Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Grim Grimoire (Latest version: Beta 0.993)

[Eternal]

Yeah, I figured that'd be the confusion. In GG, Haste has Black Magick AoE, and Hastega has Summon Magick AoE.

[bcrobert]

Correction: I realized that was the confusion and mentioned it to Eternal in the chat room. He just refuses to acknowledge that I contribute to conversations.

EDIT. Sometimes.

[DragoonTT]

First of all, thanks for creating this great mod - I've always wanted a new and improved FFTA to play around with.

I've put quite some hours into the 0.99 version, and here's some things I've noted (that haven't been adressed in here yet)

- only major issue not covered yet: Quarter seems to also induce Stop most of the time. Makes Stop useless and Quarter probably more than a little overpowered at it's current cost
- some info in the top post seems to be outdated: Dagger still incudes Disable (and sometimes deals 0/1 damage instead of full), I haven't ever seen a Samurai status somebody, and parts of the job tree seem wrong

gameplay-related issues/annoyances
- Green Mages seem to be largely useless for players. Since you're limited to 5 characters, there's rarely any need for Hastega/Shellga/Protectga. Of course, I have yet to receive their most powerful abilities. Some classes have similar issues for me as well (stuff like Summoner, Bishop, Mediator just not being up to par in power)
- considering the topic of buffs: at some point midgame, enemy parties start having every buff imaginable at hand. Turns take forever. Also, since the buff skills are usually spread among the enemy lineup, they will often waste turns spreading useless buffs (say, attack buffs on a Healer).
- some Laws just make certain maps plain stupid. Nubswood base (3v3 against RM/BM/WM, Color Magic only) and that fight against Babus and five helpers (forbidden to kill 4 of them) being major offenders.
-

[Eternal]

Thanks for the feedback, it's appreciated as always! Some things to note:

-Quarter inflicts Stop and Demi inflicts Slow. It was an attempt to make both spells a little more useful compared to their old versions. Normally, I'd just give them AoE, but their animations don't allow for that. Therefore, the added effects were a bit of a test to see if that would make them a little more balanced. I'm considering making Quarter inflict Slow and Demi inflict Immobilize.

-Ignore pretty much everything on the first page. A great deal of it is outdated. In fact, when 1.0 comes out, I'm going to archive this thread and make a totally new one. Which Samurai skills are you looking at? They all seem to be working properly in AIO. Dagger has 30 Power (the same as level 1 Black Magick) and is Physical. If it's doing 0/1 damage, it may be because it's being used on a Flan or other high DEF unit.

-Green Mages are meant to be used as a secondary, moreso on physical units that might not have use for a secondary, and they're meant to be used at the very start of the fight, when all of your units are clustered together. Further, they're the only source of AoE Regen (aside from Masamune and Kirin), and Hastega as a very first action can quickly shift battles into your favor. MP Gift (assuming it works- it has yet to be tested) is also one of the few MP healing techniques in the game. To that end, Green Mages definitely are a niche job, but they're very good when utilized properly. I -may- end up making Haste 0 AoE so that Hastega is better by comparison, but I'm not sure yet. Dispelga may end up affecting all foes.

-Laws are going to be tweaked many times over, don't worry about that. I'll be creating a .992 patch soon that'll fix those fights, Quarter/Demi, and a few other minor things I noticed.

[thedarkfiddler]

I don't know if everybody else has the same opinion I do here, but I find the Antilaws mission to be too sudden a jump in difficulty. I don't think I had a single issue with any previous missions, not even Thesis Hunt that everybody else seemed to have trouble with, but between every enemy suddenly having advanced jobs with very powerful skills, being outnumbered, being forced to take Ezel (who seems to be needed) into battle, the mission has turned into a brick wall for me.

[Eternal]

What exactly is keeping you from winning? The skills the enemies have aren't exactly the greatest (aside from the Dual Wielding Ninja). I could see the two Item users being an issue (normally I try to make each battle only have one Item user just for the sake of less annoying sandbagging on the enemy's part), but that's easily dealt with with AoE attacks. Also, I'm surprised Antilaws is giving you issue and not Famfrit.

[thedarkfiddler]

I have to admit that my Dragoon landed a few lucky Jumps on Famfrit, so that might have helped a bit.

The Green Mage seems to be my biggest problem, curing anything I can manage to hit the other team with, but the Gladiator breaking my weapons had been an issue too. Plus very good damage output and health all around. Maybe I'm just getting unlucky, maybe I'm just poorly equipped. I'll try again now that I see how powerful Quarter is and report back.

Edit: just finished the battle and wow... That was rough. Even with a Time Mage/Jumping Dragoon combo, that battle took forever. Ezel was useless, I don't think a single attack of his landed. Between the two item users, I think Phoenix Down was used four times. I noticed that, despite my average party level being maybe eight, the enemies were between ten and twelve, which meant they were doing damage that even my Dragoon had difficulty matching. In the end, I probably only won because the ninja didn't have any of his secondary effects activate on his jitsu.

I think the level scaling is based off of highest level in the party, not average, like somebody suggested. My dragoon is level twelve while the rest is around ten at most, and the next mission pit me against level twelve again. It looks like I'll need to kick out my dragoon to continue, since only two or the people in the party can meaningfully contribute now (Montblanc is not one and Marche is on the border).

[Shintroy]

There's a dragoon ability on about every item in the shop called Dragonbane or something. Did I patch the game wrong? Was this intentional? If yes to the latter why?

[thedarkfiddler]

There's a dragoon ability on about every item in the shop called Dragonbane or something. Did I patch the game wrong? Was this intentional? If yes to the latter why?

I don't think it's intentional exactly, but it's known and it's a side effect of the way abilities were changed around.

[Eternal]

@Shintroy: Had you read the other posts, you'd have realized that it was a known bug.

@Fiddler: I'll be removing Esunaga/Dispelga from the Green Mage in the next update, and I'll take Item off of the second unit, as well as making the Myrmidon a little less tanky. That should be sufficient enough to reduce some of that battle's frustration.

[rrs_kai]

I just want to clarify that my comment about money came from the very beginning of the game. I'm used to starting out and immediately reclassing for quick access to Ninja and Elementalist, so not having the money for even a single weapon until two or three missions in was a bit disorienting, is all.

Enjoying the hack so far, making steady but slow progress, but man all these battles where I can only take five people are killing me,

Edit: Also, am I missing anywhere where the Speed growth of the jobs are listed?

Edit2: Also, a lot of the job requirements in the opening post are off. Reaver only requires three Beastmaster skills, for example. Would you like us to mention these as we find them, or are they something you're aware of and just need to take the time to fix?

I am responsible for the stats and this should solve any questions you may have.

I normalized the stats and made it so that all classes of a race have the same base stats and everyone has the same speed growth of 2.0 (so that level differences matter).
This stat system has its pros and cons and the reason it made itself into FFTA:DE is largely because of advantage no.1.

spoiler: Human and Bangaa

spoiler: No Mou and Viera

spoiler: Moogle

---Advantages---
-1-When you start the game you can change the class of your starting party to whatever you want. Marche as a mage doesnt suffer any base stat problems, Montblanc can switch out from a black mage into something else (hopfully this reduces the Montblanc hate, (just because he's a subpar mage doesn't mean he needs to be hated) and anything else which you may like.
-2-Speed isn't that big of a advantage.
-3-In vanilla it was SPEED vs STATS now it ATK/MAG vs DEF/RES.
-4-Gives more flexibility to work on equipment. For those fearing that the Ninja/Assassin suffered a nerf, they regain their edge by equipping katanas which provide a decent a speed boost.

---Disadvantages---
-1-Bangaa mages and No Mou fighters aren't as good as their peers.
-2-Tank classes and mages are faster than expected.

@Eternal-I haven't touched FFTA in quite some time but took a look at FFTA:GG 0.991 in the A.I.O to check the character stats.
I advise you reduce the speed growths to 1.0 from 2.0 otherwise monsters are going to be very slow late game.
The base HP of monsters seems to be quite low in general (least flan 14HP) except for the vampire who has 102 HP.

[thedarkfiddler]

@Shintroy: Had you read the other posts, you'd have realized that it was a known bug.

@Fiddler: I'll be removing Esunaga/Dispelga from the Green Mage in the next update, and I'll take Item off of the second unit, as well as making the Myrmidon a little less tanky. That should be sufficient enough to reduce some of that battle's frustration.

Thanks. I'm surprised nobody else seemed to have trouble with the battle... Maybe I'm just bad at the game. Back to trying to catch my Human (level seven) to my Bangaa (level twelve), I guess.

Also, thanks for the stat explanation, Kai.

[DragoonTT]

A question, first: do cpu enemies have flat stat bonuses? My characters never seem to be able to do comparable damage, noticeably with a purely Mage Hume doing a whopping 5 damage with his basic spells in early midgame battles to just about anything.

Thanks. I'm surprised nobody else seemed to have trouble with the battle... Maybe I'm just bad at the game. Back to trying to catch my Human (level seven) to my Bangaa (level twelve), I guess.

Also, thanks for the stat explanation, Kai.

I feel like that battle can still be controlled using the status effects you have available. A Moogle using Sing, plus a Time Mage using Quarter. Take out the Item users first or body-block them from using Phoenix Down on their dead allies. At least the numbers aren't terribly unfair, laws don't screw you over, and the map position allows you to take out enemies one by one.


started over on 0.991, noticed a small issue:
- Doubleshot is busted. For 20 MP, fires two shots at 50% damage, sometimes only fires one shot (i presume if the second one misses, the animation just skips). I don't see any use in blowing 20 MP on an attack that regularly does less damage than the basic attack. Only uses might be trying to score a crit to knock somebody off a ledge (yeah, right!) and circumventing the "Fight" law.


As good as this mod is, the storyline fights get way too tedious for me at some point. Having to rely on 50% accuracy status effects to even have a shot doesn't make the game difficult, just annoying. I kinda miss my characters feeling powerful - it's mostly Sleep/Poison doing the work, with the other characters spreading some Speedbreak, Powerbreak and the likes. Physical Damage or Magic seem to do nothing, at any point.

Salikawood's 5v8 battle is a prime example. With a Sniper/Assassin hitsquad taking out my casters from half a screen away or putting 80% hit rate Stop/Doom effects on everybody, a backline that spams buffs and is basically unattackable until you get rid of the aforementioned Viera plus two Moogle thieves that will steal your gear and (one of them) spam Dagger at you. The battle is still eminently beatable, with the only reviver usually running straight into my team and dieing within the first three turns, but cleaning up takes forever (many "empty" turns spent on enemies rebuffing) and gets incredibly annoying thanks to the aforementioned disadvantages. Seriously, 80% accurate Doom?

[Eternal]

@RRS: Monster stats are being revised/reviewed as we speak, so they're going to be updated shortly. Like, within the next week, most likely.

@Dragoon: Doubleshot has been fixed for the next update. It was originally supposed to hit twice, causing knockback each time (so knocking a foe away two tiles), but it didn't work properly and I forgot to remove the MP cost and high AP requirement. Also, I actually nerfed Salikawood while nerfing Antilaws, so that was fixed for the next update anyhow!

Also, I changed around the level scaling hacks in AIO, so hopefully levels should go off of average level and not highest now. Thanks for all the feedback, every one of your posts is being read and acknowledged!

[DragoonTT]

@RRS: Monster stats are being revised/reviewed as we speak, so they're going to be updated shortly. Like, within the next week, most likely.

@Dragoon: Doubleshot has been fixed for the next update. It was originally supposed to hit twice, causing knockback each time (so knocking a foe away two tiles), but it didn't work properly and I forgot to remove the MP cost and high AP requirement. Also, I actually nerfed Salikawood while nerfing Antilaws, so that was fixed for the next update anyhow!

Also, I changed around the level scaling hacks in AIO, so hopefully levels should go off of average level and not highest now. Thanks for all the feedback, every one of your posts is being read and acknowledged!

Sounds good. Great stuff with Doubleshot - guess there was a choice between making it the physical Viera's go-to move at a significant cost, or make it another utility ability, quite in turn with the way Sniper seems to be set up now. Guess I'm fine with either. As it is, only Bangaa and maybe certain Hume builds seem to be supposed to do physical damage, anyway (haven't had a shot at Reaver yet, seems more like a tanky caster anyway).

Do enemies receive flat stat bonuses? I never seem to be able to even deal equal damage, let alone outdamage them. Kinda weird when enemy thieves stab their puny knives at my armored Myrmidons and outdamage them easily :p

Another thing I noted: Drain Touch seems to slightly overperform. Unless the enemy has dark resistance, Drain Touch easily outperforms regular attacks and attack skills alike with the added boon of healing the user. Dunno whether it's intended, tho. Gonna make a Paladin/Blue Mage drain tank with huge armor + dragon buffs + drain touch and be unkillable!



Some general hints to other players:
- while recruited generics don't have combo skills (and I haven't figured out whether it's even possible to acquire any for them), recruited special Characters like Eldena, Lini etc come with Limit Attacks pre-learned. Lini doesn't wield Ultima any more, but Eldena still has Doublecast - very useful for those annoying, soon-to-be-nerfed storyline battles.
- use status. Certain levels become much easier if you put half of the enemy troops to sleep (or later, use Stop or Break). The third totema with it's three dragon adds becomes a cakewalk, since their sleep resistance is laughable. If you get an early Bishop (recruit a generic if you can), Sleep -> Break is a safe kill as long as you can prevent Esunas and the use of remedies (and hence is an assured kill against all-monster lineups)
- by the love of the gods, get a Beastmaster. Monsters are dangerous, usually streaking right for your Mages. Beastmasters can take some hits and take over those pesky beasts. Panthers, Goblins, Rockbeasts etc can be taken over fairly reliably. Lamias and Fairies are tricky, but very rewarding
- diversify your lineup. Get multiple healers. Try to have at least one Item user on your team, and keep some Phoenix Downs/Remedies ready. A bow user with Magicbreak wrecks enemy casters, provided you have enough power and can safely get close enough. Breaks in general are highly useful, as is Steal:Weapon and Steal:Heart midgame.

[Eternal]

@Dragoon: I think what's happening is that the enemies are levelling up to their current level as their current job. So, say, a level 16 Thief has 16 full levels of stat growth as a Thief. If you- the player- have been switching jobs around while levelling, such as having your Myrmidon as a Bishop for a few levels, you're missing a few levels of ATK and DEF that you'd have gotten if you weren't a Bishop. I hope that example makes sense. I also fixed Drain Touch. For whatever reason, it was doing -ra level damage. Its power was reduced slightly, though it should still prove useful.

Generics CAN learn Combos, but their Combo skills are on mid/late-game weaponry. And you have no idea how much I love your tips for other players, everything you listed is EXACTLY what I was aiming for!

EDIT: Forgot to mention, but Nubswood Base and Emerald Keep have slightly altered Laws.

EDITRA: I suspect that the next big roadblock for people will be Mateus. I -may- need to nerf the Law for that fight. We'll see.

[JoeCool]

alright so im not the only 1 running into difficulty problems but nothing a retry cant fix. Learning curve so steep that if it was a staircase, nobody could climb it -_- Love it tho

[Eternal]

Which battles are you having trouble on? If you give details, myself and other players can provide feedback.

[bcrobert]

Hm...Eternal when you were spreading equipment around and editing the equipment stats, you remembered the broken damage formula...right? The one that makes it so a weapon with 30 attack literally does twice the damage as a weapon with 15 attack. That one.

Just checking because that crap-tastic formula is a pretty big deal. I'm curious about the "enemies out-damaging player" thing and thought this might possibly have something to do with it.

I'd boot up the game and keep an eye on the damage problem but...so lazy. Hopefully someone else will figure out what's going on so that I don't have to.

[DragoonTT]

@Dragoon: I think what's happening is that the enemies are levelling up to their current level as their current job. So, say, a level 16 Thief has 16 full levels of stat growth as a Thief. If you- the player- have been switching jobs around while levelling, such as having your Myrmidon as a Bishop for a few levels, you're missing a few levels of ATK and DEF that you'd have gotten if you weren't a Bishop. I hope that example makes sense.

I only use highly specialized characters, because I don't want to fall behind in power. So said Myrmidon only has some levels in Warrior and Dragoon and hence should outdamage a Thief. For some reason, he doesn't. Might be the difference in gear and level combined, tho. I just found it weird that even with my one-role-only characters, I can never go 1v1 against most enemies.

On the topic of level scaling: setting it to average level will probably take a lot of sting out of the mod, especially if people run large lineups like me. I'll try to report once the changes hit. Since the changes for 0.992 seem to be fairly massive, i'll have to ask: can we expect the .992 release soon? I'd like to not waste my time on 0.991 (catching up on my .99 save) when the next version is soon to arrive

Oh and concerning Mateus: I think the fight plays out the same whether you change laws or not. None of my mages can counter-heal the incoming damage, anyway. I beat the map on .99 spreading frost (and some dark, if possible) resistance, then rushing down the boss and largely ignoring the vampires. With 700 effective life each (around level 35 - Marche gets a ton of free levels during the Totema fight with Babus) and being undead, it takes waaaay too long to kill them. Status doesn't stick either - on my winning attempt, i confused one of them, managed to exorcise two (20%!) and then burnt down the boss in a few turns. Don't see how access to Holy spells would have helped here