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Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo

Started by The Damned, February 21, 2011, 08:06:11 pm

Who should live? (Keep in mind, if Reis lives, she WON'T be a Dragoner.)

Reis
Beowulf

The Damned

(I agree that Mustadio's sprite looks a bit...goofy at times. I think it's his hair.)

Oh, it's not like I don't like Balthier or anything. He's the only playable character from FFXII whose outfit doesn't looking completely fucking stupid or random and that has regularly witty dialogue that doesn't sound forced.

However, Mustadio's rather vital to the plot even back in Vanilla, where being able to get half of the special characters depended solely on you allowing him to tag along. I also feel that he can be salvaged skill-set wise and an Engineer is pretty damn necessary to the plot comparative to a Sky Pirate given Goug's whole focus.

Balthier's presence would also mean having to make FFXII fit canonically with FFT, which is...head-achy. That or just having Balthier replace Cloud, which means that Mustadio would still be necessary and defeats what you seem to want to happen (to your patch).

Besides, Balthier's already in the PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics, so there's that as well.

With that said, good luck replacing Mustadio with Balthier.

*goes off to work now that he has far less of a headache at the moment*
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(I yet live! And I've actually done work this time!)

...Ugh. Why did trying to put almost everything in one place and updating things in FFTPatcher take about twice as long as I expected it? Even with the distractions, the fatigue and the other annoyances, given the lack of sleep (and the fact that I literally haven't taken time away to even shave), the Excel attachment that is now on the front page shouldn't have taken a week and a half. Especially not when I "had" to redact like half of it anyway.

But, yes, finally finished is FFT Embargo Class Tracker Redacted Ver. 1, which, like quite a few other things, is something I stole from someone else, in this case Eternal. It basically has all the (generic) classes, ability slots, excised abilities and statuses in the same place alongside a nifty key--ugh, thinking up two letter abbreviations for about 100+ class is so annoying. It will soon have skill set tracking, ASM tracking, ARH tracking and formulas with variables that actually mean something...as soon I get stats done and figure out to how to code. (So, possibly never.)

Anyway, I would ask that you please download it now. That said, it may say that it has suspect validation or something, but it isn't a virus or anything given how many times I've checked for one. With that admission, I understand if you're hesitant to open it and I am unable to force you to do so; I'm pretty much only expecting to hear back from RavenofRazgriz and maybe a couple of other people anyway at this point.

With that out of the way, I might as well list the most significant changes of the many ones I did:


  • Made the aforementioned Key, which has abbreviations for all classes and statuses, which means that I can finally get around to doing Equipment in FFTactext quite a bit more easily.

  • Stole the wonderful name of "Acolyte" for Templar from LastingDawn from that story suggestion thread that I've yet to get around to commenting on. Templar will now refer to an enemy-only special class that Rofel will probably end up using.

  • Made Vanquisher the new female-only class. It's also "appropriately" called Slayer (for now).

  • Made up Berserker's brand new skillset.

  • Trimmed down a few abilities for human generics.

  • Made up entire skillsets for Illithids, Lamias and Tonberries. Ghosts already technically had ones, but they're solidified now since they'll actually appear in the first iteration now.

  • Resolved all initial Blue Mage/Blue Magic issues except for Skeletons, which has to wait until I finish with every other Undead class.

  • Redid the Job Tree again on the physical side: Knight path goes Paladin and then Acolyte, while the Mediator path goes Berserker and then Dragoon. Slayer is the female-only class now.

  • I decided to completely kill Blood Suck/Vampirism status. So that's dead now. Amusingly, this affected the Fear abilities far more than anyone or anything else.

  • Similarly, I finally, fully decided that Wall status is dying and that Stop status can stay around (for now).



And then there were some more minor things like fixing things in FFTPatcher and deciding on future skills, much of which I'm still leaving as "CLASSIFIED" for one reason or another. Accordingly, I'll update the front page and respective class posts...tomorrow.

With that finished, I still have a woefully large amount of stuff to do even in just the immediate future:


  • I have to start on stats finally since it will at least allow my formulas to not look suspect variable-wise. It will also supposedly make everything easier according to RavenofRazgriz.

  • I need to completely redo my equipment with my much stricter standards now and the death of at least two status while keeping in mind at least three planned major changes to status over. I'll probably post my equipment on the forums this time given that foisting it on RavenofRazgriz has garnered nothing and was unfair of me to begin with.

  • I have to completely redo RSMs between my decision to use ALMA and the heavy shuffling of the physical side of things in addition to the realization of something about Soldier.

  • I still need to learn how to code.

  • I still need to learn how to event edit.

  • I still need to finish ENTDs, though I hope that will go much more smoothly now that RavenofRazgriz has informed me that the starting coordinate information I was looking is apparently just in Attack.Out. ...Even if that's unlikely to stop me from thinking that the map orientations in some places are still completely stupid/contrary.



I'm sure there are quite a few other things.

Before any of that, though, I have to catch up on everything I haven't been able to comment on in the past week and a half--more like two weeks--both here and on most other forums I visit. I also promised Eternal that I'd try to play at least a bit of Parted Ways, so I'm going to try to start that this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, I may not be around Sunday at all. It seems an appropriate day to review the abject failure that is my life for 24 hours straight and go back to the norm of not get any work done.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

Pride

Skimming through your .xml at the moment and I'll give more feed back when I wake up (or possibly soon depending if I continue to write stuff for my patch :P) but I do have an asm for White Wind in my thread found here: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6999.0

You probably also want to bump up the Y value for Aqualung or your Blue Mages will only do 20 damage, that's always the trouble with monsters...
  • Modding version: PSX
Check out my ASM thread. Who doesn't like hax?

The Damned

(I really should go to bed, but considering it's already morning, I guess I'll just do more work to keep myself awake.)

Ah, so yours is the ASM hack I was vaguely remembering. Good to know that I was completely delusional about that like I'm beginning to think that I was about a certain sprite not that I've looked, what with being an indolent bum and everything.

As for Aqualung's pathetic Y value, yes, I am aware of this. As mentioned above, the formulas and variables are there to just be semi-thorough on the most basic levels. Half of those variables doubtless need to be changed even before fine-tuning occurs.

I already know how I'm generally dealing with the "Blue Mage" problem with regards to monster stats, though, so monster abilities will get especial attention.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

RavenOfRazgriz

@Stealing something from Eternal:  HORRIBLE IDEA, TURN BACK NOW.  WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MIMIC DERPY HOOVES AT ANYTHING EVER EVER?  Lol.

@Blood Suck: You can change what the Vampire Status does (somewhat) by changing the skill in the "Blood Suck" skillset Elmdor uses.  Their AI won't change, but the skill they'll spam will.  This may interest you.

@Stats: It really does.  Designing skills and equipment is far easier when you know what's actually using them.

@Equipment List:  It's mostly that I'm an ADHD little fucker and the layout was hard for me to follow.  I have it like half-commented on sitting somewhere, but I've forgotten about it more than once with my myriad of computer issues and other things.

@Monster Stats:  I do have a handy Pre-Raw Stat Editor sitting in my Spreadsheet Shoppe that can solve this issue.

I'll download later when I have more time, I'm leaving in about an hour.

Shade

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on July 07, 2011, 02:22:32 pm
@Stealing something from Eternal:  HORRIBLE IDEA, TURN BACK NOW.  WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MIMIC DERPY HOOVES AT ANYTHING EVER EVER?  Lol.


What was it?
Upupupu...

Zetsubou

The Damned

(Haha. I finally thought of a surname for Elidibs [since I'm pretty sure he doesn't have an official one] and another character a couple of hours ago, both of which I find fairly hilarious for different reasons.)

Let it be known on this day of abject failure that work shall be done!

As such, I've updated the first post again with Berserker and new changes like that. That's all I've updated so far, though, since I was reminded that I still have to redo like the placement half of the RSMs in the game now. That shouldn't take very long, I hope, but it's still something that I haven't done and that needs to be done before I can replace it, obviously.

So I'll try to do that later today, even though I still have a bunch of stuff to do that I didn't do yesterday due to how crappy I was feeling. I'll probably try to update the monster section at the same time.

I still haven't around touching stats yet, though. That will have to wait until tomorrow at least.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on July 07, 2011, 02:22:32 pm
@Stealing something from Eternal:  HORRIBLE IDEA, TURN BACK NOW.  WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO MIMIC DERPY HOOVES AT ANYTHING EVER EVER?  Lol.

@Blood Suck: You can change what the Vampire Status does (somewhat) by changing the skill in the "Blood Suck" skillset Elmdor uses.  Their AI won't change, but the skill they'll spam will.  This may interest you.

@Stats: It really does.  Designing skills and equipment is far easier when you know what's actually using them.

@Equipment List:  It's mostly that I'm an ADHD little fucker and the layout was hard for me to follow.  I have it like half-commented on sitting somewhere, but I've forgotten about it more than once with my myriad of computer issues and other things.

@Monster Stats:  I do have a handy Pre-Raw Stat Editor sitting in my Spreadsheet Shoppe that can solve this issue.

I'll download later when I have more time, I'm leaving in about an hour.


He said as he left forever, apparently to enlist the help of Jenny Craig before deciding to finally kill her after she proved no longer useful to him. You monster!

1. Stealing: Eternal Edition - Stop reminding me that Friendship is Magic is so damn popular and yet I haven't watched it.

2. Blood Suck - I'm aware of this and I already changed what Blood Suck did. It's more that I decided to get rid of between it not having any historical links as a status, the things that using it mostly having other valid options (outside of a certain fear ability) and it not doing anything for the game--in fact, if anything, it hurts the game because of how stupid it makes the AI. I already have enough AI issues with regards to status that need to be fixed between Berserk, Confusion, Doomed (Death Sentence) and likely Frog due to what I'm trying to do with it that I don't need any more if I can genuinely get rid of it.

3. Stats: Now if only I had actual idea what to hell to do with them, though. Even looking at the BGM constantly and liking math (which I am apparently horrible at), it's still very much a "WTF" affair because of what I'm aiming apparently in the dark, with a blindfold on, with all my limbs tied behind my back.

4. Equipment List: Fair enough. Like I said, it was rather unfair of me to hoist it on you or, at least, on you alone when I could have not kept it so secretive and already fixed its shittiness a year or so ago by having it posted publicly. Oh well. A lot's changed since then, finally, so even if it wasn't utter tripe, it's like 80% useless now anyway. (Looking at you especially, Ammo.)

5. Monster Stats: I'll keep that in mind, even if, as I said above, I'm probably too "derpy" to understand how it actually works.

Quote from: Shade link=topic=6791.msg150378#msg150378 , date=1310243989
What was it?


It was his sleigh.

Oh, wait. Wrong "what was it".

I mean, it was just the Excel sheet idea, at least in this instance.

Speaking of thievery though, for my next trick, I'll probably still the Wand idea from Celdia, even though I'm still not too crazy about magicians having viable weapon-attack options (even as much I love Oracle). Still, I figure if they're going to be "last resort" options, there's no real reason to punish the player and waste equipment space by keeping them completely shitty.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(I still don't understand how the "total time logged in" thing counts up. According to it, I've only been logged in for less than 7 days...despite the fact that I never log in and I doubtless passed the amount of months ago. No matter.)

Okay, so the job postings at the bottom of the front page are now updated as much as they can be right now given that I finished RSMs Tuesday night. (Or was it Monday around midnight? Days bleed together for me quite easily.)

Regardless, that's done now. The monster stuff won't get touched just yet until I'm either done with Skeletons or stats, whichever comes first. Speaking of stats, I decided to excise that "stat distribution" category from all generic jobs since it only (presently) takes up space without anything to (presently) back it up.

Let's talk about the changes I've made to that and other things that I realized I forgot to make specific note of:

1. Xifanie's Fury hack: At present, I've decided not use it any longer, at least initially. I'm going to have a difficult enough time figuring out damage without adding that to the mix. And it doesn't help that I think it's still incompatible with ALMA. Of course, not using that and using the "no permanent Brave" alteration hack makes Brave(ry) Up less than worthless. I really don't want to have kill another RSM, so it stays around for now.

2. Gilgame Heart is dead now: Of all the things to die for being "too abusive", I'm sure Gilgame Heart was unlikely to top most people's lists. Still, it's rather counter to what I want to do with Gil and it can't be salvaged otherwise, so I was essentially going to be keeping it around for the same reason that I was trying to hang on Catch: just to have something there. So it's gone now.

3. Abandon is similarly missing: That's only "temporary" until I figure out a way to fix it, though. I might just bring it back with that "only boost by 150%" hack, but that doesn't feel like enough of fix to me at present. (Equip Katana and Equip Gun are also still "missing" for differing reasons.)

4. Mist will be 1/8 of Max MP, not 1/4 MP: I asked Pride for what I'd have to change to achieve it and he kindly provided me with the answer. Now I just need to figure out where to apply it since currently I've only one idea for it....

5. Soldier's changes: It lost Shield Break and Scream. The former because Knight lost it to Berserker and the latter because it stopped existing, though Scream's slot also went to Berserker as shown in the Class Tracker. It lost Brave(ry) Up to Paladin and Equip Axe to Berserker because I finally realized it shouldn't have more than 4 RSMs at most--maybe even only 3--due to PC special classes need for RSM space. Still leads to Knight, Mediator, Marksman, Priest and Wizard.

6. Knight's changes: It lost all its equipment-break skills to Berserker--geez, Berserker is more of a Thief than Thief right now--and gained Wizard's old Debarrier & Acolyte/Templar's old Magic Ruin, which means that it is now has one technique less than it had before. Its RSMs are the same. It now leads to Paladin, though.

7. Mediator's changes: It lost Scream, which is dead now. It's most likely to benefit from Draw Out's "death", though I've yet to decide how and that same "skill set" could quite easily go to Marksman, which could come back to claim its spot on the physical tree. It lost Reimburse/Gilgame Heart, but otherwise is the same RSM-wise. It leads to Berserker.

8. Marksman's changes: Its only change at present is that it lost Equip Katana for Equip Crossbow, which will now also allow for Longbows to be equipped. No class besides Marksman is going to be able to equip Greatbows now, which are probably going to get the largest overhaul of any piece of equipment because I only recently realized how much I had made them obviate Longbows. It still leads to Thief and Chemist.

9. Priest's changes: It lost Pray(er) and Shield/Wall to separate special characters. It remains the same RSM-wise. It still leads to Illusionist.

10. Wizard's changes: It lost Debarrier to Knight and Scathe is just dead because CT & linearity don't mix. Its RSMs are still the same, though I actual plans for MP Restore now; if only I had plans for Any Weather. It still leads to Geomancer.

11. Paladin's changes: Paladin probably has the most changes of any class that didn't need to have its skills just made up (again) like Berserker and Slayer/Vanquisher given that it made the shift from end-female-only class to "middling" Knight class. Its fall from grace necessitated that it got its RSMs entirely redone, it now (somewhat randomly) has Counter, Equip Shield and the arguably useless Brave(ry) Up. It also lost both of its immunities to Curse and Charm. It's skills have yet to change, but there's at least a decent change that it will trade Raise 2 for Priest's lesser Raise given how close they are now on the tree. On the flip side, that at least means that males have even more access to resurrection, though I just realized that now females don't since Slayer didn't (and probably won't) get any resurrection techniques. Hmm.... Anyway, this leads to Acolyte/Templar now. (It's technically the bearer of Samurai's spot now instead of Berserker.)

12. Berserker: The first new kid on the block #1, Berserker is basically what RavenofRazgriz's Knight are: people who break your equipment, your arms and your legs. They took Knight's equipment breaks (which ironically means that Paladin's are sure to keep Weapon Break now), have two "swordskill"-esque close-range attacks that hit hard while dealing detrimental status, a "get off" Auto-AoE attack that does respectable damage, a (mostly for testing) recoil attack and last & almost certainly least (because of the AI), a Critical-only Berserk inducement ability. RSM-wise, they probably have better RSMs than a lot of classes between having Adrenaline (Speed Save), Equip Axe (which will equip Flails as well) and Overwhelm (which I'm tempted to give them innately). This leads to Dragoon now. (Oh, and this took over Monk's place instead of Acolyte because I wanted to make Sand Rat Cellar and Lenalia Plateau more fair considering....)

13. Thief's changes: It still has Two Swords innately, though I'm still going to need to figure out how to balance that, especially since I'm not sure how I can nerf Two Swords just yet. Anyway, Thief's only change, besides to its skill set name, was that it got Secret Hunt back.

14. Chemist's changes: Similar to Thief, Chemist didn't really change outside of skill set getting name something more obvious yet somehow less generic. It pretty much has all its old RSMs back outside of Move-Find Item, which Marksman will be keeping. Its items are going to be under going quite a few changes though once I learn how to code and code all the status I want, especially with Blood Suck dying and RavenofRazgriz & FDC's plans.

15. Illusionist's changes: Illusionist finally got some teeth between Cold Flame and Night Terror. It lost Vanishga, though that might go to a special character (or two). Its RSMs are all reactions now between Absorb Used MP, Faith Up (Face Up) and Hide (Sunken State). It still leads to Summoner.

16. Geomancer's changes: Geomancer's formula are all MA-only now as seen in the Class Tracker. I pretty much tried to model them on ARENA due to how Nature's Wrath acts. There's a decent change that like half of them will die with RavenofRazgriz & FDC's plans. At present, though they still have the same RSMs, though Counter Flood is now called Nature's Wrath as seen above. Still leads to Dimensionalist.

17. Acolyte's changes: Well, the name, for one thing, given I used to call it Templar. But that will be used for "Temple Knight" now. It lost Magic Ruin to Knight and then got Soul Sphere in return. Given that Paladin took two its RSMs, it took Meatbone Slash and Equip Armor from Dragoon in addition to keeping Two Hands.

18. Dragoon's changes: It's still stuck with Jump (for now), but it got Dragon Spirit back from Blue Mage as recompense for losing Equip Armor to Acolyte (for now).

19. Summoner's changes: Its summons haven't changed yet, though one or two are quite likely to change. Its RSMs got an overhaul, though, between it getting Half of MP back from Illusionist and my consideration to have it trade Counter Magic to Blue Mage for Damage Split.

20. Dimensionalist's changes: Nothing's changed much for Dimensionalist outside of the fact that Stasis is just back to inflicting only Stop now with Wall having become Mist and with Blood Suck's death making it more likely that Stop sticks around. It might get another spell because of this, but I've other statuses to worry about.

21. Mime's changes: Mime hasn't change yet, though it's probably getting Unyielding and its innate status immunities will be changing. It might lose Counter Magic from its innates should the "trade" go through between Summoner and Blue Mage.

22. Blue Mage's changes: With every generic monster "done" except for Skeletons, it has 15 of its 16 abilities. As mentioned above, it's considering trading Damage Split to Summoner for Counter Magic. It also lost Dragon Spirit back to Dragoon. It has Unyielding (properly spelled) now and Fly still, though.

23. Minstrel's changes: Hide (the active ability) is dead, though I likely would have killed it anyway had Wall not become anything else. Its RSMs and Slayer's are same now that Slayer's taken up Paladin's female-only space, some of those RSMs probably should go to other classes....

24. Slayer: The second new kid on the block, though technically it was already around well before Berserker. I was just too stupid to think of three decent other moves before this time. Two done, one to go....


With all that said, I'm probably going to spend the rest of today transferring my old equipment over to Excel so that it's easier to redo ultimately. And then, finally, I'll maybe get on stats. Hurray....
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

pokeytax

Quote from: The Damned on July 14, 2011, 07:20:25 am
1. Xifanie's Fury hack: ...I think it's still incompatible with ALMA.


Whoa, is this true? Because I would definitely want to fix that.
  • Modding version: PSX

Eternal

That would explain some issues I'm having with Fury as well...
  • Modding version: PSX & WotL
"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"
  • Discord username: eternal248#1817

The Damned

(Eternal, smack me over the back of the head via PM if I don't get to you by tomorrow night.)

I haven't done anything just yet, but I feel like I need to answer this since I brought it up.

Quote from: pokeytax on July 14, 2011, 07:03:31 pm
Whoa, is this true? Because I would definitely want to fix that.


I haven't tested it myself since I haven't even attempted to use ALMA yet. I thought I had seen that said by someone or that it was known, but I might have imagined it in my almost constantly sleep-addled state.

It should still be tested to determine whether it's true or not, though.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(Ugh. Now I need to find zlib1.dll for ePSXe. Great.)

So, finally finished with that Excel spreadsheet for the equipment, though I need to go over it with FFTPatcher. I'll do that in the morning.

After I do that, then I can finally get around to stats and ENTD stuff...and finishing the ability/class tracker (crap, I still need to add those "Purpose" and "Element' tabs) and learning how to code...and learning how to do events...and deciding if I can actually make use of ALMA...and....

...I loathe existence.

Before I can even get around to that, though, provided that I can actually get ePSXe--since apparently PSX can't play it without blowing up--to work, I have to get around to playing Parted Ways like I told Eternal I would. Yeah....
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

MysticKnightFF5

If I may suggest PA-based healing for Paladin. Like Chakra, except maybe more magical-feeling.
(EX. CT / Range / AoE / Etc)
It would certainly balance warriors against mages better, assuming you intended to buff mages and make them worth something late game.

The Damned

(I got that PM, Eternal. Thanks for the settings. I'll try them out, though it will have to wait until tomorrow unfortunately.)

And now, for what is possibly my final act of consciousness tonight/this morning/whatever, I shall talk about some equipment stuff that no one besides maybe RavenofRazgriz will know what the hell I'm actually talking about. So this is more for the sake of notes than anything; I suppose it's sort of a drab "celebration" to say that I'm finally done with the Equipment part of Excel, at least initially.


1. Equipment Buffing: I'm probably going to have boost the WP and HP of most things by a factor of 150% even before I start doing stats...which I've still yet to touch for most things. Sigh.

2. New Classes & Equipment: Have tentatively been figured out for now, though they're of course subject to change, especially since I've already decided on at least a half a dozen things I'm changing.

3. Katana's replacements: I might just make Rapiers their own weapon type instead of having them interspersed with Swords given that this space is completely vacant now, especially given I have other plans for Draw Out's function now.

4. Mediator & Marksman: Are trading spots. Again. I can't promise that this will be the last time, but, eh.

5. Roderick's Double Spells: Are going in their respective fourth tier elemental slots. I don't know why the hell I let them invade the second slot of their respective elementals in the first place.

6. Barefists: Will be getting...some type of formula change eventually since they still need to be a credible last resort even without Martial Arts due to both Weapon Break and Steal Weapon still being around alongside Icewolf Bite.

7. Knives: They still need some type of advantage beyond having the most weapons that can be used with Two Swords/Dual Wield, especially since that ability is likely to take a hit and the strongest Knife can't be Dual-Wielded anyway.

8. Greatbows: Don't know what the hell I was thinking about when I allowed them to have both greater range AND power than Longbows. They're still going to have greater power than Longbows (as Knightswords due compared to Swords), but they'll probably restricted to less range, primarily 3. They still need some work, especially to be worthy of being available ONLY to Marksman.

9. Longbows/Bows: Are now available to at least Chemist and Thief even with Marksman trading places back with Mediator; I'll update the equipment list for things later, possibly as soon as tomorrow though that's unlikely. I figure that they needed to be able to be used by at least a couple of more classes given that Greatbows need to differ themselves from regular Bows and Soldier can equip almost everything else under the sun. Seventh Heaven needs to die and become some else given it's just a greater version of Silver Bow. Also, the Greatbow Sagittarius is switching places with the Longbow Ultima Bow between its range issue and Ultima Bow's sheer power being worthy of a Greatbow. Still need to decide on the formula for these....

10. Swords: Will be getting more regular sword places if Rapiers get their own spot, though then it will be even more difficult to differ the two (and the other 2-range weapons).

11. Knightswords: Are maybe going to stick with Brave formula for now unless I can find another decent use for Brave Up without Fury (initially) around. Excalibur's Item Attribute probably needs to be less insane, though it will have to change anyway due to Blood Suck having died.

12. Axes & Flails/Maces: Still need a (real) purpose, even if Berserker is around to open up access to them. It doesn't exactly help that there are still only 3 Axes at present either.

13. Rods: Are likely going to become like Celdia's Wand ideas even though I'll probably still call them "Rods" given that's what they've been referred to in every other FF game. Hurray for stealing! Just call me Zero. (I realized, however, that I need to edit the color of at least one of them because there's a particular coloration I want missing....)

14. Staves: Are basically just PA-using physical debuffers now. We'll see how that works, though I doubt they'll change much, especially since I can't think of anything else to make them "do" that isn't related to Movement, which I don't really want (probably).

15. Guns: Are still available only to certain special classes. I'm probably going to add one more Gun, though. I'm sure what to do about Equip Gun just yet since I'm tempted to have it around to give to Mustadio (among others).

16. Crossbows: Need a modification to their WP*WP formula. Bow Gun is probably going back to its original name. Hunting Bow needs something, though I might just use ALMA for that. In terms of sheer weapon power, Gastraphetes is probably already just fine given what it procs additionally.

17. Instruments & Books/Tomes: Are still in competition with each other, though there are currently a lot more Books and people that use Books than Instruments and people that use Instruments still. I might add one or two more Instruments, though. There's also the problem of them then having to compete with the "Rod as Wand" idea when it comes to being distance weapons that use MA, though I suppose I could just have one of them arc or something instead. I wonder what (graphical) issues that would cause, though...?

18. Spears/Polearms & Sticks/Poles: Also in competition with each other, though it's rather clear how they'll be distinct from each other even with wanting Poles to use PA rather than MA. Or, at least, it's clear until Rapiers step in like assholes. Hmm....

19. Cloths/Hides: Might honestly die because they violate my dislike of weapons that essentially serve as just secondary armor, i.e. P-Bag. Not sure if their 5 spots would become other weapons or another weapon type entirely, though I'm rather hard pressed to think of another weapon type that fits any of the generic classes AND wouldn't be redundant.

20. Thrown Items: Well, with Throw dead, even though I kinda want it to back eventually, I already know what these spots will become.

21. Shields: I'm tempted to allow all classes to use these like RavenofRazgriz has, but I'll see how it works without doing that first. Besides, I've stolen enough from him already.... Storm Shield is probably going to have to change and Mirrored Shield will probably end up changing back to its original "sin".

22. Helms & Hats: Are already distinct enough from each other that the only thing they really need are HP boosts, though Viking Helm probably needs a buff to its Item Attribute and Bone Helm & Oracle Hat need to be reigned the hell in. Still not sure if I should let every class be able to equip Hats like they can Clothes presently; presently, Hats are still not usable by all.

23. Hair Adornments: Need another category name given that they can be equipped by everyone and all classes, even if there are only 3 of them and two of them ARE hair adornments. Damn Headgear.

24. Armor, Clothes & Robes: Are already distinct enough from each other that they really just need some HP boosts. Although I must admit that a couple of Robes look rather overpowered, even with the small HP pool they have, due to their Item Attributes, and that I'm still having issues with the non-Elemental Outfits versus their respective Robes. Summoner Robe also needs something and the three non-store armors that aren't Maxmillian probably need nerfs to their Item Attributes.

25. All Accessories: Will probably get (slightly) more evasion.

26. Shoes: Dragoon Boots need to not be obviated by Spike Shoes. Marvel Shoes might just die.

27. Armguards: Guard Gauntlet possibly needs a bit of a buff. Might make a "Thief Gauntlet" or "Thief Gloves" if I've the room.

28. Rings: Probably need the most work of any the accessory types, though at least Coral Ring is easy to change.

29. Armlets: N-Kai Armlet is probably the only one that will remain the same, though the special Armlet doesn't need that much of a change given that it just needs to compensate for Wall leaving; two other Armlets also need to compensate for a status leaving. Diamond Armlet's Item Attribute needs to die in a fire.

30. Mantles: Outside of Dracula Mantle's immunity to Blood Suck no longer meaning a damn thing, mantles seem fine.

31. Perfumes: Four of the five of them are probably dying. With the Seasonal Breezes likely being done in, this is likely to become a miscellaneous category given the other things I've eliminated. I'm not sure if all 4 spots will become miscellany, though, and the only current idea I have needs ALMA, which I'm still iffy about.

32. Chemist Items: Already need a rather sizeable overhaul considering I need to change at least 7 items, but that can wait until I get around to abilities for everyone else.

33. Item Attributes: I apparently have 3 or 4 spaces left between an accidental repeat that no item is using, one (recently two) spot that's still unused, one spot that might go back to being unused and a couple of things that I feel are overpowered and might merge or...something.

34. Stat-Boosting Items: I have a hell of a lot of these. Perhaps too many if that's easy to get +6 in either PA or MA. I'm going to need to take that into account when doing formulas and/or stats.


Given that I still need to get around to at least starting up Parted Ways like I promised Eternal, I probably won't be able to update anything for the next week or so. Not a huge loss.

*goes back to pondering what the hell to do with Mist beyond that one thing*

Quote from: MysticKnightFF5 on July 20, 2011, 12:52:04 am
If I may suggest PA-based healing for Paladin. Like Chakra, except maybe more magical-feeling.
(EX. CT / Range / AoE / Etc)
It would certainly balance warriors against mages better, assuming you intended to buff mages and make them worth something late game.


Nurse is supposed to be PA-based, though it's been...disappointing given what I wanted to do. Maybe I'll just give then ARENA Chakra given that Monk is dead and no one has that ability type of ability; the closest thing is, what, Chocobos I think, particularly Boco.

It would mean I wouldn't have to waste an Inflict Status slot on All Defending of all things the very least, though....
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(It's almost been two weeks already? Sigh.)

I'm still working on this or, at least, trying to considering impossible to get work done around here with all the news that happens except at the dead of night and all the sleep I have (not) been getting.

Currently "stuck" on abilities again, though it's more trying to figure out the purposes of classes so that I can finally fill in everything beyond Ch. 1--currently "stuck" on Gafgarion--since I've had Wiegraf and company done since at least last week. Boco and Flying Eyes will likely see a shift, but otherwise I don't think anything will change in Chapter 1 that isn't ENTD related since I have 12 new monsters to work with--I still need to do Skeletons.

Anyway, it occurred to me that none of my Blue Magic is actually Faith-based, which is...not what I was going for, really. So, there's a distinct change that I'll now be changing all Blue Magic to be Faith-based. Not sure about this.

Should (most) Blue Magic be Faith-based or not?

Any feedback on that or...any of the abilities from the class tracker thing would be rather useful considering it's been up for a month.

I might just take next week off at this rate considering I still need to get around to Parted Ways, though that's more my computer being disagreeable than anything else.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

RavenOfRazgriz

Blue Magic being Faith based or not is all dependent on your monster MA compared to human MA.  If you've brought them in line some, there's nothing wrong with it being Faith based, though you'll probably want some non-Faith MA based skills as well.  Could go either way, really, just depends on what your needs are based on what your other magic skillsets look like.

The Damned

(I am returned.)

Ugh. I was away for more than a week working on that damn Excel sheet and I'm still didn't finish with everything, though at least I managed to finish most of it (finally) and I now know who gets currently gets screwed over when I've run out of (free) ability space. (Hint: It's Kletian, Beowulf and maybe Agrias.)

"Ironically", though, due to all my re-arranging and filling in everything else that was left blank before sans individual ability lists, I realize that I have more Inflict Status Code space, Skill Set space and Job space than I already thought I did. If only it were a fair trade off though, but life is never fair.

Also, quite a bit has changed, at least planning-wise since even just doing in stuff in FFTPatcher isn't really "work" for the most part. As always, a "list" is in order:

1. Sharing Means Caring: Hatred is a type of caring. Currently, I'd say a lot more classes tend to share things than I intended...and I still ran out of space at present, even with me continuing to minimize. I'm not sure how I feel about this, especially since I'm unsure much more I'll be able to "minimize" before I start feeling things are compromised. Speaking of which, we might as well talk about things that are on chopping block or that already got cut.

2. Black & White Magic: White Magic lost two spells over the "break": Umbra, partly because of Illusionist's Flash (which allowed me to save an ISC space) and partly because it went to someone else, and Proselytize, (again) to Illusionists; I'll update this in the job section "later". Given that I'm a "stickler" about White and Black Magic parity, this means that Bio 2 and Bio 3 are dying/combining with Bio and going to be used for other (still poisonous) things. Unlike White Magic, I haven't yet to implement this change to Black Magic yet. (Also, it lost Wall, to Roderick, but that was a while ago.)

3. Cleansing Purge: Speaking of White Magic, Esuna got nerfed. Hard. It know longer cancels like twelve different things. It's more in line with Choco Esuna--it actually shares the exact same ISC now--now, which also got weakened, but not as much; Choco Esuna, however, now only hits one unit at the cost of not going by Faith & being instant and I'm also thinking of making it exclusive to Black Chocobo since Choco Guard rather sucks. For this new weakness, Paladin got an ability to replace Bulwark (since Wall is dead/replaced by Mist[y]) called Cleanse that cures six things that Esuna doesn't, including Curse(d) and Undead. Cleanse is currently PA based. I'm tempted to bring back Chronos, though Dimensionalist is already bloated; also, Item is going to be getting completely overhauled when I redo equipment after stats.

4. You Get a Raise: Again speaking of White Magic and Pure Skill, White Magic again has Raise 2, now called Arise, having traded Paladin the lesser Raise ability. No changes to those just yet.

5. The Same Old Song & Dance: Of the classes most likely to change, Paladin, Minstrel and Slayer are at the top after Black Magic's aforementioned changes. It's only natural given the gender-exclusive swap that happened only a month or so ago and Slayer's rather...substantial lack of identity still. Paladin & Minstrel are also kinda bloated and both happen to have stat-affecting skills, which I'm still unsure what to do with, so there's also that.

6. Class Warfare: Speaking of "bloated", there's also Dimensionalist, but I honestly can't see myself getting rid more than three things there: Stasis/Stop, which might go to Illusionist (and then get replaced by something else); Expire, which might just die; Comet, which might become exclusive to Boco (on the player side). Then again, probably every generic could stand to lose something sans Soldier, Knight, Orator and maybe Marksman.

7. Speak Now: Oh, right. Mediator is called Orator now. I forgot to note that in my last post, though perhaps I hadn't decided back then. It's been two weeks since I've posted in here, after all. (Sigh.)

8. What's In A Name: It seems likely that for both character names and ability names, I will be going with the PSP and/or FFXII version in most cases. I'm not sure if I'll be calling "Magic" "Magick", though; that extra k has always seemed...pretentious--the same with "Technick" However, I definitely won't be copying the obtuse language of either game, so you can restrain your fury, Asmo X.

9. Please Describe the Name of Your Status: Similarly, I've decided to streamline all status names like how I'm trying to stream ability names (within the same skill set); I'm doing this by making all status names adjectival. This both makes the names look not as thrown together and allows me to not have to worry about abilities name as much, so I don't have to think of something "silly" for Protect & Shell; Haste & Slow might still become Accelerate & Impede, respectively, though--Reflect probably will be changing back from "Deflect", even though Deflect is technically more accurate. This is pretty easy for the most part since for the majority of them, all I need use is the "-ed" or "-ing" version of the word, though a couple are rather stubborn: I'm not sure what to do with Reraise, especially since it's the only preemptive status and not actually a word, or what to change Crystal into if I need to change it at all.

10. Please State the Status of Your Relationship: As with the above, some statuses interact with each other slightly differently now. As with the above, I'll update this in the status list "later"--getting rid of a certain glitch was (in theory) stupidly easy, I realized. I figure here is where I should mention that I'm considering getting rid of/replacing another two statuses because I saw how much ISC space I have left over (given how much is obsolete at present).

11. Treasured Friends: Can be stabbed in the back when situation calls for it, apparently. Treasure status is, actually, rather likely to die. The only real reasons I'm even considering keeping it around at this point is because a) I've already made impossible to learn skills from crystals since that screws up trying to plan on Learn on Hit and b) Ghosts are currently immune to Treasure and, unlike Skeletons, their abilities are actually planned for the most part. Well, both those and the fact that I still have no idea how to code and thus all my plans for new status haven't begun yet. Still, the benefits of removing it seem to far out way the negatives: no longer having to worry about an item becoming available too early or getting taken from someone with Maintenance, getting people to actually use Move-Find Item or Steal, getting people to do random battles for things other than (chance) equipment and being able to allow players to plan around a unit now only Crystallizing, which will/can only restore HP & MP.

12. I Hope You've Prepared A Strong Defense: She-Hulk smash! Heh. Imagine.... Anyway, Defending status is the other status on the chopping block. It either osculates between being too weak with stuff like Caution & Paladin's Nurse or too strong with things like when you have enough evasion for it to be really dumb & Belias's current Always: Defending innate. Even then, those four examples are pretty like 50% of all the instances that Defending even ever (even in Embargo) comes up outside of a couple of items, a couple of abilities and the actual Defend command, which players never use and the AI always uses (and wastes CT on) if they have access to it. Yeah...it just seems like it needs to die for something that doesn't automatically dispel on the turn immediately following. That or to be heavily refined in ways I'm not thinking of yet. Technically, only one of these "needs" to die for me to get maximum benefit out of all my status plans, but both of them dying would allow me to try with something else status-wise that I hadn't planned on being able to do.

13. Conjunction Unction, What's Your Function?: "Covering up the scenes of your horrible crimes, yeah." (I wish knew how to make song notes.) Anyway, Oil (or Oily or Oiled) isn't on the chopping block, I'm just...not sure about what generic to give it too as a stand alone or combined ability. Currently, it's the standalone ability of someone, but that person isn't a generic (obviously). Black Mage would seem like the most obvious choice, but I don't think Bio inflicting 100% Oil (or getting replaced by 100% Oil infliction) is the way. So, yeah. Not sure what to do, though I think someone needs it (or something purely dedicated to Oil status) since I realized that pretty much everything else that inflicts it is a -25% proc off some (Fire) ability or weapon, Burning Bow aside. I might give to Marksman or something.

14. I Mist You: For jacking Pride's Mist formula so readily, I have no idea what I want to do with this outside of one thing. It has the same problem of Oil when giving it to generics, except it's even worse because it would be rather...braindead to give to a mage, though maybe I'll give it to Priest over Reraise (even though that seems like a horrible idea). Also, because currently, nothing else even procs it or has it.

15. Red Magic: So, Red Magic has pretty much been completely overhauled between Roderick having Wall instead of Barrier, which is dead though I buffed Choco Barrier with its ISC, and actual representations of White Magic now between that, Astra (taken from Acolyte, which "needs" a replacement still) and Blink, which is White Magic in name only, really. Mute (his Mute) is going to die and become his fourth White Magic spell and Toxify will just become a greater Bio, probably; Slumber already went to someone else. So he'll have four spells from each side--the Double spells might change to something else, though.

With regards to his fourth-White Magic spell, I'm not really seeing much except for Aura, though, which I think is a stupid and overpowered spell, so I'd have to make it only restrict to self; I might just "borrow" Reraise from White Magic, though, since a generic having access to that status is arguably problematic anyway with trying to lessen the need for "sandbag". (Although, really, in this case, that's more a problem with Dragon Spirit than the Reraise spell). So, yeah. Shrug.

16. Cold Shoulder: Speaking of neglected elements of the game, Water still manages to have the least amount in the game and Ice is woefully barren for being one of the three more "primary" elements of Ivalice. Whereas equipment is (currently) a lot more even about this, it kinda hurts that there isn't a Lucavi of Water & Mateus isn't making it into the game, whereas Fire, Lightning & Earth all have Lucavi that are in the game and Holy, Wind & Dark are just a lot more prevalent now. I might just make Kletian an Ice mage/sorceror now to partly make up for this (and because I have no space) and I've plans for at least two "new" Ice techniques between Illusionist's Cold Flame and turning Pug Tonberry's Midnight Oil into a technique I wasn't aware from another FF game which fits a hell of a lot more.

17. Smooth Criminal: With Marksman back to being a class not on the "Speed" path, Thief took its Immunity to Confusion. I'm thinking about giving it and Orator an innate movement as well to go along with their innate immunity to something and innate Support to put it more in line with Chemist. However, I might just take Move-Find Item away from Chemist innately. I'm unsure yet.

18. Horrible Bosses: The head of the Deep Dungeon looks like it's changing again due to me figuring what I'm going to be doing with Elidibis/Elidibus (probably) just some hours ago. How noisome that is....

I think that's everything, change or plan-wise, that's happened in the past week or so. Or, at least, that's everything that I'm going to tell people. I'm probably forgetting something, especially since I've been feeling even worse than usual this last week. Still, that's no excuse for laziness and gross incompetence.

As such, I'll probably be spending the rest of today finally trying to start on stats and trying to finally get this computer "worthy" enough to be able to play Parted Ways without it slowing to a crawl or acting like it wants to blow up (or both) whenever I try.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on August 06, 2011, 09:19:49 pm
Blue Magic being Faith based or not is all dependent on your monster MA compared to human MA.  If you've brought them in line some, there's nothing wrong with it being Faith based, though you'll probably want some non-Faith MA based skills as well.  Could go either way, really, just depends on what your needs are based on what your other magic skillsets look like.


I saw this as soon as you posted it, but I hadn't wanted to say anything until I was done with the above. Rather sad that ended up taking more than two weeks.

Anyway, I know. It just seems weird to have a mix of both, even if Blue Mage is...Blue Mage and has always been a mage that didn't really act like a mage. As for human stats versus monster stats, they're (planned to be) a lot closer now since monsters have been buffed in other ways, though for the most part monsters will always be better than humans at the Blue Mage ability that humans can learn.

At least, that's how it should work in theory, so I'll probably fuck it up horribly.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(Note to self: Hunt down fdc before weekend. Also, hunt down Kalas for distracting me with that damn Chrono Cross lp for two days as I was trying to finally get finished last week. A curse upon his house.)

So, I've finally been updating things in this thread again over the past couple of days prove that neither this nor I have succumb to death. I'm just rather useless and lazy, so what should have taken like a...week or two at most took a month despite still having all the free time in the world. Go me.

Anyway, when trying to update the monster section with the 15 monsters I had initially skipped over--again, laziness--and such, I, as I suspected towards the end of my editing given how long it was taken, ran over the (invisible) word limit again. As such, I'll post earlier than I had planned and just put those here, making a formal post tomorrow since I should probably lay down now--not that I can go to sleep; boy, I am so screwed if I fall asleep today. Well, I suppose, I should probably go update the first post again anyway.

Thank you, everyone, for who has combined to express interest this meandering project by my indolent arse. I couldn't feel pressured without you:


Illithids - Briny and brainy squid-faced creatures of the deep, thought by many to be the most intelligent of all monsters and thus among the most dangerous even before their abilities to harm & destroy the minds of other creatures are taken into account. (May eventually be made into just one class of monster if there is ever a good sprite made for another creature absorbs Water.)


Common Abilities: Aqualung/Thought Eater/Mind Blast

1. Aqualung or Aqua Rake or Aqua Breath or whatever is currently only Aqua Soul by another name, meaning it's a weak single-target attack since it hasn't really been changed yet. Whether it gains a lot more power and remains single-target or gains slightly less power and becomes AoE is still something hasn't been decided yet.

2. Thought Eater is an life-draining ability that drains 20% HP while also inflict Addled at 100% currently; it's pretty much the primary reason that Illithids lost Concentrate and it might yet still need to be further weakened.

3. Mind Blast is a single-target attempt to make a target both Confused & Disabled; it can be resisted via Iron Will at present.

NEOILLITHID:

1. Move: 3

2. Jump: 3

3. Innate: HP Restore [NEW], Hamedo [NEW], Move Underwater, Move-HP UP [NEW] (Might be slightly overpowered, but Illithids are going to have middling PA at best anyway.)

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Ice; Weak: Lightning & Earth (I think, as with Water, I might have made too many things weak to Lightning, though Illithids have been weak to Lightning since they were just "Pisco Daemon" in vanilla.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Berserk, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

6. Unique Move: Thick Ink - Spits a viscous ink that makes the target(s) both Blind & Slowed from a linear range of 2.


SPIRALLITHID:

1. There's a decent chance that I'll switch the names/positions of this and Mindflayer given the direction that I'm going currently.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 3

4. Innate: Damage Split [NEW], Hamedo [NEW], Move Underwater, Move-HP UP [NEW] (Might be slightly overpowered, but Illithids are going to have middling PA at best anyway.)

5. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Ice; Weak: Lightning & Earth (I think, as with Water, I might have made too many things weak to Lightning, though Illithids have been weak to Lightning since they were just "Pisco Daemon" in vanilla.)

6. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Berserk, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

7. Unique Move: Eerie Soundwave - Merely a renamed Odd Soundwave, it is otherwise unchanged as of yet. I might make it discriminating, though.


MINDFLAYER:


1. As said above, there's a decent chance that I'll switch the names/positions of this and Mindflayer given the direction that I'm going currently.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 3

4. Innate: Teleport [NEW], Hamedo [NEW], Move Underwater, Move-HP UP [NEW] (Might be slightly overpowered, but Illithids are going to have middling PA at best anyway.)

5. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Ice; Weak: Holy & Dark (At least we get around from that weakness to Lightning here.)

6. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Berserk, Charmed & Sleeping.

7. Unique Move: Angel Whisper - Far less benevolent than historical ability of the same name, this "whisper" drives its target mad, filling them with murderous zeal as they set out to kill their former allies for "God". Inflicts Berserk, Faithful & Charmed on a single-target.



Skeletons - Merest frames of man that have willingly given up any shred of flesh and humanity for magical power, they roam the land looking for victims to test their arcane might on. (As with Illithids, there's a decent chance these might stop being generic monsters, though I want at least one generic Undead monster, so probably not.)


Common Abilities: Bone Toss/Dark/Leaf

1. Bone Toss is Skeletons only physically-based attack, though it's rather a lot as its a distance-based attack that necessarily has a CT because it will cause 100% Undead if it hits.

2. Dark is a rather basic AoE 2 Dark-elemental damage spell. I'm not going to lie and say that I was hit by a wave of inspiration for Skeletons despite how long it took me.

3. Leaf is a fearsomely named, non-elemental damage spell that hits AoE 1 and, currently, hits rather hard even though it's a (necessary) placeholder like the Aero spells.


WHITE BONES:

1. All Skeletons have rather generic names at present, unfortunately. Raven gave me the highly amusing name of "Pearly Wight", which Celdia promptly "stole" as well; personally, I won't be able to use it until I think of equally fitting/amusing names for the other two Skeletons. As someone who likes puns, I have failed at this, though Old Bones arguably is (a lame) one already.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 4

4. Innate [All NEW]: Regenerator, Magic Def. UP, Short Charge, Walk on Water

5. Absorbs and Resists/Halve: Dark, Resists/Halve: Ice & Water, Weak: Fire & Holy (Only new things are the resistances.)

6. Innate Status: Undead

7. Immune: Crystallized [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Poisoned & Doubtful [NEW] (Technically has more due to Always: Undead, but, eh, most of those aren't a positive things, which is why it has so many immunities. Can now be affected by Regening, but also by Reraised.)

8. Shared Abilities: Protect, Shell & Regen - So many damn things have Protect & Shell right now that it's rather...questionable. That combined with the fact that Mighty Guard rather obviates both of those (even if single-targeting at present) makes it even more likely to change. Then again, it's not like they can take anything else from White Magic, at least without screwing over the two or three other monster families that are supposed to clerical units.

9. Unique Ability: Mighty Guard - Stolen from Tonberries, this is currently a lesser Aegis/Mbarrier that proves Protected, Shelled & Hasted, but not Regening or Reraised. The Hasted aspect may become Regening or even Reflective later, though.


BLACK BONES:

1. The "pun"-based I'm thinking of here is "Charred Ribs", but I don't like that all that much.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 4

4. Innate [All NEW]: MP Restore, Magic Def. UP, Short Charge, Walk on Water

5. Absorbs and Resists/Halve: Dark, Resists/Halve: Ice & Water, Weak: Earth & Holy (It could no longer be weak to Fire due to having actually that spell.)

6. Innate Status: Undead

7. Immune: Crystallized [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Poisoned & Doubtful [NEW] (Technically has more due to Always: Undead, but, eh, most of those aren't a positive things, which is why it has so many immunities. Can now be affected by Regening, but also by Reraised.)

8. Shared Abilities: Fire, Ice & Bolt - As with Protect & Shell, it seems like too many people have these at present, but that might just because of all the "Squires" in Chapter 1. They're at least differed enough to still be useful to a monster, though Short Charge is rather useless here I just realized....

9. Unique Ability: Flood - Rather damaging Water-element spell with a wide AoE of 3 that will need still need some adjusting in light of a couple of Roderick's new spells.


OLD BONES:

1. The "pun"-based name here that I'm leaning toward here is "Demilich", which is a good deal more likely to be used than "Charred Ribs" for a couple of reasons.

2. Move: 3

3. Jump: 4

4. Innate [All NEW]: Arrow Guard, Magic Def. UP, Short Charge, Move-MP Up

5. Absorbs and Resists/Halve: Dark, Resists/Halve: Ice & Water, Weak: Fire, Wind & Holy (Probably needs that third weakness to Wind to not be horribly overpowered. We'll see though.)

6. Innate Status: Undead & Floating (And thus technically immune to Earth.)

7. Immune: Crystallized [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Poisoned, Regening, Slowed [NEW] & Doubtful [NEW] (Technically has more due to Always: Undead, but, eh, most of those aren't a positive things, which is why it has so many immunities. Got immunity to Slowed because it didn't lose its immunity to Regening like the other two.)

8. Shared Abilities: Haste, Slow & Stasis/Stop - As with the others, this selection of skills from a human class is a bit questionable, especially given how much the AI tends to whore Haste & Slow. However, I can't think of much other else that would fit and either not be overpowered (like Polymorph) or potentially screw over another set of monsters.

9. Unique Ability: Time Slip - Currently using Sleeping status a placeholder, it would inflict ???? & Stopped to a single target (at present).



Ghosts - Much the opposite of skeletons, who are shells with what many Ivalicans would call a soul, these roaming, lost unfortunates are spirits without shells who drain life from the living, often unintentionally as many refuse to believe they are actually dead. (Even if both Illithids and Skeletons became non-recruitable, "special" monsters, these would doubtless remain generic.)


Common Abilities: Frost/Drain Touch/Possess

1. Frost was previously Frost Dragon's ability, but it replaced the otherwise untouched Ice Soul, which means that now Ghosts have access to an Ice-element percentage damage ability that causes 100% Slowed. That might change, though at present they're the only monster who has only three abilities if not in Critical.

2. Drain Touch is...still just vanilla Drain Touch, except "Dark" and absorbing of less life now. Meh.

3. Possess is a single-target Self-Destruct that adds Hasted, Charmed & Doomed to the victim, which is precisely why it can only be used in Critical and why, much like Bombs, Ghosts are guaranteed to be on the lower side of the HP pool for monsters. In fact, Ghosts are pretty much guaranteed to have the least HP of all monster families.


SPECTER:

1. Move: 4

2. Jump: 4 [Might get an even higher Jump just because even with Teleport & Always: Floating, it really shouldn't be taking any damage from falls.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Damage Split [NEW], Defense UP [NEW], Teleport

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark, Resist/Halve: Water, Weak: Fire & Holy (The only new thing is resisting Water. Like Skeletons, I was going to make them resist Ice, but they'll already be evasive as Hell and be capable of going kamikaze on anything with Possess, so they need to be "weak" to magic.)

5. Always: Undead & Floating (No need to waste an innate on Levitation movement.)

6. Initial: Transparent (Might get rid of this depending on how dumb it makes the AI.)

7. Immune: ???? [NEW], Crystallized [NEW], Petrified [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Reraised, Frogged [NEW], Poisoned, Regening & Misty [NEW] (...Yeah, they easily have the most immunities of any monster class, even more than Tonberries. They might lose something, but I can't tell what since they "need" all of this--the most likely thing is Frogged, even though they don't have physical bodies to turn into Frogs.)

8. Unique Skill: Touch of Sadness/Touch of Despair - This "bad touch" can be resisted by Iron Will (presently), but is otherwise still close-range and would cause ??? & Slowed.


WRAITH:

1. Move: 4

2. Jump: 4 [Might get an even higher Jump just because even with Teleport & Always: Floating, it really shouldn't be taking any damage from falls.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Blade Grasp [NEW], Defense UP [NEW], Teleport

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark, Resist/Halve: Water, Weak: Fire & Holy (The only new thing is resisting Water. Like Skeletons, I was going to make them resist Ice, but they'll already be evasive as Hell and be capable of going kamikaze on anything with Possess, so they need to be "weak" to magic.)

5. Always: Undead & Floating (No need to waste an innate on Levitation movement.)

6. Initial: Transparent (Might get rid of this depending on how dumb it makes the AI.)

7. Immune: ???? [NEW], Crystallized [NEW], Petrified [NEW], Blind [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Reraised, Frogged [NEW], Poisoned, Regening & Misty [NEW] (...Yeah, they easily have the most immunities of any monster class, even more than Tonberries. They might lose something, but I can't tell what since they "need" all of this--the most likely thing is Frogged, even though they don't have physical bodies to turn into Frogs.)

8. Unique Skill: Touch of Rage - This "bad touch" can be resisted by Iron Will (presently), but is otherwise still close-range and would cause Berserk & Slowed. The current Slowed aspect of this and Specter's ability (which is more likely to keep Slowed) is part of why I might want to change Frost: it might be as redundant as it is potentially overpowered.


NECROPHOBE:

1. Move: 5 [Will probably be reduced to 4]

2. Jump: 4 [Might get an even higher Jump just because even with Teleport & Always: Floating, it really shouldn't be taking any damage from falls.]

3. Innate: Arrow Guard [NEW], Iron Will [NEW], Defense UP [NEW], Teleport

4. Absorb & Resist/Halve: Dark, Resist/Halve: Water, Weak: Wind & Holy (Weakness to Wind instead of Fire is just part of what makes it the odd one out.)

5. Always: Undead & Floating (No need to waste an innate on Levitation movement.)

6. Initial: Transparent (Might get rid of this depending on how dumb it makes the AI.)

7. Immune: ???? [NEW], Crystallized [NEW], Petrified [NEW], Addled [NEW], [Blood Suck], Looted [NEW], Reraised, Frogged [NEW] & Misty [NEW] (It isn't immune to Blind like the other Ghosts and lost its vanilla immunities to both Poisoned & Regening, meaning its the only Undead monster that can be Poisoned.)

8. Unique Skill: Fate Transfer - This terrible fate too can be resisted by Iron Will (presently). It's still close-range even though it's no longer what it was once, which was something that cause Undead & Slowed. However, upon realizing how stupid this was for something that could only heal itself through Drain Touch, Fate Transfer instead became something that causes Addled & Doomed, which is part of the reason it remains close-ranged.



Lamias - Replacements for Uribos, these half-snake women manipulate emotions and ensnare both men & children especially using a false version of that already most venomous of feelings: love.


Common Abilities: Captivate/Snake Dance/Fire Kiss

1. Captivate is just Allure by another name, though it has been weakened to no longer be guaranteed on the opposite sex. This means it's technically shared with humans, though this time "only" by NPCs.

2. Snake Dance is a Auto-AoE 2 physically-powered (and evadable) attempt to cause Slowed, Immobilized or Disabled because, hey...snake tits. Currently, it discriminates, but is Direct to compensate for this.

3. Fire Kiss is a fiery blown kiss that causes "love sickness" if hits and thus causes Poisoned & Charmed as well as Fire-elemental damage of 10%. Was originally going to drain life, but I felt that a bit much.

BLANK LAMIA:

1. Move: 3 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 3 [Yet unchanged]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Alertness, Counter, Concentrate (It might lose Concentrate, but like Illithids before it, its PA will be rather middling.)

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Earth, Resist/Halve: Water & Dark, Weak: Fire & Lightning (And this is what I mean about too many enemies seeming weak to Lightning.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Oily, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

6. Unique Ability: Innocence - A healing ability that causes Addled & Doubtful in those who partake of the meat offered since, for some reason, I've wanted a "poisoned food" ability ever since I thought of a hack and something has to use "Please Eat"'s unique animation.

LILITH:

1. Move: 3 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 3 [Yet unchanged]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Alertness, Critical Quicken, Adrenaline/Speed Save (Considering giving it Hide/Sunken State over Critical Quicken, but the AI is rather dumb about Transparent....)

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Earth, Weak: Lightning & Ice (And this is what I mean about too many enemies seeming weak to Lightning.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: ????, Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Oily, Faithful, Doubtful & Charmed.

6. Unique Ability: Chronos Tears - The Lilith cries false tears that capable of Stopping any target without an Iron Will. Doesn't work on monsters as with every other ability Iron Will currently affects, but unlike most of those other abilities, this will intentionally stay unable affect monsters since I kinda want Lamias as a whole to be disadvantaged against other monsters with all their evasion. Anyway, this used to be Blank Lamia's unique ability, but I figured it was more fitting for an emotionless monster to make other people empty shells rather than cry fake tears.

MORRIGAN:

1. Move: 3 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 3 [Yet unchanged]

3. Innate [All NEW]: Walk on Water, Alertness, Counter, Concentrate (It might lose Concentrate, but like Illithids before it, its PA will be rather middling.)

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Water, Resist/Halve: Fire & Earth, Weak: Lightning & Ice (And this is what I mean about too many enemies seeming weak to Lightning.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Confused, Addled, [Blood Suck], Oily, Doubtful & Charmed. (Not immune to Faithful so that it can possibly use White Wind better than humans.)

6. Unique Ability: White Wind - The ability that I'm perhaps most wary of given that it does its historical thing, thanks to Pride, and restores HP based on the amount that user has at the moment--it cannot hit the user in this case unlike in some previous versions because I'm already worried that it might be busted with its range of 3 and AoE 1. It might just become Auto with an AoE of 1.



Tonberries - Ever-shuffling, lantern-holding, knife-wielding, cloaked reptilian/amphibious creatures that have left many as lifeless as their dead and cold yet beguilingly innocent yellow eyes.


Common Abilities: Chef's Knife/Devil's Candle/Debarrier/Cripple

1. Chef Knife is THE Tonberry ability...which is why it needs more refinement than it currently is, especially since the status it's going to use isn't even coded yet.

2. Devil's Candle is an Ice-element ability that also uses an uncoded status to help Tonberries corner people.

3. Debarrier is the same as Knight's ability.

4. Cripple is the same as Berserker's ability and possibly at odds with Chef's Knife, at least it currently is now.


PUG TONBERRY:

1. Move: 4 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 132/4 [Yet unchanged, though I'll admit it would be rather...amusing to see a Tonberry used a stepping stone.]

3. Innates [All NEW]: Concentrate, Damage Split, Move in Water & Adrenaline/Speed Save.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Holy; Resist/Halve: Dark; Weak: Lightning. (Yeah, something else weak to Lightning. But, hey, they're carrying knives for Shiva's sake. So don't blame me. Blame yourself or God.)

5. Immune [All NEW]: Addled, [Blood Suck], Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Immobilized, Disabled & Doomed. (Yeah...this is what I meant when I said that Tonberries got quite a few immunities. To think that I might "need" to make the immune to something else because they're time-locked--I'm keeping them from being immune to Slowed & Stopped because otherwise it would just be [even more] ridiculous.)

6. Unique Ability: Karma - Currently just a faithless version of Illusionist's Terrorize given that I don't want to have anything (recruitable) do Shock or Climhazzard damage (yet, if ever).


TONBERRY GUARD:

1. Move: 4 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 132/4 [Yet unchanged, though I'll admit it would be rather...amusing to see a Tonberry used a stepping stone.]

3. Innates [All NEW]: Concentrate, Damage Split, Teleport & Adrenaline/Speed Save.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Holy; Resist/Halve: Lightning & Dark; Weak: Wind & Water. (Yeah, they need to weak to two things if they're getting those resistances.)

5. Initial Status: Nothing. (Just noting this since if Defending ends up staying around, Tonberry Guards will most likely end up getting this or maybe even getting Always: Defending. Have to defend the King, after all....)

6. Immune [All NEW]: Addled, [Blood Suck], Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Disabled & Doomed. (Yeah...this is what I meant when I said that Tonberries got quite a few immunities. To think that I might "need" to make the immune to something else because they're time-locked--I'm keeping them from being immune to Slowed & Stopped because otherwise it would just be [even more] ridiculous. Tonberry Guards can be Immobilized unlike Pugs.)

7. Unique Ability: Everyone's Grudge - Hey, your own personal version of single-target Grand Cross. Enjoy (while you can).



HOLY TONBERRY:

1. Move: 4 [Yet unchanged]

2. Jump: 132/4 [Yet unchanged, though I'll admit it would be rather...amusing to see a Tonberry used a stepping stone.]

3. Innates [All NEW]: Concentrate, MA Save, Damage Split & Walk on Water.

4. Absorb and Resist/Halve: Holy. (Currently the only monster to absorb something and then have NO other weaknesses. This may change, especially since it can technically heal itself....)

5. Initial Status: Faithful

5. Immune [All NEW]: Addled, [Blood Suck], Cursed, Floating, Frogged, Hasted, Immobilized & Doomed. (Yeah...this is what I meant when I said that Tonberries got quite a few immunities. To think that I might "need" to make the immune to something else because they're time-locked--I'm keeping them from being immune to Slowed & Stopped because otherwise it would just be [even more] ridiculous. Holy Tonberries can be Disabled unlike Pugs, though might not be enough.)

6. Unique Ability: Ray Bomb - With Priest's Holy likely to remain weaker than in vanilla, something needs to put the Holy in "Holy $#!t."
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

The Damned

(I still hate double posting, but, whatever. This should be done soon rather than later so I can start on actual work.)

Just going to re-post this from the original post before anything else:

To make navigation easier:





With that again said, I have actually been doing some work over this past month oh so slowly. Sans Paladin, Minstrel & Slayer, the generic classes are finally looking rather solid/stable now even if most could still use some improvement and/or consolidation. *looks at Marksman and Summoner in particular*

However, I want to get around to actually on working on stats more (since I finally started modifying them... by only two more things beyond the initial six I'd forgotten about) as well as redoing all equipment (sigh) since I want basic damage from the beginning to be around 40. I also still need to decide on what new weapon type (or two) to add among other things. I might get around to posting an attachment for my own, horrible first draft of equipment so that I can provide people an example of what not to do. At least, I could probably get some amusement of Raven chewing me out for how horrible and stupid some of it is; I imagine he'll have a conniption fit just because my old Diamond Armlet, heh.

However, let's not talk about what is still only to be, especially as slowly as I go, and instead talk about what's finally been done beyond just the five monsters above.


1. Black & White Matters: It feels appropriate to start out with talking about Black Magic and White Magic considering those arguably caused the biggest changes this side of monsters and Blue Magic. Well, moreso Black Magic than White Magic given that the consolidation of all three Bios caused both a parity issue and a restructuring issue. With all Bio spells being consolidated into Miasma ability for Wizard, Black Magic fell from 13 spots to 11 spots, would have been fine since White Magic had already been at 11 for a while. ...Except that I still wanted generics to have access to Oil(y) status and considering that it would benefit Wizard the most, giving them Unction seems liked like a pretty obvious option--I was considering just making the Oil part of Miasma's proc, but I didn't want to make it Random or Separate and I felt that giving 100% multi-target All Oil(y) & Poison(ed) to a generic would have probably been a bit much.

2. White & Black Matters: ...Of course, given the want of parity and the fact that White Magic would now have 11 spells to Black Magic's 12, I had to give it something else as well. I had already given it back Raise 2, now "Arise", from Paladin, but that was at the cost of it trading Raise to Paladin since there's no way Priest gets to monopolize (greatly restorative) resurrection again, especially if it's keeping Reraise. So my choices were to either give it back Umbra, to give it back Slumber or to give that Misty-inflicting ability since no class has that still. Well, with regards to Umbra, giving that back to Priest would screw over Illusionist again, so that was a no-go. Giving it back Slumber meant that it would have to compete with Drone (Mimic Daravon) again, which was iffy since even if I've felt Mimic Daravon's multi-target was kinda...stupid, Mediators (now Orators) didn't really have much else & didn't have anything to get around Iron Will (Finger Guard) still. Giving it an MP-restoring ability, even if it didn't hit self, was something I didn't really want to do since I felt that it would become too mandatory/useful a skill set, like how I feel Item (still) is in...pretty much every patch, including this one (at present).

Thus I gave it Slumber, now "Repose", since I felt that was the least "evil" option given that Orator was likely getting some anti-Iron Will options anyway and Drone really did need be toned down beyond "can hit self if you're dumb enough to use it up close"; it can still hit yourself, but I imagine that only ever come up if you're Charmed or Confused. Also, White Magic got re-ordered so as to "help" the AI, even if it bugs me like hell that the Cures are separated like that; Arise is intentionally that low on the list, though I might raise it up--pun not intended--later depending on some things like the AI's performance with other skills.


3. Red is the New Grey: In doing all of this, I figured that I would have to give Roderick (Rad) yet another makeover since when we last left our lovable, magical sellsword, he was still very much a mess. He was only capable of rather boring Black Magic-esque things and Wall & Astra, having stolen from Priest & Acolyte respectively. So he was perhaps usable, but not very "exciting" or overly useful for someone who was actually supposed to be a special character now. He also didn't feel very emblematic of what a Red Mage was supposed to be: a mage that combines the best of both lower level Black Magic & White Magic. The White Magic variations had been conspicuously absent, the Black Magic variants were too caught up in trying to emulate Doublecast & were thus lacking and he didn't have anything from either of the basic skill sets otherwise.

As such, I'm rather pleased to say that after thinking about it for a couple of hours, I think I was able to make up a much more useful skill set for him. I'll list these quickly and go into them into depth later, sooner rather than later if anyone wants to know what the unique skills (among humans) he has at present exactly do: Fire, Ice, Bolt, Water/Aqua, Cure, Protect, Shell, Raise, Wall, Blink, Shock (Double Bolt), Bio, Water II/Aqua II/Watera/Aquara, Refresh, Deathforce and a 16th, "mystery" skill that won't reveal just even if you ask.


4. Four Use Death: As might be gathered from Roderick having a skill named Bio in the above, when I spoke of condensing down Wizard's previous Bio spells into one, I just meant with regards to Wizard itself. There are still multiple Poison/Bio spells--there's actually more now than before given there's 4 as opposed to 3. Wizard has Miasma, Roderick has Bio, Gafgarion has Toxify and Cuchuulain (Queklain) has Scourge (and all the other three presently, being the King of Impurity). They double in damage by tier and hit with more serious (guaranteed) statuses effects the higher one goes. So Miasma does 6%, Bio does 12%, Toxify does 25% & Scourge does a massive 50%--they are all Dark elemental at present and only Miasma is multi-targeting.

Currently, I'm considering switching Miasma and Bio around a bit to both do away with some possible confusion (seeing as more people are familiar with the name Bio, though I considering just naming Miasma "Poison" as generic as it sounds) and to allow myself to give Roderick a multi-targeting version of his if it did less damage (since I'm otherwise worried about obviating Miasma). If that comes to pass, then Roderick's Bio (which does 12% and, being a combination of Miasma & Unction, adds both Oil[y] & Poisoned) would drop to 6% and become multi-targeting and Wizard's Miasma would do 12% but still "only" add Poison. Obviously all of these need further refinement due to the 100% status thing--thank you, formula 0E--and the (amount of) percentage-based damage, but this is where they are now.


5. Iron Breaks, Wills Bend: Orator--Mediator is named that now since I don't think it was last time I updated--got two new physical skills to get around the now quite usable Iron Will. One is them is Shatterchord, which is actually a skill that's shared with Vampires (who need two more skills now, but that's not important) and which is an aiblity that does distance damage but has recoil. The other one is the unique and far more worrisome "Mixed Massage", which is a physical attack (probably only usable with Orator's weapons and maybe Bows, Rods and/or Guns) that is guaranteed to proc a status from Orator's skill (or a status equivalent to it), but at random. It's going to be the weakest among anything that uses 2D and it currently costs 30 MP, but it has weapon range at present, which might still be a bit much.


6. Not in my Nature: While Geomancy hasn't gotten any official changes as of yet, as I told Raven, I'm going to be condensing its currently 12 skills down to 6 skills. What I do with them after is rather...up in the air considering I want Geomancy to be more than just a terrain-based skill set, but current limitations and the inability to do the Support model for some of the skills that should be more tertiary (like Jump or Throw) is rather restricting that. I already have a replacement skill set in mind for it (as with Dragoon), but I'll probably condense those abilities even I can't implement that (yet) given...space issues among other things.


7. This is my Illusion: Besides Wizard, Priest & Orator, no class really changed much beyond Illusionist (despite everyone stealing from Acolyte). Illusionist got three moderate changes: Cold Flame became Ice-element instead of non-elemental, Mesmerizing Lights got toned way the hell down to only be single-target now (since I don't know what the hell I was thinking letting it be multi-target Charm or Sleep) and it got Proselytize (even though that was a while ago). It still technically needs another skill since Aero and Aero II/Aera are just placeholders...but I just right now realized the perfect thing to give it even if that, too, is a place-holder; I also just realized what to replace Terrorize with in the likelihood that it dies, but that too can wait.


8. You Are Undone: Speaking of Acolyte, it now has a new ability (to replace the now completely dead Astra that Roderick end up murdering for Deathforce, the lovable monster) to combat Dimensionalists specifically: Undo (or, alternately, "Return", though I like "Undo" better). There's no real reason to say anything about it when it's in the classes section outside of pointing out the fact that I'm somewhat uncomfortable that it steps on Dispel Magic's toes. I suppose I could just let not negate Hasted or Floating, though. (Similarly, I'm not going to say anything about its "parallels" of [Choco] Esuna or Cleanse.)

Acolyte really needs more physical abilities, though I've a couple of ideas.


Sigh. As usual, this is getting longer than I had wanted without saying (as) much (as I had wanted). In my sloth, I did do some other changes, though mostly to characters I'm not going to talk about right now or two monsters, which are both right above and links to in two places

As such, I'm going to make another post later this week just for questions & general direction and (vainly) hope that I actually get some responses from at least a couple of people this time. At present, I'm going to end this particular post on a question that I had asked before, but no one answered even though people apparently do care about it (if IRC is any indication):

How do people feel about using the names and/or language from the PSP version (without making things obtuse)? I've heard that people dislike them, but whenever I've asked, no one has said anything. Don't me make stick pretentious 'k's on the end of Black Magick, White Magick and other "Magick" and the like for the sake of continuity with other Ivalice Alliance games only to find out that people hate the crap.
"Sorrow cannot be abolished. It is meaningless to try." - FFX's Yunalesca

"Good and evil are relative, but being a dick cannot be allowed." - Oglaf's Thaumaturge in "The Abyss"

"Well, see, the real magic isn't believing in yourself. The real magic is manipulating people by telling them to believe in themselves. The more you believe, the less you check facts."  - Oglaf's Vanka in "Conviction"

RandMuadDib

Squenix worked really hard to get that pretentious :D
(i neither condone nor condemn the use of magick vs. magic)
I will show you the power of SARDIIIIINES!!!!