Topics - arbi

I decided to start my own patch after playing a couple others and not find a happy medium between too much being different (or infuriatingly difficult) and/or too little change.

My design philosophy for this patch focuses around 3 aspects:
Buff what was weak
Reduce Redundancy
Explore and/or expand upon existing game mechanics

With this patch I'm attempting to preserve the themes of the content provided from the original FFT while updating it with a few new skills and updated animations where necessary for freshness. This is also intended as an effort to increase difficulty (marginally) and strategic elements by changing the toolboxes rather than numbers of tools or over-tweaking numbers.

I wanted to post my current changelog to hear suggestions and feedback as well as provide a guideline for how things will develop. This is my first patch and I haven't done much ASM editing myself (working primarily through spreadsheets and improvising), so be gentle.

General Changes

All high level magic now has a chance to be learned from being hit.

Skill learn rates have been adjusted to this model:
<180 JP: 100%
180 - 300 JP: 65%
301- 420 JP: 40%
421+ JP: 20%

General Gameplay ASM hacks

JP and JP scroll/EXP exploits fixed
Random units scale based on story progression. Their gear selection is not optimized though, providing greater variability.
Special characters can do propositions
No monster breeding
Poison does damage based on current health
Soldier office is updated (Xif hack) and can be used to rename any character
Undead revive at 100% rate after 3 turns and only take 25% damage from phoenix downs
Sleep and don't move remove evasion bonuses
All classes receive their C-EV hack (100% front, 50% sides, 25% back)
The amount of elemental monsters and skills have been expanded, oil has been fixed, and elements do 150% damage
Permanent Brave/Faith change has been removed
Frameskipper hack (L2 + square) and cross skip (hold X) have been implemented
Move find item is player only
Cursor starts on Continue

Skill-based ASM hacks

Dash and throw stone now have near 100% knockback
Formula 20, 21, 23 now use: (PA+MA/2) * Y
Formula 13 is now White Wind
Death Sentence ignores Cancel: Dead
Transparent loses 100% accuracy bonus
Counter Tackle now uses squire's dash, giving it 100% knockback and utility rather than being a weak Counter.

Job changes

The job tree has been modified. The concept behind this change was to smooth out build paths so that characters can be specialized or built linearly and still be viable. It will require testing, but the intention is to have stronger NPCS without having to individually edit every scene.

The magic tree in particular has been significantly reworked to reduce redundancy and strengthen the themes of each individual class.
JP and EXP increasing abilities have been removed from all classes.

Job Tree changes

Jobs are divided into 7 tiers. Each tier is followed by the total number of rank ups required to reach it:
T0 (0): Squire and Chemist
T1 (2): Thief, Knight, Priest, Wizard
T2 (5): Archer, Commander (replaces mediator), Mystic, Time Mage
T3 (9): Dragoon, Berserker, Monk, Summoner
T4 (15-16): Ninja, Samurai, Calculator
T5 (20): Bard/Dancer
T6 (42): Mime

Physical
Thief now requires Squire 2
Archer now requires Thief 3
A new class (currently unfinished) Berserker replaces Geomancer and requires Archer 4
Mediator is replaced by Commander and has been moved to the Physical tree. Commander requires Knight 3
Dragoon now requires Commander 4
Ninja now requires Dragoon 2 and Berserker 3
Samurai now requires Knight 5, Commander 4, and Archer 5
Dancer now requires Ninja 5

Magical
Mystic now requires Priest 3
Monk replaces Mediator in the magical tree. It requires Mystic 4
Time Mage now requires Wizard 3
Summoner now requires Time Mage 4
Bard now requires Monk 3 and Summoner 2
Calculator now requires level 4 Priest, Wizard, Time Mage, and Mystic

Special
Mime now functions as a normal class, being able to use equipment. Its innate skills were changed to: Monster Talk, Martial Arts, Hamedo, and Concentrate. Mime now requires Squire and Chemist level 5 and all other T3 and below classes to be level 3.

Individual Job changes

Squire

Squires were changed to emphasize them as melee supports and an entry utility class without adding too much damage or additional abilities.

Skill changes:
Squires have gained Spin Fist
Heal was replaced with a skill called "R&R". R&R uses the Please Eat animation and heals HP while putting the healed unit to sleep.
Squires have gained "Douse". Douse inflicts the oil status on a single target.
Equip Axe was replaced with Equip Sword
Squires no longer have Monster Talk or Defend. Instead they have gained Maintenance

Chemists

Maintenance was given to Squires and Equip Change was removed.
Chemists now have Innate Move Find Item
Chemists now have Equip Gun
Auto Potion has been removed

Knights

Knights can now equip Flails
Knights now have Counter reaction
Equip Sword was moved to Squire

Thief

Now have Abandon and Swim.
Thieves can now equip bags and crossbows.
Thieves now have innate Secret Hunt.

Archer

Archers have lost Arrow Guard (moved to Monk)
Archers have gained Jump +2

Priest

The aim with the Priest change was to make them stronger healers and more potent against the undead while maintaining the theme of being pacifist units. Protect and Shell have been removed, but they have gained the ability to charm targets that chase them and seal away undead units to prevent them from respawning.

New skill List:
Cure: Strengthened to Cure 2's level.
White Wind: A self-cast AoE that heals nearby allies for more health + % HP heal.
Raise: Strengthened to Raise 2, Raise 2 removed. Uses Teleport3: Send animation.
Regen
Wall
Esuna
Convert: A single target magic based skill that has a chance of charming an enemy. Uses Float's animation.
Seal Evil: Does what Mustadio's did, except now with 1-AoE and magic based. Uses Protect's animation.
Holy

Cure 2 and 3 were removed
Reraise was moved to Mystic
Protect 1 and 2 and Shell 1 and 2 were removed in favor for Wall.
Regenerator was moved to Monk. Priests have gained Move HP UP and Faith Up
Priests can now use books.

Wizard

Wizards have been fused with the Geomancer class to create a skill set of harder hitting magic with the chance of inflicting status ailments which it can combo together for bonus damage. Fire does more raw damage and has a chance to burn opponents, Ice does strong single target damage and helps defend the Wizard and Lightning can be used to hit multiple opponents in a line or silence melee ranged enemies.

New skill list:
Fire: Now does the damage of Fire 2, has a chance of inflicting burn. Has the animation of Lava Ball
Flare: Now learnable on hit.
Lightning: Now has 4 range, 4 AoE. Does the least damage of the basic spells with the advantage of range. Has the animation of Bolt
Storm Calling: 0 range, 3 AoE. Does damage equivalent to Bolt 2 with the chance to silence nearby attackers. Has the animation of Heaven's Cloud.
Ice Spear: Does damage between Ice 2/3. Single Target. Has a chance of inflicting stop. Has the animation of Ice 3.
Frost Cloak: Self-targeted protect at the penalty of inflicting slow. Uses the animation of Blizzard.
Submerge: New water skill. Does more damage than bolt, but less than fire. Has a chance of inflicting Float status. Uses Shell animation.
Water Spout: Ultimate level water skill. Deals massive water and wind damage. Learnable on hit. Uses Sleep 2 animation.
Gusty Wind
Tornado
Poison: Now has the animation of Quicksand.
Quake

Wizards have lost Counter Magic. Instead they have gained MA Save and Float. (Considering moving Counter Flood to Wizards and remapping terrain to cast low level spells from the new list).
Wizards can now equip books.

Time Mage

Time Mages have gotten similar changes, but less drastic. These changes were made to emphasize TM's ability of manipulating the battlefield through the CT mechanic rather than excessive status effects.

New skill list:
Haste
Quick: Does the same effect, but now has Haste 2 animation.
Slow
Rewind: Replaces Slow 2, uses its animation. Rewind has the effect of Mediator's old Persuade, with a chance of resetting CT to 0.
Stop
Reflect
Demi
Demi 2
Death Sentence: Uses Death Animation, otherwise it's exactly what it says.
Meteor

Float was moved to Wizard.
MP Switch was moved to Calculator.

Mystic

The Mystic has been nearly completely reworked. The vanilla version was a status effect bot with most of them being redundant. The mystic still has status effects, but the skill list change was intended to emphasize their usage of Taoist mysticism to create balance. The mystic rework was also intended to emphasize their "drain tank" playstyle. In addition, the mystic now has powerful double-debuffs meant to increase their control over the battlefield.

New skill list:
Pacify: Inflicts sleep and silence. Uses Pray Faith animation.
Blind Rage: Now inflicts blind and berserk. Uses Blind Rage animation.
Spell Absorb
Life Drain
Pray Faith (Enlightenment): Now uses Raise 2's animation.
Doubt Faith
Zombie (Curse): Now uses blind animation
Dispel Magic
Reraise (Reincarnate)

Mystic now has HP and MP Restore and Move MP Up.
Any Weather moved to Wizard (tentative)
Defense UP moved to Commander

Commander

Commander is a new class that replaces Mediator while fulfilling a similar purpose. Instead the base multipliers were improved to be a worthy intermediary between Knight and Dragoon and functions as a physical damage support. Talk skills still scale from MA, but MA ability was marginally increased to compensate.

Can now equip armor, swords, knight swords, flails and books. Can no longer equip guns.

New skill list:
All skills now have 7 range and 0 AoE and no vertical limit (except Mimic Daravon), but requires line of sight. The purpose of this change is to make the skills generally more useful, logically consistent (they probably won't hear you if they're on the other side of the map or a wall), and generally more fun.

Invitation
Cheer Up
Praise: Now charms
Threaten: Brave reduction changed to 10
Preach: Increases faith by 10. Now has 4 range, 1 AoE
Distraction: Replaces Solution. Now has a 100% chance of cancelling Charging attacks.
Yell
Negotiate
Insult
Mimic Daravon

Equip Gun was moved to Cleric.
Commander now has Defense UP.

Berserker (TBE)
The Berserker replaces the Geomancer and is an auto-attack centered physical damage dealer. The intention of the Berserker is to provide an additional speed based damage dealer to bridge the gap between Thief and Ninja. Its skillset will focus on using axes while under berserk status to do major damage as well as boosting brave for better reaction chances.

Dragoon
Dragoon now has Move on Lava

Monk

The Monk has had many changes, some for flavor and some for balance. These changes were prompted by how ridiculously powerful the monk is at the beginning of the game and how, when maintained properly, they never become any less useful. Monk has been moved to the magic tree to emphasize their self-buffing abilities, curb their P.ATK without having to modify its innate scaling, and move its availability back further without having to ridiculously nerf it. The skill changes attempt to emphasize the monk's ability of being a disciplined, self-sufficient combatant.

New skill list:
Spin Fist was moved to Squire.
Accumulate: Now raises Brave by 4 instead of PATK by 1.
Repeating Fist (attempted to make it hit random amount of times, not sure if change is working)
Wave Fist: Uses Dispose animation. Now has range of 4, 5 MP cost and does Wind element. Stops at obstacles.
Earth Slash: Now has 5 range, 5 AoE, 3 Vertical. Costs 5 MP and does Earth element. Stops at obstacles.
Secret Fist: Now has 10 MP cost and inflicts Death Sentence. Learnable on hit. Dark element.
Stigma Magic: Now self-targeted. Costs 5 MP and heals: Undead, Darkness, Silence, Poison, Slow, and Don't Move.
Chakra: Now self-targeted. Now has a CT of 4.

Move HP UP was moved to Priest.
Hamedo is now innate on Mimes.
Counter was moved to Knights.
HP Restore was moved to Mystics.

Monks now have Distribute.
Monks now have Move +2.
Monks can now equip poles.

Summoner
Summons now target enemies and allies and all summons are learnable on hit.
Golem removed
Summoners now have Absorb Used MP

Ninja
Can no longer equip flails.
Throw Book, pole, and flail removed.
Abandon moved to Thief.

Samurai
Draw Out skills now target enemies and allies.
Formula 20, 21, 23 now use: (PA+MA/2) * Y, strengthening Draw Out ability damage.

Calculator
Now have Regenerator, MP Switch, and Fly.
Move Get EXP/JP and Gain EXP UP removed.

More changes are planned for the future, including changing the math skill table or creating a new T4 magic class. I personally enjoy Calculator and used it a bunch in old playthroughs, so the intent is to rebalance rather than gut its functionality completely.

Bard
Now have Brave UP
Fly moved to Calculator
Faith UP moved to Priest
MA save moved to Wizard

Dancer
Brave UP removed

Bard and Dancer notes
I would like to change these classes so they functioned as special classes (similar to mime) and their command casts a random song out of the list of the ones learned. I am not yet sure how to do this, but I also haven't seriously attempted yet while working on all the other changes. If you have any suggestions, please share.

Items

Damage Formulas

Knight swords now scale with level: PA * (Level/100) *WP.

Barehanded, Katanas, and Poles are now all "martial weapons" with the scaling PA * (Brave/100) *PA or WP.

Polearms, Swords, Katanas, Axes, Crossbows and Staves use the formula: PA x WP.

Flails and Guns use the formula WP^2.

Bags, Bows, Knives, and Ninja Blades use the formula: (PA + SP)/2 x WP.

Rods were changed to MA * WP and are now the only weapon with this scaling.

Books, Instruments, and Cloth all use the formula: (PA+MA)/2 x WP.

Availability
Several magic weapons and armors in the game have become rarer or in some cases exclusive. This is not to punish the players or nerf builds, but rather encourage creative gameplay, increase the power of status elements, and bolster the importance of Steal command and the Poaching shop. In most cases these items have received bonus functionality or buffs. Thieves are now your gateway to powerful magical items!

These magic rods now have 100% proc rate and cannot be bought in stores:
Thunder: Poach X/some boss/event
Flame: It can be poached from Bombs or found in Brigand's Den.
Ice: Treasure from Brigands' Den or stealable from the wizard in Dorter 1.
Poison: It can be poached from Cuars.

These magic bows now have 100% proc rate and cannot be bought in stores:
Ice: Available to steal in the 2nd Dorter battle at the beginning of Chapter 2. It can be poached from Living Bone.
Lightning: Obtainable as a treasure in Goug fight, It can be poached from Skeletons. Power reduced to 5 and now casts Lightning.
Wind: Poachable from Treants, rare treasure at Dugeura Pass.

P and H bags are no longer buyable in stores.
P Bag: It can be poached from Behemoth. Changed to Initial Regen. Treasure from Finnath Creek
H Bag: It can be poached from Dragons. Treasure from Limberry Castle.

Gold Hairpin is no longer obtainable from shops. It can be stolen in Underground Book Storage 1st Floor from the female Time Mage or as a rare treasure from Fort Besselat South Wall.

Thief's Cap is no longer obtainable from shops. Two can be stolen from the thieves at Germinas Peak in chapter 4.

Earth clothes are no longer obtainable in shops. It can be poached from Elder Treants.

Flame Whip flail is no longer available in shops. It can be poached from Grenades.

Flame Shield is no longer available in shops. It can be poached from Explosives.

Ice Shield is no longer available in shops. It can be poached from Morbols.

White Robe is no longer available in shops. It can be poached from Gobbledegooks.

Black Robe is no longer available in shops. It can be poached from Ochus.

Battle Dictionary is now available at the start of Chapter 2.

Flails can no longer be purchased in Dorter, Zarghidas, or Warjilis Trade Cities. Instead they are found in castles alongside other knight equipment. The first flail becomes available in Chapter 2 after the Meet Draclau event.

Daggers in turn are no longer sold at castles (they are the weapons of thieves!) and instead are found basically everywhere else.

Spike boots are now available from the beginning.

Item Rebalancing

Bags can now be used by both genders.
108 Gems no longer boosts all elements.
Save the Queen was changed from permanent to initial Protect.
Excalibur was changed from permanent to initial Haste.
Ragnarok was changed from permanent Shell to permanent Reflect.
8 Fluted Pole was changed to 10-foot Pole. It will have a new description to accompany it.
In addition to their new formula, flails now reduce speed by 1 and have an increased range of 1. They can only be wielded one handed, cannot be dual wielded, and are only available to Knight-based classes (Squire, Knight, Commander, Dragoon).
Poles and Knight Swords are now forced Two Hands.
The critical chance with axes has been increased to 10% from 4%.
Chameleon Robe's name has been changed to Ceremonial Robe and its bonus HP is up to 50 and MP to 30. It no longer absorbs holy or provides immunity to KO.
Flame Whip now casts Engulf (new fire skill that does damage of Fire 2 with a chance to burn) instead of Fire 2.

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