☢ ☢ ☢ FFT Arena AI Tournament Season 2 ☢ ☢ ☢

[reinoe]

No need to finish the tournament I already know how it ends.

Dokurider wins the tournament.

[TheJonin]

The oddities of my team are pretty easily explained- I wasn't going to enter but saw 31 teams with 20 minutes til the deadline and, well, here I am..!  With enough leftover JP for a full 5th unit...

Tried out Cursed Ring because I never have, ditto Equip Armor, and gave her Charm to see if it would be effective.  Sadly I still don't know 

I'm also curious if AI units will work together- I have Zombie and Seal Evil and would like to see them attempt to combo them.

Simply had no idea I was setting myself up for increased damage with my Fury levels, or that I can't use Two Hands with Iron Fan as intended.  Still, not overly disappointed with my team and future builds will only get better 

[The Damned]

(I see. Understandable.)

Well it's nice to know at least one person suffered through all that. Thank you, Malroth.

No need to finish the tournament I already know how it ends.

Dokurider wins the tournament.

Hmmm...I find your lack of faith in me...appropriate.

May the Fixed Dice be with you.

[JamesOnyx]

The oddities of my team are pretty easily explained- I wasn't going to enter but saw 31 teams with 20 minutes til the deadline and, well, here I am..!  With enough leftover JP for a full 5th unit...

You're not alone, although I probably had around a hour to a hour and a half.  Wish I would have been able to test it out some but... oh well, what's done is done.

I'm also curious if AI units will work together- I have Zombie and Seal Evil and would like to see them attempt to combo them.

I'm pretty sure units with consecrate and seal evil try going for them as often as possible, the A.I. love petrify.  But spreading zombie isn't as much of a priority sadly, so the combo falls a little flat.  But with how popular curse ring is, it doesn't hurt to have seal evil on a character.

No need to finish the tournament I already know how it ends.

Dokurider wins the tournament.

I hope I end up doing that well in the losers racket, thanks for the slight boost in confidence 

spoiler: Andante49 vs. JamesOnyx

This was a really good match, especially given both combatants are first timers. Despite Punch Art being weak on the Geomancer, which is an easy mistake to make given Punch Art's quadratic formulas make it either pathetic or destroy faces with almost no middle ground, I think that unit wasn't the weakest link on JamesOnyx's team.

Instead, to me, the Samurai not having Murasame is ultimately what contributed to the loss, especially since she had MA Save (as Dokurider also commented). Having Masamune is all well and good, but even as overpowered as that thing is, it's usually only really abusive when you have either two Masamune users or at least another Haste-inflicting user. Otherwise the Masamune unit likely ends up wasting three of its actions using Masamune on other units. (This whether or not you want everyone on the team to be Hasted & Regened).

You also saw that the A.I. has the unfortunate issue of often Masamune itself it rather than actually healing once it's resurrected with less than full HP. Not that the Samurai actually had access to self-healing, which was the problem. Murasame also would have helped immensely with two other units having Distribute given the A.I. will gladly Murasame allies while healing itself even if they aren't hurt.

Otherwise, the Samurai's set-up was fine I suppose even with a relative lack of MP and I'd say that Andante49 ultimately won just because his Draw Out user was sturdier by comparison. They both did really good damage, but the Black Magic Woman ran out of steam too quickly in terms of both HP and MP. It also helped that Andante49's Geomancer hit harder than JamesOnyx's Geomancer overall, even if she kept dying first.

Regardless, always nice to see the relatively unused Giant Axe, the katana Chirijiraden and Bahamut be used and used well, especially in a relatively close match.

Good first attempt everyone.

You know what's depressing with all of you guys saying my samurai should have had murasame instead of masamune, I accidentally sent him my first list with murasame instead of masamune.  I realized the mistake and asked him to fix it... I should have left it alone xD

My team actually had a lot of weaknesses I needed to address.  A squishy White Mage (the only true reviver), a lackluster Geomancer, and some bad decisions on my Samurai are just a few of them.  The Samurai's water came in handy quite a bit for those matches, but she's too heavily relying on it.

[Barren]

Sorry for the delay everyone, I just bought a new lap top and I do have my recorded matches on my USB. My old one had lagging problems when recording ePSXe 1.6 with Camtasia Studio. I will try my best to get the rest of the matches for Round 1 before the end of the week asap

in the mean time

FFT Arena AI Tournament Season 2 Match 4 - Avalanche vs woodenbandman

[Avalanche]

pretty much all abilities on my Team, other than item, are useless or even counter productive. Ok i knew about refute on innocence and i wanted to change the flash hat, but i simply forgott to do that. Also i thought repel knife had a 50% chance to inflict haste & dont act, rather than 50% haste and 50% dont act.
So pretty bad designed Team, nevertheless it should not be underestimated.

[woodenbandman]

Why on earth is dance allowed to trigger auto potion?

[Barren]

Why on earth is dance allowed to trigger auto potion?

Wiznaibus inflicts physical damage based on the dancer's PA so it can trigger auto potion or damage split because you are hurting the opponents

[The Damned]

(Good to know Barren.)

As usual, there is no need to apologize or anything.

Hmmm...I'm tempted to do match commentary now, but considering how hideously behind I am on everything. I'll wait either until I get things done or my own match-up against Otabo is finished since that's next anyway.

I'm pretty sure units with consecrate and seal evil try going for them as often as possible, the A.I. love petrify.  But spreading zombie isn't as much of a priority sadly, so the combo falls a little flat.  But with how popular curse ring is, it doesn't hurt to have seal evil on a character.

Basically. The A.I. tends to only go Zombie if either a) it can't otherwise really damage the target or b) it happens to be able to intercept a healing-based spell that's charging on the target. If the A.I. could actually see reactions, then I would bet that it would also focus on casting Zombie on people with Auto Potion too.

As such, this is why Necromonicon tends to be popular on Zombie-based teams since you get damage and a potential Zombie, even if it's only at 33%.

As for Consecrate, it actually sucks against Cursed Ring for the most part and should only be used on Zombie-inflicting teams, making it even more niche than Seal Evil.

You know what's depressing with all of you guys saying my samurai should have had murasame instead of masamune, I accidentally sent him my first list with murasame instead of masamune.  I realized the mistake and asked him to fix it... I should have left it alone xD

Ha. That's amusing.

It's not even like it's a huge mistake or even an egregious one given Masamune is powerful in its own right. It just that unsupported, Murasame is better, at least in this situation and it's just what ended up making the key difference in the match-up. It also more noticeable than it might otherwise be given your Samurai also has MA Save, which does nothing for Masamune but makes Murasame (even more) absurd. If your Samurai had like HP Restore or Speed Save or Absorb MP or something else, then Masamune might actually have been better.

My team actually had a lot of weaknesses I needed to address.  A squishy White Mage (the only true reviver), a lackluster Geomancer, and some bad decisions on my Samurai are just a few of them.  The Samurai's water came in handy quite a bit for those matches, but she's too heavily relying on it.

Well at least you realize that. Given it's basically your first team, it's all the more understandable too.

Outside of few people like Jumza or xyzqwv, when it comes to first teams, people's are usually rather...rough, especially with the oft-idiotic, sometimes-brilliant A.I. at helm meaning just having one too many moves can screw-up your entire strategy.

Ok i knew about refute on innocence and i wanted to change the flash hat, but i simply forgott to do that.

Well at least you remembered that. I had totally forgotten (again) given how easy it is (for me) to get distracted by Refute canceling Charging & Performing when it shouldn't, so I kinda dodged a bullet by my own Archer not having enough JP leftover for Refute.

Also i thought repel knife had a 50% chance to inflict haste & dont act, rather than 50% haste and 50% dont act.

Uh, it does. Contrary to what I thought for a while, since you asked CT5Holy, Repel Knife does seem to be working as it should. So it will add 50% Haste & Don't Act if neither is blocked, 50% Don't Act if Haste is blocked (read: if the target is a Phoenix Blade user) or only 50% Haste if the target blocks Don't Act (which is what happened against woodenbandman's Squire, who has Wizard Mantle).

So...yeah, it's actually a pretty good weapon. Sorry for confusing you, CT5Holy. I just wasn't sure what happened when I used, but I guess Dokurider's team had block: Don't Act at the time and I just didn't see it. That it was acting oddly but FFMaster fixed it.

Why on earth is dance allowed to trigger auto potion?

It's because Wiznaibus is too sexy for its shirt; Wiznaibus is so sexy it hurts.

...I mean, what Barren said. Well, that and it's been the same way since vanilla and is, presumably, difficult to change what triggers Auto Potion. Not that I think anyone's really looked, partly because Wiznaibus (with, of course, Mimes) used to terrorize people a couple of patch versions ago and Auto Potion (& HP Restore) was the only thing that really stood against it. So...yeah.

Like we've been talking about in the balance thread off and on, Wiznaibus has serious issues as a whole.

But, yeah, if something was "odd" in vanilla, like Steal Accessory triggering Countergrasp abilities, then there's a chance it's still "odd" in ARENA at present unless it made something broken, like the aforementioned "Innocent = Faith & Faith = Innocent" for Unfaith abilities glitch that initially made Whatever-ton blow up everything the katana Muramasa touched.

[Barren]

FFT Arena AI Tournament Season 2 Match 5 - The Damned vs Otabo

FFT Arena AI Tournament Season 2 Match 6 - the frisky dingo vs Jumza

FFT Arena AI Tournament Season 2 Match 7 - Shadowstrike vs DarkxFatal

[Barren]

Just a heads up the next set of matches that will be up tomorrow while the emulator on my laptop works better than it did before the sound isn't as good because of the internal microphone array that is installed in my laptop. So I ordered a dual splitter that has a headphone and microphone jack and that won't come in until next week.

So I apologize in advance if the sound isn't perfect by any means but otherwise the speed of the videos are much much better

[Dol]

No worries Barren.  Thanks for the matches so far!

[Wiz]

Idk if this matters, but my team's been updated in the OP for the hosts. Before, it was submitted incorrectly, so hopefully this fixes things in advance.

[Barren]

I have your updated team. You're set to go

[CT5Holy]

As a note for the other vid recorders, all of the units on Reks' team should have 40 Fury/70 Faith. I noticed one of the units incorrectly had 70/40, which has been fixed.

Also, I plan to start uploading the vids I've recorded for Round 1 as I will be away for the weekend. I'm thinking to start uploading a few tomorrow. Any objections/do people mind if the matches might be out of order, depending if Barren finishes recording/uploading his vids?

[Zareb]

As a note for the other vid recorders, all of the units on Reks' team should have 40 Fury/70 Faith. I noticed one of the units incorrectly had 70/40, which has been fixed.

Also, I plan to start uploading the vids I've recorded for Round 1 as I will be away for the weekend. I'm thinking to start uploading a few tomorrow. Any objections/do people mind if the matches might be out of order, depending if Barren finishes recording/uploading his vids?

I personally don't mind, CT5Holy.

[Garland]

No worries here CT5.

While I'm on here.....spell guns.  Ugh.  I would rather they were out altogether, but they definitely need a nerf at least if that isn't on the table.  I'm aware there's a balance thread but seems to belong here as a direct observation from this particular tournament.  I just hate those stupid things, ruins the mood.

[reinoe]

I personally don't mind, CT5Holy.

Why'd you pull your parody team?  You put tons of work into it.

edit: Umm ok, that post had nothing to do with Season 2, but thanks to this edit it will.  I think Shadowstrike v DarkxFatal will be the shortest match in the tournament.

[Zareb]

Why'd you pull your parody team?  You put tons of work into it.

It makes me sad that I was too late with its creation. 

I put it back up in the submissions thread, though!  Will be tinkering with it later.

[Barren]

I'm uploading the next set of videos today anyways so CT5Holy you won't have to worry about anything