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Ramza's standalone skillset

Started by FPSeph, March 20, 2018, 12:05:44 am

FPSeph

Hi fellas, I'm FPSeph and I'm quite new to this FFT modding community and to modding FFT as well.

So with that out of the way I would like if you guys could answer a question of mine about skill sets.

I've decided to mess around with Ramza's base class skillset, like adding skills like Aegis, Unholy Darkness and so on, the thing is, since every skill set has a limited number of skills I've decided to use one of the empty skillset slots (not the ability slots) to make a custom skillset of mine.

My question is, can I give this skillset to Ramza and Ramza only WITHOUT tying it up to a job or do skillsets can only be learned through a job, you see, I don't really want to edit any of the generic jobs abilities which is why I wanted to give this skillset to Ramza only.

Oh! And if there is any other thread that answers this question, can you guys give me the link.
  • Modding version: WotL

Nyzer

Look at the way all of the special units' base Jobs work; nothing in their skillsets is available to generics, nor any other Job that doesn't specifically have those skills in its skillset.

You aren't going to be able to give Ramza some extra skillset and have it stick*. Whatever extra skills you want him to have need to be in his skillset. 16 slots is quite a lot of room; if you're throwing in enough overpowered skills to require a second skillset for them, you may as well just change Wish into a Ramza-only one-hit-kill against every enemy on the field. It'll be faster.

*There is an ASM that can give characters a Bonus skillset, but that's probably too much for you to handle just yet, and is really overkill just for giving one character extra skills. Plus it wouldn't be WotL compatible anyway.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

FPSeph

So in other words the game can't simply "add" a skill set to Ramza, which means that the only way for Ramza to have any bonus skills is to modifying his Mettle (or Guts in the PSX case) set? Ok Got it!

I guess that I'm kind of "spoiled" when it comes to unique character classes considering that I've played Tactics Ogre: LUCT more than FFT and since that game give some characters multiple unique classes.

About Ramza's mettle skills, can I freely modify all the three of them without worrying about some gamebreaking glitch or something, for example, let's say that I want to change all of his mettle skills on his three different skillsets (Mettle ch1, ch2-3 and ch4) and that includes skills like Steel, Shout and Ultima. Would I be able to do so or would I face any kind of bug?
  • Modding version: WotL

Nyzer

Whatever skills he learns in his earlier jobs, he'll know the skills that correspond to those same slots in his later ones. For simplicity's sake, only add to his skillset with every stronger job; don't replace anything.

As I said earlier, though, I really can't see any balanced or unbalanced Ramza needing more than sixteen skills. Even sixteen is too much, honestly (unless you're giving him some really weak or situational stuff early on). There's a lot you can do with less.

I often tell people to look at Jot5 for inspiration (and that's not to toot my own horn; I wasn't involved in the release version of Chapter 1 :P) and I'm gonna do so again here. Compare the skillsets of FFT and Jot5, and you'll see a lot of skills/skillsets in the former that are
a) so situational they're basically useless
b) redundant compared to later skills - and frequently so even in the same skillset (Fire vs Fira vs Firaga vs Firaja) (once max MP is high enough to compensate)
c) exploitative
d) completely one-note and boring

Of course, there are many reasons for this; it's not just that skillsets are imbalanced. But they definitely are imbalanced.

Jot5, on the other hand, tends to keep skillsets compact, yet varied. The Black Magic skillset is a good example - in FFT, it has 16 skills, most of which are just various levels of the same three types of elemental damage at the same four levels of damage. In Jot5, there are fewer skills, but with more elements, different ranges, different speeds, and a tendency to have a chance to inflict a status effect.
The Knight's skillset is another good example. Instead of being just all about Break skills (which are now fewer in number), the Knight also functions as a tanky and supportive unit - it can sacrifice HP to heal multiple allies, restore MP, and bestow Reraise or Defend.

Both skillsets have fewer skills than their FFT counterparts, yet both feel more complete. More useful.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

FPSeph

Thanks for the quick reply man, I truly appreciate it.  :D

Most of these questions about editing Ramza's mettle skillset are simply for messing around with the his base class since I've already beaten the game six or seven times more or less and I wanted to try something different.

Later this day I was tinkering around with FFTPatcher and FFTactext in order to make Ramza's base job look more "unique".

For example instead of remaining a Squire for the rest of the game, Ramza goes from Squire to "Sellsword" and then to "Fallen Knight".

Needless to say that I've also modifyied his 3 Squire skillsets in a way that showed some "growth", for example Ch1 Ramza can learn only 3 of the 5 Holy Sword skills, the same goes for his remaining Squire skills that I've decided to keep (Focus, Chant, Tailwind, Steel, Shout and Ultima) he can only learn the first three in CH1 but as the story goes on he's able to learn the other ones in a structure similar to the vanilla Squire skillset where at each chapter Ramza could learn a new skill.

Currently I'm at chapter 3, almost at chapter 4 and I hope that the game doesn't go nuts and try to force the vanilla Squire skills on top of my modded skills specially considering that I modded the three skillsets.

  • Modding version: WotL

Nyzer

The game doesn't force the vanilla Squire skills on any special character that doesn't have them included in their regular skillsets. There's no functional difference between Ramza and any other special character in that regard, save that Ramza's skillset includes all the regular Squire skills.

He'll never have any skills in his current skillset besides the ones you've put in it.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

FPSeph

Ah, I see, thanks for the help man.
  • Modding version: WotL