Final Fantasy Tactics V1.3

[Archael]

Philsov already removed the evadeable flag from break skills, so concentrate on them is kinda moot.

To be honest, once they get in your face, they are VERY strong, because battle skill is now VERY accurate compared to before.

The problem is them getting to any other unit without getting disabled / stopped/ owned first. lol

4 Move / Defend would help that i guess.

[Lydyn]

Well, give some of the knights +2 move in the ENTD and battle boots ... there's 7 move, which does help a ton. Somehow, seven move seems like a whole lot more than six and Lancers can't move that quickly, though they don't need too.

Maybe give Knights a better speed? That seems to be the major difference between Knights and Lancers, imo.

[Archael]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs9LMmNRyRk&fmt=6

[Archael]

Well, give some of the knights +2 move in the ENTD and battle boots ... there's 7 move, which does help a ton. Somehow, seven move seems like a whole lot more than six and Lancers can't move that quickly, though they don't need too.

Maybe give Knights a better speed? That seems to be the major difference between Knights and Lancers, imo.

Giving ENTD knights +2 move is not the way to go about this IMHO. I don't think the ENTD will change much, if at all.

[Lydyn]

You're nuts, lol ... no offence, but wow. You know how much messing with the ENTD files on my patch has changed things? A TON! Geez, I nearly died at the Valley place before Argias leaves you, at level ~30. Oh boy, it'll be fun fighting the knights with two swords and ninjas with armor. >.<

ENTD doesn't change much? I dare to disagree my friend. ^^

[Archael]

You are mis-reading what I said.

I meant that I doubt the ENTD will change much for V1.3, as in I'm not going to mess with it.

Not that it doesnt provide a huge impact, I know it does. I'd just like to keep V1.3 limited to simple SCUS patching.

[Lydyn]

Oh, gotcha. ^^ Well, then it's a whole another story to make everything balanced and challenging, especially challenging without ENTD changes.

[Archael]

Oh, gotcha. ^^ Well, then it's a whole another story to make everything balanced and challenging, especially challenging without ENTD changes.

Now you understand me.

 

[Lydyn]

Yeah, in that case, the Shock doesn't seem so nasty, lol ... I didn't realize you were only going for the SCUS_941.21 patching and nothing else. Evadable Sword Skills in that case is actually a nice idea...

[Archael]

Yes, only SCUS patching. Like V1.2 was.

It's the simplest way to do things and more people will try it since more people know how to patch the SCUS, but not the other files.

[Lydyn]

Well, in my guides, it explains how to patch ENTD files anyways, heh ... but, yes, do go on.

[Archael]

Shock! is a VERY strong skill. Knights have high HP too. It's just as dangerous if not more than any other sword skill, because it doesn't use weapon damage, it uses the knight's HP.

I wonder if there's a reverse formula to use with it, one that is at 100% damage when their HP is full, and goes down when they get weaker, etc etc.

This would make you want to kill knights FIRST. And since they have defend, then..


EDIT: Or just make it straight-up weapon damage. It would use it's own special graphic so it won't be replacing any of Agrias' skills.

[Lydyn]

There isn't a reverse one as far as I know... there's Cloud's forumlas that take the Target's Max HP and subtracts the Target's Current HP, so the more HP you have the more damage it does .... I think. No, no, it's so that the weaker the enemy is, the stronger the skill is.

Though, a curious question is... would the knights use it over normal attack or break skills? They should, but the AI is strange sometimes...

[Archael]

That requires testing. If you flag it for HP damage it should, though. I would have to match the flags with whatever skill we decide to set it as.

Whether that's going to be Shock!, a WP Damage Shock, or something else needs to be seen.

But if the flags are correct the AI SHOULD use it. I've seen them use alot of edited stuff before.

<< Went to the movies to see Iron Man, BBL.

[Asmo X]

I honestly don't think giving the knights a ranged attack in their primary set is the way to go. If you want them to have better reach, I'd sooner see you give them all the move they need. Even if it's the best move stat in the game. Then, at least they can attack the back rows by actually standing up to them as god intended rather than firing from several panels away.

Other avenues:
1)Better speed than all but Thief, Archer and Ninja. I like this because it potentially makes the knights better than Lancers at Jump if they give up their support to Equip Spear. Throw also becomes a very solid secondary. To me, this is a strong way of solving the range problem: being a knight gives you an incentive to use a ranged secondary.

2) Innate def/mag. def- up. Obviously cutting down virtually all damage coming their way is a massive bonus but as everyone is saying: Knights are shit (well, at least in vanilla).


Also, their skillset is pretty great sans evadability, at least that's how it appears in War of the Gods. I think an ideal situation would be to allow the enemies in 1.3 to be little harder to kill than the player. This means you lose in a straight-up damage race and will need to use things like break skill, yin-yang and steal to debilitate the enemy.

edit: oh yeah, I like innate defend. Gives them some security from ranged attacks before they reach the enemy (provided they stick to having crappy move).

[Lydyn]

1)Better speed than all but Thief, Archer and Ninja. I like this because it potentially makes the knights better than Lancers at Jump if they give up their support to Equip Spear. Throw also becomes a very solid secondary. To me, this is a strong way of solving the range problem: being a knight gives you an incentive to use a ranged secondary.

I actually have to agree with that. That solution makes me feel a whole lot better, myself and even makes a little bit more sense than giving a knight a strange skill like Shock.

[Archael]

Ok, we've been stuck at the Knight issue for awhile now. Today I was looking through ability formulas and thought of something.

What if we remove Zalbag's Speed / Power / Mind / Magic Ruin skills and gave them to the Knight?

This would let them perform their status breaks (but NOT equipment breaks) from range, and it will look like a sword attack. This would also not stray too far from their original purpose, and would make them a threat from range to casters, since now they can break MP from range.

These would be removed from Zalbag's skillset and they would replace Speed Break, Power Break, Mind Break, and Magic Break. They would have 0 charge time and an MP cost. Zalbag could get other, better skills since he could use some stronger sword skills.



This idea is totally doable and would give the Knight something to do every turn, from range. For reference:
Speed Ruin breaks -2 speed just like Speed Break.

Please give me input on this idea.

[Lydyn]

If people go for this idea, just remember to add a JP cost and make it more than 250, all right? I know it's practically the same, but it does have range ... so at least +50-100 JP I'd say.

Actually, looking at the forumlas ... all the Ruin skills are based on MA ... why don't you just give the Break skills range? That'd certianly be more simple unless you want the spiffy name of saying it's "Magic Ruin" instead of "Magic Break."

Also, Speed Ruin takes away 3 speed instead of 2 and Power/Mind Ruin takes away 5 PA/MA instead of 3.

[Archael]

If people go for this idea, just remember to add a JP cost and make it more than 250, all right? I know it's practically the same, but it does have range ... so at least +50-100 JP I'd say.

Actually, looking at the forumlas ... all the Ruin skills are based on MA ... why don't you just give the Break skills range? That'd certianly be more simple unless you want the spiffy name of saying it's "Magic Ruin" instead of "Magic Break."

Also, Speed Ruin takes away 3 speed instead of 2 and Power/Mind Ruin takes away 5 PA/MA instead of 3.

Hey thanks for the info Lydyn. The JP cost will deffinately be looked at.
Also it's hit %'s will need to be played with if they are that powerful. The MP costs too.

Some very strong skills there, if used right.

[Archael]

Equipment breaking skills use Weapon range right now. I'd rather keep it that way so that archers / mediators can make use of Battle SKill with their ranged weapons.

If I force a set ranged on Battle Skill Eqp breaks, it'd nerf them indirectly.