it's easier not to worry about it. I'd like to make it so that Blue Mage skills are really good, so that going through the trouble of learning the skills is worth it, but also not make Blue Magic (or Blue Mage) broken. Sorry Asmo, but if you really want the skills without the hassle, perhaps you can settle with having a monster or two.

The MP cost will be done away with for all Blue Magic skills*. This means, however, that Blue Mage will have no really powerful skills. The only way I'd give MP cost to any abilities is if Blue Mage has high MA and low MP. With this, other mages would be able to cast Blue Magic more, but it would be less effective, and Blue Mages would do more damage with regular magic, but would need someone to replenish the MP more often, ideally. Chances are, though, that Blue Mage would just end up being the best mage late game. Draw Out abilities would then be forced to change formula to be based on PA as well as MA so that Blue Mage isn't so much better with it than others are.

Current Set
Goblin Punch - (PA +65)% success
Fire Bracelet - MA*10
Wind Soul - (MA*(MA+10)/2)
Mimic Titan - 3v1, MA*5 [Edit: Forgot about Earth Clothes, fixed]
Choco Esuna - (MA +60)% success
Clam Spirit - 2v2, (MA +40)% success
Death Sentence - Range 3, (MA +40)% success
Level Blast - Range 4, (MA+75)% success
Nose Bracelet - (MA +80)%
Blaster - (MA +40)% success, may add Don't Move (success of each skill calculate separately: it can cause all three statuses at one time)
Bad Bracelet - 3v0
Drain Touch - (MA +60)% success
Self Destruct
Dark Whisper - 2v1, (MA*(MA+1)/2), hits 6 times randomly
Giga Flare - MA*7
*Ultima(2) - costs MP, but is learned the final (or is it the one right before that?) battle

I will change some of the skills (like Wind Soul) so that they can be learned early on in the game. Above set contains 16 skills, so if I add one skill, another skill comes off.

[Xifanie]

Even for low damage, 4v1 Mimic titan is broken.

Ever thought of many Blue Mages spamming Mimic Titan with Earth Clothes equipped?
3v1 is plenty

And blaster will be hard to learn... Unless you equip the proper accessory.  

[Kuraudo Sutoraifu]

I'm diggin' it so far.  Can't wait to actually use the mage.

[Argg0]

These changes on skills... are monsters going to be affected too?

I mean... MA * 10 dragons are really going to be scary...

[VincentCraven]

I've increased the MAC for most monsters by quite a bit.

But I do intend to make dragons pretty scary, just not THAT scary.

[Argg0]

IMO best thing for the Breaths (Bracelets) would be a conic AoE...
....Dragon
------x
-----xxx
----xxxxx

Just like the ability of DK on PSP... though, I doubt that's possible on PSX. =(

Lowering the MA growths for monsters... That will make their MA stagnate for a while, like humans? Or you not changing that much?

[VincentCraven]

Well, I plan on having the dragons more powerful with their attack than any human could be near that level, but the MA may be stagnate. I'm not too sure what you mean by this.

The conic AoE...  I really don't know if I can do that.

[Xifanie]

That's definitely possible but we're not near able to do something of the sort.

[Kourama]

The Blue Mage skill set looks pretty good and I'm happy that you chose to make Blue Mage like I did. I also noticed that you left out learning any abilities from the birds, can't blame you though since they don't have any great skills that you would be able to learn.

Also from my experience playing FFT with my Blue Mage a lot of the moves are somewhat glitchy and most of the moves have the sprite lose an arm and have a dagger attacking around him going along with the animation. Not really that big of a deal to me but the biggest problem I've found is with the AOE moves.

Mimic Titan, Self Destruct and Giga Flare all slow down considerably when they do damage to enemies. Right after the animation is done the camera centers on each enemy slowly then shows that damage for each enemy 1 at a time. Not really sure if that is something that needs a lot of time to fix just thought it would be something good be aware of early on.

[Asmo X]

Oh well. At least it won't be as broken as the Calculator.

Edit: Should have said broken *like* the Calculator. This really doesn't sound as bad as I was expecting from a balance point of view and that's really the bottom line for me.

[VincentCraven]

I'm diggin' it so far.  Can't wait to actually use the mage.

o_O I can post the stuff I have right now and call it Beta 2.0 if you would like.
I was kinda waiting on Zodiac to come back w/ his fancy name change program and possibly the location of formulas so I can fix axes, knockback formula, and make new skillz and such. I've revamped ch1 and you can tell me whether I over did it or not. Ch2-4 will still be the same as last beta pretty much.

Oh, and I still haven't made Mystic Knight, Necromancer, or Mounted folk.

[Kuraudo Sutoraifu]

No big rush, VincentCraven.  I've been playin' alot of Mass Effect lately which has slowed my SSCC progress and my sprite-making progress.  So I don't really need a Beta 2.0, but I'm sure others might enjoy testing/playing it.

[karsten]

let's wait for the better

[huthutchuck]

I agree with Kuraudo.  No rush.  Never let the anxiety of the community rush your work.  It's ready when it's ready.  Besides I'm still playing Firepro Returns to death.

[Xifanie]

... I'm still hacking FFT. :O

[VincentCraven]

Oh...

Guess it'll be a while, but that's no problem for me either.

[huthutchuck]

If you don't mind me asking Vince, How about a progress report to see what you have done so far?  I'm just curious.  You couldn't have done everything I've seen in the forums.  I just want to make sure there aren't any necromancers on a chocobo breathing conic breaths at people.

[Xifanie]

I'm so ashamed
like a pancake
but not as much as a drake
since for no one's sake
I started playing Xenosaga by mistake
now I can't stop, even if it's piece of cake

I take all the blame, omgwtbbq an earthquake!

[VincentCraven]

Chuck: So far the only things I've done rather new are the Red and Blue Mage. Most of the other stuff includes modifying existing classes and weapons and such. I've started a few things but nothing has been completed recently. My goal was to remove everything broken, make the game difficult, and make all of the player's options worthwhile (aka balancing).

Unfortunately, the more walls I hit, the less I want to work on this thing. In fact, I got sidetracked on Fire Emblem 10 lately and it's much more fun than perusing columns of coding to find formulas and events. There are no necromancers yet, chocobo riding is still only for players, and I have no plans on adding a conic AoE to this patch.