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Messages - The Damned

1
FFT Arena / Re: Arena battle videos and discussion
April 15, 2015, 08:15:32 pm
(Let's see if I can actually get my teams back up before today ends.)

Oh, okay. So that's what "Nanashi's Sushi Bar" was referencing. Hunh.


Quote from: Rouroni Elmdor on April 15, 2015, 06:42:26 pm
Why the fuck does this work?


I'm not sure if this is rhetorical, but it works for several (painful) reasons:


1. Quickening is broken.

2. Cursed Ring + Quickening is still extremely overpowered despite Cursed Ring no longer being guaranteed since the 50/50 resurrection is still basically in the user's favor in most cases.

3. The Undead units generally get back up fast enough (with Quickening) to prevent a lot of teams from ever getting around to targeting the Monks, who get to slowly disrupt and wear down the other team usually at that leisure.

4. Steal Heart is already pretty damn powerful even before the fact that Quickening boosts it.

5. Slow Dance, despite its abysmal hit rate, also is borderline broken since losing just -1 Speed is pretty damn significant. Only reason it isn't dominating the game right now is because Quickening is dominating it instead and Slow Dance is hard-countered by Quickening.

6. Last Dance is actually incredibly strong if your opponent hasn't (or can't) hit an effective 10 Speed--which is actually pretty easy to do--and you get lucky enough and since Slow Dance "fixes" the first problem....

7. The A.I. is dumb about a lot of things, including who it will target. While letting the Quickening Zombies run around would be bad, given they generally always get back up, they "should" be prioritized less than the Monks in most cases. However, due to both being the face of their enemies and technically having less HP than the defensive Monks, the A.I. will generally always take the unit that either has the least HP or that can do the most damage to, though some exceptions exist. So the Zombies are essentially really threatening "bait", all things said.


On top of that, RedWorld just got kind of unlucky, especially in that first round where she might have won had Wave Fist not had missed twice and since half of silentkaster's team gets unlimited continues. Ironically, had she had Seal Evil, which I normally say is underwhelming, she would have likely won rather convincingly since silentkaster's Monks can't heal away Petrify like 99% of Monks can.

*The More You Know Star goes by*
2
Hunh. I see.

For the record, I was just going to get around the problem of "instant" Level Jump 8 by excising it from Jump skill set 34 and having no one actually actively use that set. I'm personally fine with a static Jump range so long as it works.

Thanks for the information though.
3
PSX FFT Hacking / Re: ASM Requests
April 15, 2015, 07:55:23 pm
(Thanks for the answers Pride, especially so promptly again.)

You actually interpreted the third question correctly for first time. I apologize for using "junction" when I could just said "add". Yes, I'm talking about if it's possible add statuses to the differing charges regardless of their power. I'd be fine with having to hard-code it since, yeah, it isn't in FFTPatcher, and since I wasn't expecting to be able to apply certain statuses based solely on how powerful it was--I merely wondering if you could assign status to the space since, like Item, Throw, Jump and CT, we currently can't really affect Charge otherwise.

Incidentally, you've also answered my question about whether it would possible to make certain Items vulnerable to be Silence, so you've thanks for that too.
4
Works in Progress / Re: FFT: A Stone's Ripple
April 15, 2015, 04:41:08 am
I recall reading the original post when you first posted this, but I apparently never posted in here. Whoops.

Anyway, I just wanted to say good look with getting this done, especially given the changes you're apparently planning on making. I'm sure you can do it though.
5
PSX FFT Hacking / Re: ASM Requests
April 15, 2015, 04:38:51 am
I'll try to make this the last consecutive post I make in here if I can help it. After all, I can wait for things as I've said, especially since I still don't know how to do them myself unfortunately.

That said, having remembered what I forgot to ask above, I should ask it now before I forget yet again. Thankfully, these requests are all easier to explain than the above:


1. Is there a way to make it possible to view skill sets that are already "Mastered!" so that you no longer get auto-locked out of any class's ability screen information if you buy all of its skills (or if they come inherently learned, like with Mime and monsters)?

2. Can formulas be made that specifically cancel a status without needing the appropriate inflict status for it? If so, could one also potentially use another inflict status that also adds something at the same time? (I'm guessing "no".)

3. Is there a way to "junction" status onto the various Charge skills (as a way to help differentiate them beyond just damage)?

4. Finally, can reactions (in theory) be made to react only a limited amount of times per battle before they stop working or are we stuck with unlimited reactions? I vaguely recall this being asked years ago with regards to HP Restore, but I can't recall if it was every answered and otherwise the closest thing is Auto Potion, which doesn't qualify.


Regardless, as ever, thanks.
6
FFT Arena / Re: Arena battle videos and discussion
April 15, 2015, 04:17:26 am
(Note: I'm going to be redoing my teams entry before today's end, so that's why it's missing.)

Thanks for the videos, Barren. Try to take it easy on your voice though. I can't imagine yelling "Grand Crossu!" helped much.

Yeah, that Joorum won this wasn't really surprising. Fdquinn11's team just has too many problems, particularly that Summoner. The Monk is relatively fine as a unit, but the other three units just hold him back.


Protracted losses when you're obviously going to lose are frustrating. You've my sympathies, Reks, especially since this match may have broken the record for the amount of times that Odin caused Instant Death. I'm still not comfortable with that.

Also, Nurse is beginning to piss me off, at least with how dumb it makes the already too often stupid A.I. My gods. Getting rid of Defending on that thing may be for the best.


Not much to say here given how swiftly this went except that Anima Zero just commented culinary crimes since you're not supposed to be fry, much less burn, sushi. Nothing else to say here since it was already clear that Phoenix Blade is overpowered as it is now and that a squishy mage being in front is usually a bad idea unless they're spamming Quake or Tornado.


Similarly not much else to say here given how swiftly this match went as well except for the same thing I said on Youtube: Lore making the A.I. actively use Heretic is something I suspected given the team that exists that essentially does the same thing, only with Mediator's Solution, but I can't remember if anyone's used it before. I vaguely remember one other team perhaps using it, but that was about it. Regardless, no one's been using it sense for some reason, so it's nice to see it again (though I'm sure that I'll regret saying that soon enough).


Oh, so RedWorld and silentkaster are related. Hunh. I do recall silentkaster mentioning his sister was on this forum, but I didn't make connection. Silly me.

Anyway, this was kind of painful to watch between Slow Dance and Quickening & Cursed Ring destroying as expected, Nameless Dance continuing to be absolutely horrible (gods, I'm never using that again) and RedWorld's team being continually screwed over by Charm--I know that last feeling all too well.


Also, "Happy Tax Day" for those of us in the U.S.A., I guess.
7
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 14, 2015, 01:53:10 am
(I'll still have to wait on commenting on the Dance thing, though I'll try to do it by the next time I post in here. I should probably also doing something else in the next post anyway, so it really can wait.)

Hunh. That's...weird, especially since we've seen constant confirmation that Angel Ring still is Immune: Blind/Darkness. Hmmm...I wonder if that is a consequence of the Item Attribute extension hack that FFMaster is using. Good eye regardless.
8
FFT Arena / Re: Arena battle videos and discussion
April 14, 2015, 01:34:00 am
(First and foremost, welcome fdquinn11. Please note that Summoner is literally the worst class to use Balance with though due it having the lowest HP in Arena.)

Thanks to Barren, silentkaster and Otabo for recording videos. I'm not even going to use spoilers for Malroth (Slightly Derpier) vs. silentkaser (Derpiest Team Ever), though, since nothing really happened there except for timely proof of what I was talking to CT5Holy about in the Balance Thread. This is why Slow Dance, especially without Quickening around to "balance" it, probably needs to die ultimately. As I said on Youtube, you have my empathy for recording that, Barren.

Speaking of which, I can now comment on Youtube again and the settings you gave me worked (or at least seemed to). So now I'll see if I can get some way of recording again and try to help out with videos. Probably won't be until this weekend at earliest if I can though.

And now for spoilers:

Not going to lie here: both teams are rather "rough". "Laundry"'s Summoner and Archer are currently great liabilities to point that I'm surprised that this was as even as it was even though "Nanashi's Sushi Bar"--which is obviously a reference I don't understand--also has issues. Which is weird, but looking it, it seems pretty solid, but something about the Paladin just...bothers me. Maybe because he's not in front. Shrug.


I'll be honest: I don't really the exact details of what happened here except that Shintroy got kind of bum-rushed and that a Mime thus failed again. I'd call it disappointing if I actually had expectations of Mimes at this point, though I'm *somewhat* tempted to run a particular Mime team after wondering about something....


This was kind of painful to watch, and not just because Old Gimmickry's undefeated streak was broken. Sleep just lasts too damn long and Quickening is so annoying for a variety of reasons, including its visuals and accompanying sound effect. I would rather prefer if both of things--Sleep's CT and Quickening's existence--get fixed by next version, but meh, I've said this before.

That said, you know things are bad when rooting for something as also overpowered as Quake is the lesser evil. It's also still darkly amusing how half of Thief's skill set is utter trash and how the other half is overpowered, including Spellbreaker as people are finally realizing.

Oh well. While a lot of Otabo's teams tend to be the same (Mediator, Quickening use, general disruption), I will admit that having the Mediators handle Protect and Shell separately is quite smart way to get around the A.I.'s deficiency in that matter.


I really wouldn't mind Last Dance not being able to Mimic'd or Dance in general. Damn that drags battles out almost as much as Summon Mimic or Lore Mimic "spam". Other than that, not much to say about this except that, yeah, the loss for Otabo on Zeklaus is all but guaranteed since it's the longest map in the game.


Oh, hey. It looks like both of our Squires decided to be stupid about Throw Stone two consecutive matches in a row. Fancy that. At least my stupidly built Squire had an excuse though given I also made the mistake of giving him Steal Heart. Not really sure why Juliet thought running around with a Main Gauche of all things was a way to beat me. Maybe if   she had a Dragon Rod or something, then I likely would have lost.

Hell, I'd like have lost if half of my team didn't outright hard-counter Death between having both Immune: Dead and Absorb: Dark. So I had the slight advantage here, though I still easily could have and almost did lose.

If nothing else, then this marks the once-in-a-blue-moon time of Charm actually doing a damn thing for me rather than instantly getting dispelled or something along those lines. Still, "Fresh Prince of Darkness" needs another redux or, at least, Willucifer does. Damn it, Will.



Good game, Reks. I'd personally try screwing with a weapon that procs something, like Dragon Rod, even though losing Main Gauche obviously hurts Abandon a lot. Still, Abandon will still work with Aegis Shield (when not charging Death), so it's up to you whether you want to keep it if you lose Main Gauche.


Quote from: Shintroy on April 13, 2015, 03:31:17 pm
I always go in with The Damned losing automatically. I am ashamed


I'm not sure why you'd be ashamed. You're doing it right if you expect me to lose. I mean, I expect me to lose, especially when the person doing the video says I might have the advantage. I'm pretty sure I have the worst record of anyone who's been here for a while, so you're just being intelligent.

Also, to answer you question, Death does work on Dark absorb (as clearly seen) since for the formula that Death uses is hard-coded to do some really weird things, like completely negate the "Add: Dead" part on Undead units. I do have to wonder if FFMaster made sure it's actually Dark though....

Also also, the Esuna miss has happened before, but I just had the worst one I think since there was "only" a 0.64% chance of missing both units (or, technically, "twice"). Still not as bad as that 1% chance I had of missing Raise 2 in the first match that "IV a Darker Future" ever fought that ultimately cost me the match, but, yeah, anything that isn't 100% can miss and Esuna isn't always 100%, especially on 40 Faith units.
9
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 10, 2015, 01:17:10 am
(I'll comment on the newest Dance-related posts later.)

You might also want to check Choice Band and Chameleon Robe if you're testing for Immune: Death Sentence stuff, Barren, even though I think they're all actually working.


Quote from: Shintroy on April 09, 2015, 12:51:38 pm
*snip*

Genji Shield, Gold Armor are so far the only things actually wrong with 139 right?

I'll add I don't think quickening needs to be removed. The AI can't even use it if they have other MP using abilities. If it is removed I'd like more SP boosting equipment and Mime getting 9 base SP.


1. Chakra Band's bloated immunity count doesn't actually include Petrify like it "should" this time around, though FFMaster said he would fix that next version. I still say that Chakra Band and Headbands in general still need an overhaul. That said, besides that and the aforementioned two abilities, I don't think anything else is acting up, though it's of course always difficult to tell.

2. I'd totally be up for more +Speed equipment and Mime at least going up to 9 Speed if Quickening dies, especially since that would be the lesser evil and I already concurred with the sentiment that someone else expressed earlier of Genji Helm becoming +1 Speed instead of the currently useless "Initial: Berserk" it is now.

Quote from: Shintroy on April 09, 2015, 02:57:04 pmAlso Quake and Tornado need to be nerfed to 4-5 CT. If not a nerf to CT, change the MA multiplier because 9 is absurd. 4 CT and MAx8 would be perfect.


I also concur with this.
10
Okay. I figured as much on both points. Good to have confirmation though.

I guess that means I'll use Izlude's skill set, which is totally fine with me. Thanks to you both.

Sweet, now I can give generic Lancer something other than Jump.
11
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 08, 2015, 08:02:30 pm
Yeah, Short Charge doesn't work on anything that uses the "Persevere" function you can toggle on and off in FFTPatcher that causes "Performing" status in the first place. It's been like that since vanilla and, in my opinion, it really shouldn't change, at least so long as Mimes can mimic Songs and Dances. Even if Mimes could no longer mimic that or other map-wide abilities like Lore, I'd be...reluctant to back that.


Quote from: Rouroni Elmdor on April 08, 2015, 08:30:55 am*snip*
The miming alone is becoming a little unmanageable, but I don't understand the hatred towards dancers, other than what bard offers class-wise is simply better. *snip*


You misunderstand. No one, including myself, is "hating on" Dancers. We're--well, I'm--"hating on" Dance, their skill set. Dancer is great. They are one of the most threatening physical units in the game and largely make physical abilities worth having on female units even though their PA doesn't exceed a male Monk's. Even with Cloths being "meh" and generally not used, Dancers have generally good equipment that allows for a lot of usable variation, i.e. using Blood Sword with Two Hands and Salty Rage. This even though their skill set is horrible.

Dance on the other hand, as I've been explaining above, "blows" for lack of a better, succinct word. It's literally the worst skill set in the game. Outside of Witch Hunt, which gets outright beaten by Absorb MP and MP Restore and generally can't keep up with Half of MP or Move MP-Up, Dance generally can't do anything without Mimes backing it up, which both hampers Mimes and Dance's usability. Nameless Dance is usable...if you're really lucky, including being lucky to the point of not fighting one of the many teams that blocks Blind or Silence or have access to Haste to counteract Slow. At present, Nameless Dance's only real use is screwing over non-Dark, non-Holy elemental absorb teams that don't block Oil from a possibly safe distance, which is useful. It's just really unreliable at that, especially compared to Spell Edge and Hawk's Eye 100% Add: Oil infliction rates, especially since Spell Edge tends to come with auto-Two Swords and Hawk's Eye tends to come with far range; I'm not even counting the further competition from Fire the spell and Salamander recently increased 50% Oil since the A.I. won't use that intentionally if the enemy absorbs Fire-elemental.

Meanwhile, as said above, Slow Dance and Last Dance are currently also "usable". It's just that Slow Dance flat out loses to Quickening, which is freaking everywhere unless you're masochistic enough like myself to not use it on principle or just can't fit it on your team (or tire of using it since it adds literally nothing to the game [but problems]). Last Dance is fine...so long as your enemy doesn't break the really easy barrier of an effective 10 Speed, which means Quickening undermines that one too.

Wiznaibus, Polka Polka and Disillusion are among the worst skills in the game currently though, even if the latter two are more just because the A.I. is (un)fortunately too stupid to use stat-drops correctly. This is basically the same reason that Power Ruin and Mind Ruin are "bad" even though they would be absolutely overpowered in the hands of a player. The fact that Battle Song and Magic Song's accuracy got needlessly buffed while Polka Polka and Disillusion's accuracy was simultaneously nerfed two or three versions back only adds insult to injury, especially since the Song are much easier to build around even before Mimes are added to a team.

As for Wiznaibus, it's generally just crap unless you have two Mimes backing it up and either another Dancer or a Lore user and even then it still loses to Auto-Potion, Damage Split, all Save reactions and a bunch of other things unless your opponent gets really, really unlucky or maybe if you're on a really, really long map like Zeklaus. Even with that, it still generally loses out to quad Lore teams.

So when your "best" skills are an MP-damaging ability that tends to lose to units that actually want to use MP and two of the most unreliable skills in the game that have somewhat ubiquitous counters, yeah, Dance is bad as it currently is. Dancer, however, is still quite good class oddly. So, yeah, I'm not hating on Dancer; Dance, meanwhile, totally deserves the hate I've been giving it for several versions since the only buff it's gotten recently was the slight boost to Last Dance that CT5Holy asked for and which I reluctantly backed--I would have backed it harder if not for Mimes.

(For the record, I'd count Bad Luck as the absolute worst skill in the game currently. Holy Hades that thing is atrocious; I'm not sure why it got nerfed since it was barely usable in 1.38 and literally every other Steal ability was more deserving of being weakened or removed.

Tsumazuku, even though the A.I. actually uses it now, is a close second though given that it's vastly inferior to Kagesougi and utterly self-defeating when it is used most of the time as Reraise doesn't get removed before death if the target dies.)
12
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 08, 2015, 01:45:38 am
Hmmm...I see.

As far as Quickening goes, this is an issue which I've long resigned myself on as far as the fact that you and I will likely never see eye-to-eye on it, which is more than fine, especially since it's ultimately not up to either of us anyway. As such, I'm not going force you to waste your free time catching up on videos that you'll inevitably interpret differently--again, not a bad thing--even if I could, especially since you've been recording videos unlike I have lately. So I'll just say that I continue to disagree with you about Quickening, but now I at least understand better how you're interpreting it now, so thanks for the responses.

As for Nameless Dance, the Blind factor does indeed affect Cursed Quickening Thieves, but good luck a) getting that to hit in the first place, b) getting it to stick considering how common Cancel: Blind is (even if, yes, the A.I. kind of stupid about healing Blind) and c) reapplying Blind after said Thieves inevitably get back up since Blind wears on death (as it should). I'm not saying that Blind can't ever be useful, just like I wouldn't say Silence outright can't ever be useful even though I'd readily argue that Silence is the least useful status in all of Arena (which is "fine" given all the other issues mages have). I'm merely saying that Nameless Dance can easily be improved without having to go back to its easy mode vanilla version that could Add: Frog among other things.

Let me go about this another way: Do you honestly think that Nameless Dance is at all coherent as it is now? My chief issue with it, beyond the utter unreliability, is that it's currently too much of a hodgepodge move, which is the same problem that Bad Luck has, only worse (especially now that it can't instantly kill). The only universally threatening aspect of it is Slow and it's literally the worst way to add Slow in the entire game. Maybe if it was Separate then the abysmally low hit rate would be acceptable, but a 50% chance to miss even before a mere 12.5% chance to get the status you want? Gross.

I just want Dance to be usable, is all. Right now, save for Witch Hunt and maybe Wiznaibus and Last Dance with Mimes, it really isn't. While there will unfortunately be no real saving Polka Polka and Disillusion as far as the A.I. is concerned, Nameless Dance seems like it could be saved while Slow Dance will automatically get a (huge) buff once Quickening dies. I'm just trying to see how other people think it could be improved since I obviously have my own ideas on the matter.
13
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 07, 2015, 08:33:40 pm
I'll answer these in reverse and I'll try to be brief (for me) since my arms still heard due to my "let's carry 50 pounds of dirt" idiocy yesterday. I'll probably fail though, so spoilers here too:


Sure, it's "usable", especially where Dance sucking is concerned since even with all of its problems, it's still more usable than at least Polka Polka, Disillusion and Wiznaibus without Mimes backing it up. No, the problem with Nameless Dance right now is threefold: it's hideously unreliable, none of its statuses have any type of synergy and Oil's (necessary) weakening didn't do it any favors. As much as we've all derided Nameless Song for being "crappy", it's at least consistent in the sense that it will most likely actively help your team regards of what positive status.

Meanwhile, Nameless Dance rarely helps unless you get lucky enough for the 12.5% chance of Slow to hit two or more units, which Slow 2 currently does way reliably even on 40 Faith units. Blind doesn't matter against non-physical attackers and half of the physical attackers that exist tend to be Immune: Blind between the popularity of Grand Cross and Chakra Band. Silence, meanwhile, is basically blocked by every single class it actually would matter against save for Mediators, so it might as well not be on there. And Oil has no purpose except hampering the opponent's elemental absorption--unless it's Holy or Dark--and potentially bolstering your own...if it hits. Even if it does, Oil gets used in a single use, meaning you're forced to "rely" on a 12.5% chance of reapplying it every time you actually need it.

That said, it's pretty telling that even weakened, Oil is still pretty much only reason why I've even bothered using Nameless Dance now despite that since Nameless Dance's sole saving grace is that it's only non-elemental multi-target applier of Oil status. If the A.I. still intentionally cast Fire or Salamander on the enemy in an attempt to cause Oil on them at least some of the time, then I personally would never use Nameless Dance at all since basically you have to hope for a 12.5% of getting what would actually be relevant to help your team (provided your target isn't likely immune or capable of getting cured of it). Only Bad Luck, which we all agree is horrible, is worse about that.


Yeah, the Slow Dance vs. Slow Dance thing is what I fear the most, especially for people recording. That said, I am actually willing to keep Slow Dance and Cheer Song for another version so long as Quickening dies--I was just explaining why I don't expect it to end well if they do get to stay. I will readily admit that the "-1 Speed is damn crippling" was perhaps hyperbole to a degree, but even just -1 Speed of difference is at least significant, especially with the amount of Haste and Slow flying around.


Uh...when did I said anything about "tankiness" with regards to Quickening? I honestly don't recall doing that; I'll do so at the end of this now, but only because that's what Wiz's team is and thus the best way to describe it. Also, are you really trying to tell me that Cursed Ring + Quickening isn't the most commonly used Quickening set-up? Really? Because I'd honestly be fascinated to hear what you think it is, especially given how the latter half of 1.38 ended up and how even with the nerf to Cursed Ring, that's still a pretty common problem.

Also, I think your underestimating just how quickly units get double turns with even just 1 or 2 Quickenings, especially since it's on the class that already has the fastest speed. You also tend to assume that 1 or 2 Quickenings is all the A.I. ever gets off even though it's usually more than that, which is the chief problem: Quickening is clearly a run-away effect, especially with Cursed Ring and Reraise around to mitigate the sole potential downside of "you Crystallize quickly if you die".


I suppose. My chief problem with Last Dance is still just how easy it is for to not matter most of the time given its CT is 10. So basically any unit with 10 Speed or more, which is an extremely easy benchmark to hit, tends to not really care much about being hit about it unless they were already losing. Shrug. It just seems like a huge win-more at best right now and without Quickening around, I've explained why I think Slow Dance would overtake it and make essentially obsolete.


I'm aware of why Raven's team was so good and I wasn't trying to attribute it solely to Slow Dance. I was merely stating that Slow Dance was a factor even though Quickening did exist, which was meant to imply that a Slow Dance without Quickening to "balance" it would be even stronger even without Phoenix Blade v1.0 around. I mean, it's not like you can't still build pretty tanky units if you wanted to even if damage has generally gotten "better", for lack of a better word. Otherwise Wiz's tanky Quickening team wouldn't have still worked just last version.



Also, for the record, if Mimes are going to stick around, then as much as I have come to dislike them, I'll agree that they need some type of stat-boost, though it may be dependent upon certain things like no longer being able to Mimic everything. Not like they do that consistently anyway....
14
Hunh. I wasn't aware this even existed.

Pride, would it be possible to tie this functionality to a Movement instead of a Support? Or does it absolutely have to be a Support like how Jump still has to exist as a "dummy" skill set for this to draw from even if Jump is no longer the Lancer's primary?

Also, since the skill set is something isn't normally learn-able--if we having the Jump skill set be Izlude's original one--I have to ask if the Jump capacity just naturally maxes out to whatever the highest ability in set is, i.e. getting a Jump with range 8 and vertical 8 because that's naturally what's in Izlude's set.

Regardless, (belated) good job, as always.
15
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 07, 2015, 06:09:18 am
(For the record, I'm completely in favor of there never again being an Always: Reraise piece of equipment--Cursed Ring is more than enough. We tried it. It was horrible, especially for people recording. So it is gone now. There. Done.

Making it have Always: Poison would just drag out matches with it even more since then the A.I. would spend even more time healing after it got up than usual since Reraise, as somewhat problematic as it is, always brings you back in Critical anyway.)

I guess I'd be...reluctantly fine with Cheer Song and Slow Dance getting to stick around another version so long as it means that Quickening dies in the (stellar) fire it's deserved to die in ever since it was conceived. It's just that it seems rather obvious that without Quickening around to rein it in, Slow Dance becomes the new broken ability since even with its abysmal hit rate, losing just one point of Speed is actually pretty damn crippling. That Raven's sadistic Slow Dance team basically steamrolled every non-Quickening team before Quickening started to show up on literally every other team wasn't just due to how dumb Phoenix Blade v1.0 was.

The fact that Slow Dance hits every enemy on the map regardless of distance or condition, can be mimicked and only costs 5 MP makes that even more apparent. There's no real reason to try it out in my opinion, especially when Dance needs to be completely overhauled anyway and especially since Slow Dance becoming feasible would mean that Last Dance, one of the few Dances (barely) actually worth using would become obsolete.

Honestly, Quickening is the only reason that Slow Dance isn't dominating the metagame right now since a 100% chance of +1 Speed obviously trumps a 25% chance of -1 Speed. Without Quickening to hold Slow Dance back, things would get...ugly, quickly. Quickening is still a broken idea with the simple way Speed currently works, but at least it only affects the user, Mimic aside. If Slow Dance started to be used though, matches would regularly become stall fests that last at least 30+ mins since you have to build defensively to maximize Slow Dance's potential, which people will do just like how they use Quickening now. Not that I'm against defensive teams (obviously), but it just seems clearly lose-lose to keep it around, especially as far as recording matches is concerned.

On the other hand, I suppose eliminating Cheer Song partly because of its parity to Slow Dance is a tad unfair given Cheer Song isn't actually broken (or even all that good in most instances). Granted, it could turn out to be overpowering with Mimic perhaps, but given that the A.I. is (un)fortunately really dumb about restarting Songs and Dances when it shouldn't, the user will generally never finish another Cheer Song once they hit 13 Speed or higher anyway. So Cheer Song is technically "fine" if "suspicious".

Still, I ultimately think the best general practice for any type of balance, at least while Speed is the overly simple and all-powerful stat it unfortunately is, would be to have there be no permanent Speed-affecting abilities. I could arguably go even further and argue that there shouldn't be any stat-affecting abilities at all, but a) Xifanie's stat limiting hack (that I still have yet to see anyone use for some reason) exists to cap that if it ever becomes a legitimate problem and b) the A.I. is pretty dumb about lowering the appropriate stat even when given only that ability, otherwise Power Ruin, Magic Ruin, Polka Polka and Disillusion would be as overpowering as they "should" be rather than never used. Even as potentially powerful as Accumulate, Focus, Battle Song and Magic Song can be, those still aren't outright having you take double and triple turns just because you used them a few times, which is really one of the chief problems with permanent Speed alteration.

So to me, Cheer Song becoming a Haste-adding ability and Slow Dance becoming a Slow-adding ability seems for the best since a) they're both automatically still useful in these forms without becoming automatically overpowering, b) they break Time Magic's monopoly on party-wide Haste and Slow abilities and c) Nameless Dance at least gets a boost even if it doesn't change further (though it should) since without Slow it ironically becomes more reliable in what it would cause; of course, Random Add: Blind, Silence or Oil is still kind of crappy, so...yeah, that problem would still need to change.


TL;DR: Slow Dance without Quickening to "balance" (read: overpower) it would become a just-as-bad-if-not-worse problem; Cheer Song is largely just a casualty to Quickening and Slow Dance thus needing to die. Making Slow Dance and Cheer Song Add: Slow and Add: Haste respectively seems like the best solution honestly.

Meanwhile, Quickening just needs to die due to the way that Speed works currently. [/umpteenth time]
16
FFT Arena / Re: Arena battle videos and discussion
April 06, 2015, 10:15:15 pm
(@ Barren: Would you mind sending me your parameters for your settings on ePSXe when you have the time? I want to check something. Regardless, thanks.)

I have to check on Otabo's latest video and the ones I have to re-watch, but I'll wait to do that until after I get back from my walk. In the meanwhile, thanks to Otabo, TrueLight, Barren and silentkaster for recording videos as usual.

As it is, I'm just thankful I typed up most of my (for once relatively brief) comments on most of the most recent videos since I just destroyed my arms carrying 2 ft of dirt like an idiot. Fun. Never do that unless you have actual upper body strength, people, and even then those bags are pretty damn cumbersome without a car or cart.


Damn, I got destroyed. Even before Quickening overkill giving me literally no chance of winning, between my general bad luck, Rouroni Elmdor's team being well constructed & hitting absurdly hard off the bat and HP Restore being the bane of my existence, I was basically doomed. Only thing that was annoying really was it took so long for me to lose given how obvious it was. I'll have to wait until "Someday, A Wave" fights a team that doesn't auto-steamroll it decide if Nameless Dance is indeed too toothless to keep.

That said, as much as I actually don't like DBZ, the music used and the name of the team are actually pretty genius. Kudos, TrueLight and Rouroni Elmdor respectively.


Now, given how much I actively dislike Naruto, I'd probably have committed seppuku if I lost this one. As it is, I only really won because ShadowDragon15's team doesn't have the skills it could have and frankly "should" have due to how (unfortunately) good they are. Even ignoring Quickening (since it's a broken POS), Steal Heart alone on the Thief likely would have spelled my end, especially since Lulu was doing her "wonderful" "let's get ourselves killed with obvious redirects" thing that Black Mages do way too often; that's at least one thing Summoners don't have to worry about (Otabo). Meanwhile, Itachi would probably benefit greatly from Shuriken at least.

Anyway, I swear it's like Black Mages got even dumber going into this version of Arena somehow. As it is, though, Concentrate on Wakka and Itachi being the almost sole damage dealer on top of not getting nearly as unlucky (with Talk Skill) as I usually do are what allowed me to win. Still, Lulu probably needs some type of suicide-prevention overhaul.

(Speaking of which, silentkaster, the reason that Lulu doesn't have Haste and/or Slow is because a) Haste 1 and Slow 1 are currently horrible skills and b) the A.I. obsesses way too much over those statuses, especially if you only have one unit on your team that can Haste. Reks's match with Rouroni right after this that shows just annoyingly the A.I. will obsess over that compared to other things. Well that and Lulu couldn't naturally gain access to Haste (or Slow?) in FFX and this team is still kind of themed, so there's that too.

That said, I can't really remember why I gave Yuna Dragon Spirit after Projectile Guard was no longer necessary given the needed spellgun nerfs going into this version. I think it was Aeon related. Shrug.)



"Romeo, oh Romeo. Where art thy damage, Romeo?" Alternately, "Romeo, oh Romeo. Why did not thou use Zombie earlier, Romeo?"

Besides that, there were a bunch of weird things in general in this lengthy match between usual A.I. stupidity--the above and Juliet not using Throw Stone nearly enough--and generally weird glitches--a Charmed Oracle still going for Petrify on an enemy at least twice and Aspergillum not immediately using up the Oil of Short Edge despite clearly still benefiting from it; I'm guessing the last one is either tied to the weapon being in the left hand or within Two Swords itself. Still, something to point out to FFMaster whenever he gets back I guess since he already knows about Oil getting in the way of status.

Oh well, nice to see Beguile used (so much) considering it basically has almost never seen use ever since it replaced Confusion Song way back when.


Such an even match that it ultimately came down to that singular Obelisk miss by the Thief on the Dancer in the third round. That said, ShadowDragon15 could have probably prevented there from being a third round at all if his Thief just had some way to healing himself since his Fleeing to the other side of the map caused ShadowDragon15's team to fall apart in the first round when ShadowDragon15's team was otherwise winning that slugfest up until that point. Shame, that.


Nothing to say about this match beyond that it's just another example of how Stop, Spellbreaker, Mimic Daravon *and* Kagesougi are at least slightly overpowered. In the case of Kagesougi and arguably Mimic Daravon it's especially annoying since it would be so easy to fix too. Sigh. Maybe next version.

I also wasn't aware that Houkouton could crit or, at least, knockback. Weird. At least even one-sided matches can be informative.


Kind of fitting that St. Itachi died for our sins that many times back to back, but...yeah, there's really not much else to say about this that wasn't already said in the video. Anbu mostly got screwed over by focusing on the futility of trying to keep Itachi up, which makes "sense" given he's their best--really, only--damage dealing and does good damage. He could just never get close enough unlike against my team. I do find the Thief's actions with regards to not healing him rather...disquieting though. The A.I. is usually all over healing Critical units even when it should probably heal units more than it already does, but then the A.I. just decided "nope" in round one when it would have actually helped ironically. Hunh.


Gee, that last round went by extremely fast. I don't think it was the most swift round we've ever had, but it was rather close. That said, I suppose it's not too surprising given that White Knight Wiegraf's team was something of hard-counter to Anima Zero's team. Otherwise this match would have been one-sided the other way since there's no way that White Knight Wiegraf's team wouldn't have gotten destroyed by Quake and Earth Slash, Gold Armor-stupidity with regards to Death Sentence aside.


Not to be mean, but wow, I'm really surprised that RedWorld's team won this given how much of a liability both the Wizard with Dance and Mime were for her and given how much damage that "The Celts" can put out, especially since the Thief was doing quite a bit of damage this time even while in Flee mode. ShadowDragon seemed to largely just get really unlucky, especially in the second round with all of the HP Restore and Dragon Spirit--loathe those reactions--constantly going off; Silver Bow was also going off a lot for RedWorld, much to my jealousy. I can't really pin-point why else he lost this outside of perhaps not having AoE like she did, though even that wasn't much of a factor for the most part given all the backfiring that happened. Hmmm....

Also, I was under the impression that Reraise was still blocked by Silence. I guess FFMaster fixed that in 1.39, which makes sense since he probably noticed it was still vulnerable to Silence as late as last version while giving Reraise the CT it desperately needed in this version.



Belated good game to Rouroni Elmdor and ShadowDragon15.
17
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 06, 2015, 08:27:09 pm
(Always: Reraise was honestly the bigger-slash-biggest issue with the old Phoenix Blade; the really high 16 WP was incidental, though it didn't help issues with it obviously.)

If anything, then Phoenix Blade v2.0, while infinitely less obnoxious, is stronger than it was before overall since now it's elemental and can thus be boosted by elemental enhancing things. FFMaster at least preemptively prevented it from being outright broken in that regard, however, by both weakening Oil to no longer add Weak: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Water, Earth & Wind and changing Kaiser Plate to no longer Strengthen: Fire. Similarly, pretty much everyone concurred that -1 Speed is not nearly enough of a weakness, especially with Initial: Reraise on it--which is fine--and Quickening unfortunately still around--which is not fine.

With that as a segue, I've always said that Quickening was a dumb idea from the very beginning, even to FFMaster's face. Sure, it's FFMaster's game and what he ultimately wants goes, but it was extremely easy to tell that it was going to end up dominating the game and lo and behold, that's all it's done once Dokurider figured out how to manipulate the A.I. into using it. Part of the reason I just left for a year was because back towards the mid-to-end-life of 1.38, literally at least half of all teams just had two Quickening users with Cursed Ring. Such fun there.

Even with Cursed Ring's weakened revival, that's still a pretty dominating strategy because Quickening is that broken since it boosts the unfortunately most vital stat in the game after perhaps HP: Speed. Quickening breaks a bunch of things because of that: Knife & Ninja Knife & Longbow damage, Steal Heart, Item secondary, Jump, Cursed Ring, Masamune the ability & Regen and Haste statuses in general, Move-HP Up & Move-MP Up, Phoenix Blade v2.0, etc.

As it is, even with the sporadic activity of this thread, it's pretty telling that there was conspicuous silence on the last page after I asked what good does-slash-would keeping Quickening around actually do for the game, especially since I'm open to listening about why it should stay around if argument is something that just says "it's not broken" and leaves it at that. Just nerfing its accuracy or giving it (lengthy) CT wouldn't change anything really unless you nerfed it so low or made that CT so high that it wasn't worth using, in which case it becomes just a waste of space like how Persuade used to be or how Bad Luck and pretty much all of Dance still is.

Quickening just needs to die. It might have been fine if Speed wasn't the sole factor to determining how quickly people get turns, but since Speed is...yeah. Honestly, if Quickening stays around into next version (which, again, is up to FFMaster's discretion ultimately), then I'm probably just going to stop participating in Arena outside of maybe recording videos for people if I can.

(To be fair to Quickening, I also think that Cheer Song and Slow Dance need to die because of Speed unfortunately being all-important even if both of those are currently worthless compared to Quickening. The skill set Dance as a whole needs an overhaul, really, since it's easily the worst skill set in all of Arena. Gods, it's so bad.)
18
PSX FFT Hacking / Re: ASM Requests
April 06, 2015, 05:55:46 am
Ugh. I've waited so long to ask some things that I've forgotten most, but given that I can wait regardless, I suppose it's fine since I may remember eventually if it was actually important. Unfortunately the one I do remember is the one most likely to help only me.

So, in the meanwhile, that self-serving question to ask somewhat relates to the "skill set for a status" one above (Choto):


Given that we know (?) at least implicitly from Counter Flood that a reaction can directly tap into a skill set that user doesn't actively have (learned), would it be (easily) possible for a reaction to tap into a skill set that a) isn't bound to terrain or other special conditions, b) (probably) isn't even ever on an active class and--most greedily--c) is somehow divided up into percentages of likeliness within the reaction skill set itself?


I suppose that part c is technically a separate question, so I suppose I should further clarify.

For clarification, I'll use this example: say that the reaction I wanted to make with regards above is "Blow You Away" for an enemy-only class, "Fiend of Wind", and the contents of the linked "Bushy Beard" skill set were five spells: Aero, Aerora, Aeroga, Tornado and Aeroja. Provided that a) and b) worked, would it be (not mind-numbingly) feasible to manipulate the percentages of likelihood to which ability was used by said reaction?

For instance, say I wanted to make Aero & Aerora each have a 30% chance of happening (so 60% combined if that would somehow make coding easier), Aeroga & Tornado 15% each and Aeroja 10%. Would that be possible (without inducing homicidal rage)? I figure if it somehow is-slash-was, then ordering-slash-grouping the abilities in blocks of probability might make things easier, though I'm not sure if it's strictly necessary. Still, I've already the order in mind for the reaction I would be making with this, hence why I'm asking.

(I suppose there's also technically a part d, i.e. if all the above is possible, then would it also be possible to have said reactions forego MP costs even though Counter Magic currently doesn't by default. Asking that, however, is basically Wall Street levels of greed, so it can easily be excised if parts a-c even would work in the first place, especially since I'm kind on the fence with regards to it anyway.)

Regardless, as ever, thanks.
19
FFT Arena / Re: FFT Arena: Balance Discussion Thread
April 06, 2015, 05:10:25 am
(Yes, kudos on compiling the list White Knight Wiegraf, though Rainbow Staff isn't All-elemental still. It hasn't been for years. FFMaster just keeps forgetting to change it.)

You could easily replace Sinkhole('s animation) with a Lightning-based Geomancy if you wanted to. Like a "Bolt from the Blue" or something...even though that's already what, well, Bolt | Thunder is.

That said, I wouldn't do that, personally because I don't think that it's worth it to change Geomancer's skill set back to non-discriminating, especially just for the sake of elemental absorption. Even if it was non-discriminating and every Elemental was, well, actually elemental, trying to use Geomancer skill set to add elemental absorption is both at once unreliable and heavily skewed in Earth's favor when Earth, as easy as it can be to avoid, doesn't need any more help than it already has; Earth probably still won't need help even after-slash-if Quake and Earth Slash get the nerf they deserve.

That said, Lightning absorption for physical units should pick by next version since the three currently semi-unusable Breath-proc Spears should be becoming the elements of their respective Breaths and Lancers should finally be getting access back to Robes, meaning they'll all be boosted by Black Robe. Of course, everything that's final is up to FFMaster, but there's really no reason to do at least for that Lancers since right now they're not even the best users of Jump, especially with Quickening still unfortunately around, and most of the Spears aren't worth using outside of Javelin and maybe Obelisk.

*stops there before he goes off on a tangent about the horrible skill that is Quickening again*

As for (absolute) equality, that's difficult if not impossible to do in general. Even with all the free space, you'd have to use up a lot of space on what's likely to end up relatively stale and same-y abilities that probably still wouldn't be actually equal due to their interaction with the various differing equipment, unless you want to go out of your way to make a lot of those the same too.

Still, it would be nice to have another Immune: Blind accessory and another physical weapon for both Lightning and Dark and perhaps Holy. That maybe an AoE Holy magickal skill that can actually be absorbed since Holy is literally the only element lacking that now, which is tad unfair even if Holy the spell and Silver Bow could stand be weakened just a tad (then again, so could Phoenix Blade, Lightning Bow and Ice Bow arguably).

Shrug.

In the meanwhile, despite the "struggle" of it, Lightning Grand Cross users aren't as horribly off as Holy and especially Dark Grand Cross Users overall at least. No reason to not try to make a Lightning absorb team just to see what it's current limitations are, Rouroni Elmdor.



Quote from: White Knight Wiegraf on April 02, 2015, 04:09:13 pmI was editing one of my teams just now, and figured there is no reason to choose Wizard as primary if you have a Lore/Black Magic unit. *snip*


Yeah, it's been that way for a while unfortunately....

That said, I agree with Otabo on this despite his (unfortunately understandable) distaste for mages. The problem is less "Scholars have equivalent stats to Wizards" by itself and more "Scholars have Wizard+ stats and have some of the quickest yet simultaneously most damaging spells in the game and have unavoidable map-wide elemental damage & recovery and potentially even preemptive revival through Mad Science." Not that you can't get away with using Wizard primary, but it's usually only that way if you're using a Fire, Ice, Lightning or Water absorb team and even then, Scholar can literally hit all of those elements except for Fire, so....

I think best case scenario, at least off the top of my head and not looking at stats beyond the ones you posted, would be to give Wizard +1 MA--so that it's equal to Bard--and at least +10 MP, even if this perhaps makes it more likely that the Tier 1 and Nether spells (need to) see a slight power drop; that might not even be necessary though. Meanwhile, besides fixing at least Quake, Tornado and--to a lesser degree--Bio 2, Scholar's stats could perhaps stay the same, though I wouldn't mind perhaps getting more HP and PA in exchange for less MP and maybe taking away its C-EV. With more HP, you could also maybe drop the MA, but then things start to get even more dubious....

Shrug. I'm also not sure what you would do help Summoner though despite acknowledging more and more that it does indeed have some noticeable issues....

Quote from: White Knight Wiegraf on April 02, 2015, 04:09:13 pmUndead blocks Regen/Poison:
I suppose that way could work. Based on another game, they also have immunity to 'Mind' spells as they are 'mindless' I guess. I think Berserk, Confusion, Charm and Sleep are the FFT equivalents. However that might make Undead more of a good status. And how would the AI handle this I wonder...


The A.I. would still perceive it as a negative status regardless of how many things it blocked if that's what you mean by "handle". Outside of explicitly changing the A.I. or the status in question, the best way to manipulate A.I. with regards to status I've found is changing the interactions between statuses with regards to cancellation of statuses. Having statuses become blocked by other statuses will just cause the A.I. to not use the status that's blocked, of course, which wouldn't really do much for its behavior since despite some of the A.I.'s other shortcomings it tends not waste time on actual 00% actions; virtual 00% actions in the form of non-productive, cyclic actions on the other hand.... Meanwhile, having status cancel each other will at the very least generally make the A.I. more proactive with regards to using "counter" statuses on to cancel the particular status in question, with some exceptions, providing that the statuses in opposition are negative and positive rather than positive and positive or negative and negative.

That said, yes, those statuses would be the most equivalent to mental ones. I can't get behind making the Undead automatically Immune to any of them though, especially Charm; Confusion doesn't even exist anymore on top of that. Immune: Poison for Undead should be enough even if they became Immune: Regen, especially since Cursed Ring users would still be able to get Regen from P Bag or Light Robe I just realized. Hmmm...that's probably still worth making them Immune over, especially since it still helps reign in Masamune the ability's BS. Speaking of which....

Quote from: White Knight Wiegraf on April 02, 2015, 04:09:13 pmMasamune (ability):
Separate: Haste, Regen instead of Add: Haste, Regen. You're still guaranteed one of the two if my knowledge is right about 'Separate'.


You're not guaranteed status on Separate abilities, partly because Separate's default coding quarters accuracy and the occurrence infliction on everything, even the 100% formulas. I imagine that's part of the reason that nothing in Arena uses Separate.

That said, I wouldn't mind Masamune being nerfed. It's just a question of how given that when it was Random: Haste or Regen it sucked due to the A.I.'s obsession with Haste and currently it's overpowering with both guaranteed at 100%. Yet there are unfortunately very few alternatives due to the dearth of other positive status and the fact that making it not 100% would likely not solve very much.

So this too has been annoying conundrum for a while.


Quote from: silentkaster on April 02, 2015, 11:24:36 pm
I really think Regen (and Poison) being made instant would be a good change, especially if it does stay in White Magic.

*snip*

Also, I agree with Regen/Poison being made smart targeted.


I can agree with all of that. The two most primary reasons I was saying to move Regen and Poison to Time Mage were because a) Time Mage has no conventional healing for Regen to compete with unlike White Mage and b) Poison isn't good even on a "status" Wizard-slash-Black-Magic-user currently. Seriously, even alongside Frog and Death, it just gets in the way since you generally don't want Frogs to die now that they change back to humans--which needed to happen--upon death and Death is, well, Death, meaning that even with Poison, the A.I. is likely going to focus on using Death over Poison anyway. Even with Poison as back-up to those, it's currently too crappy to use compared to all the Regen everywhere and would only get in the way.

Making both of them Instant (on top of smart-targeting) would at least cover the latter two aspects and would make it so that Regen the spell is no longer so easily usurped by Nurse and Masamune (...and Light Robe and P Bag and Regenerator) given it could at least potentially hit your entire team with Regen in one-go. You could probably even go further make them both ignore Reflect and maybe boost up Regen the spell's accuracy, though perhaps these last two things could wait to see if making them Instant with smart-targeting alone makes them worth using. After all, there's no need to overly buff them off the bat as happened with Stop in this version.

Shrug. [/shrug]
20
FFT Arena / Re: Arena battle videos and discussion
March 31, 2015, 06:55:00 am
(Thanks for the info, Barren.)

And now I'm caught up with matches, not counting the ones I need to re-watch to remember whatever the hell happened during them. Thanks again, White Knight Wiegraf.

Note to self: Find notes on what maps you were using since a couple of people asked in general two or so pages back even though everyone tends to use different maps.


A somewhat interesting idea by Barren, though it felt like one of my more abortive teams where it didn't have enough offense ultimately to be threatening unless everything the team did hit and didn't get countered. I suppose it lived up to its named since it indeed lasted a while even after the biggest threat, the Squire, tended to die first, which caused everything to fall apart, especially since currently that female Thief just kind of feels...there and not all that helpful presently.

Still, more Necromonicon use is always fun to see, especially when people you turn Undead inevitably get back up anyway and kill you. Maybe I should bring my Zombie-making team or my all-Book team. Hmmm....

As for "Gangsters", it's weird to say this given that this video before the one against "Fallen Samurai", but I actually like the Chemist having the Romanda Gun more than I do him having a spell gun even though the spell gun is obviously doing more damage to most targets and Blaze Gun still worked. Shrug.


This was so painful to watch that I actually just stopped watching like twenty minutes in since it got rather obvious that Otabo's team was going to win the match due to Quickening. I still don't see how anyone can possibly think that skill is even remotely balanced, but given I've been saying that for years, I'll just stop there. At least this match didn't drag on even longer I guess. Small miracles and all that.


Ugh. I expected this team to still suck even after adding Shara over Mewt, but the A.I. is still so mind-boggingly stupid about a lot of things that this expected loss was still a bit...irritating. I'm not even sure how I lasted this long other than I suppose the fact that no one on Joorum's team does an explosive amount of damage save for the Chemist eventually, meaning I was actually out-damaging his team for a good amount of the match despite the fact that Ritz was the only one who hit hard. The Ninja getting unlucky with constantly getting hit by 47% Life Drains didn't help either I suppose.

Meh. I can at least retire this team now that it's finally fought again since it's always been horrible, so thanks for that at least, White Knight Wiegraf.

(That said, I still can't get over the fact that I might have actually won the match as a whole if Ritz was smart enough to do the simple of thing of cast Nether Fire on the critical Summoner and fall back rather than charge towards the Knight while casting Bolt even though Salamander was already cast on her towards the beginning of the second round. I really want to know how the A.I. makes someone of its idiotic decisions....

Also, I am extra idiotic for not counting the amount of letters in "(Hume) Monteblanc" despite having made my dividers 16-characters in length exactly for that purpose. Go me.)


Well, this was also somewhat painful to watch given how disadvantageous a match-up this was for Otabo's team and how Cursed Ring + Quickening needlessly extended the "fun". I honestly regret nagging FFMaster all those years ago about Cursed Ring "needing" to be buffed given the cancerous result it's had for at least the past couple of years, if mostly because Quickening is (still) around (and because everyone negates Petrify). Even with all the times Seal Evil hit, Otabo still almost won just because of how his team gets to auto-play the long game even without Cursed Ring being guaranteed to revive you immediately anymore. If auto-revival at 0 were still in effect, then despite Shintroy's heavy advantage as far as abilities go, Shintroy likely would have lost since Quickening is dumb like that and Charm was screwing him over when it hit.

As it is, Steal Heart missing more and more towards the end of the third round is what allowed Shintroy to finally close this out.



Belated good game to Joorum. Also, "welcome" I suppose given I never actually said it.