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FFTA2: Semi-Balance Patch

Started by IcyGlare, February 01, 2016, 08:12:33 pm

IcyGlare

February 01, 2016, 08:12:33 pm Last Edit: February 13, 2016, 04:00:49 pm by IcyGlare
Hello everyone. This is my attempt of an FFTA2 Semi-Balance Patch. While creating my patch, I try to follow the three ideologies below:


  • Keep it FFTA2. What you see will not be a redesign, but rather an attempt to make FFTA2 more balanced. Thus, I have decided against removing broken skills or creating new jobs, but instead work with what I've been given and try to make it better.

  • Buff over Nerf. I've played enough games to know that sometimes the developers will nerf your favorite class so that it's no longer fun to play it. Therefore, I use the mentality of buffing other less-played class to make them more entertaining to play. Although there are some nerfs, they are usually small tweaks, and are made to indirectly buff another class.

  • Make it fun.



In short, it's a semi-balance patch because there's not many nerfs. If anyone wants to help me bug test the patch, then that would be great. I also welcome suggestions.


Stats
-All stats base & growth of special units increased
-Speed base & growth of some units increased, mostly to rescale to a minimum of 40
-Speed growth for all monsters are increased.
-All jobs have a attack and magic growth minimum of 6
-All jobs have an MP base minimum of 10
-Resilience for most classes are lowered
-Agent can change classes

Weapons
-daggers, spears, poles, hammers: damage slightly increased
-instruments, guns, hand-cannons: damage increased
-axes: damage slightly increased, added magic damage

Miscellaneous
-Enemies' levels with scale up when possible
-Some quests are no longer month-limited (to faciliate getting tricky weapons like Rondel/Healing Staff)
-AP required to master A-Abilities are rescaled from 100-460



Soldier
*Defense increased
+Concept: Rends can be used from distance with added chance for a status. A strong but risky damage skill is added for late game.
-First Aid: regen added, 1 range
-Rend Power: 4 range, chance to blind
-Rend Magic: 4 range, chance to silence
-Rend MP: 4 range, chance to berserk
-Rend Speed: 4 range, chance to slow
-Provoke: 4 range
-Duel (replaces Gauge): 2x weapon damage, self-damage for 0.2x of current HP

Thief
*MP and Speed increased
+Concept: Thieves may steal items, but their trickery doesn't end there. They can steal your health, speed, charm you, and vanish into the shadows.
-Steal Blood : magic damage, drain
-Plunder: half damage, steal more gil
-Windrun: slows enemy, hastes self (no text but effect applies)
-Captivate: charm
-Shadowstep: vanish, increasing accuracy and movement, but decreases speed
-Steal Equipment: half damage, steals hat/armor/shield
-Retains Loot Lv. 4, Steal Accessory

White Mage
*Speed increased
+Concept: White mage in FFTA2 vanilla is a healbot, and even so still worse at healing than Red Mage or Summoner. Add Protect and Shell back, but only available later on.
-Esuna: removes most statuses
-Fortify: protect and shell AoE, allies only, slight damage upon cast

Black Mage
*Hume and Moogle Magick increased (parity with Nu Mou)
+Concept: Have -aga spells bypass elemental resists so Black mages are not useless against full elemental resists. Furthermore, differentiate between the three elements.
-Base skills: no AoE
-ara skills: +1 AoE
-aga skills: bypass defense
-Fire skills: +1 AoE, weaker
-Thunder skills: stronger
-Ice Skills: more range

Archer
*Hume Attack increased (parity with Viera)
+Concept: If you're shot in the arm or leg, then obviously you should take damage along with being inflicted status.
-Focus: accuracy added
-Take Aim: full damage
-Leg Shot: half damage
-Arm Shot: half damage
-Blackout: half damage

Paladin
-Holy Blade: double damage

Fighter
+Concept: This class is fine, but adding some flavors wouldn't hurt.
-Air Render: wind damage
-Aurablast: holy damage

Parivir
+Concept: This job does way too much damage, but it's also a mid-late game class that deserves to be stronger than the beginner classes. Therefore, instead of 2x damage on their attacks, I'm testing 1x damage + bypassing defense.
-Wind Slash: lower base, always hit
-Elemental blades: 1x damage, bypass defense

Ninja
+Concept: While this class is strong enough due to Dual Wield, it's a shame if that's all you ever use it for. Now, veils are not supposed to do a lot of damage, but having increased ranged to inflict status does help.
-Veils: 6 range
-Oblivion: same damage as veil, 1 range

Illusionist
+Concept: If Illusionists do less damage, then this nerfs Illusionist + Seer combo. If their spells also cost less MP, then it also helps early game Illusionists to be more useful, when you do not have Halve MP or Recharge. Having to wait 3 turns before casting something is boring.
-Spells cost less MP and do less damage

Hunter
*Attack and Speed increased (indirect Sniper nerf)
+Concept: While this class is strong due to Ultima and Sidewinder, Sidewinder is still worse than Doubleshot, so it won't be nerfed.
-Hunting: half damage (buff)

Seer
*Speed increased (parity with White Mage)

Warrior
*Defense increased
+Concept: Make the class more different than Soldier. Body Slam, made stronger, is the signature move of warrior, akin to Soldier's Duel.
-Body Slam: lower base, double damage, 25% chance to addle self on a successful hit

White Monk & Master Monk
*Speed increased
+Concept: Trickster is too speedy, so I decided a speedy physical Bangaa counterpart is warranted.
-Pummel: lower base damage

Dragoon
*Movement is now unobstructed like Gria (can Jump over enemies to move)
*Spears give bonus Jump
+Concept: If you're a Dragoon, then you don't give any fucks about enemies blocking your movement.
-Jump: 6 range (+2)
-Lancet: 2 range (+1)

Defender
-Meltdown: half damage (buff)

Gladiator
+Concept: Their elemental attacks being magical is a waste. Even in the popular Trickster + Gladiator combo, you don't get close enough to anyone to use the melee magic skills. Changing them to physical does not affect the popular combo but allows for other jobs to combo with Gladiator.
-Elemental attacks: AoE around user, physical, weapon-based

Bishop
+Concept: Parity buffs with Black Mage spells are needed now that Black Mage isn't completely useless against elemental resistance.
-Holy: 18 MP (from 32)
-Water: lower base, hurts foes, heals allies (low power), 4 range (+1), 16 MP (+2)
-Aero: 4 range (+1), 12 MP (-2)

Templar
+Concept: Templar is fine, but they don't need two spells that only deal MP damage.
-Silence: 4 range
-Soul sphere: lower base, decrease magic and res, 8 mp

Canonner
+Concept: This class is already very powerful, but Prime is buffed for parity with Flintlock.
-Prime: attack up, accuracy up

Trickster
+Concept: Trickster is basically only used for stats and Ultima. Most of what they do, Archers can do for no MP and better range. Therefore, by buffing their spells, it is not benefitting Trickster + Gladiator but buffs Trickster + Bishop.
-All abilities except Agitate are now weapon ranged instead of 4.
-Agitate: 6 range (+2), 50% accuracy (buff)
-All other abilities: deals half damage upon hit with low base power

Time Mage
*Speed increased
+Concept: With Gravity spells taken from them, Time Mage is only a Hastega bot. By buffing his offensive spells, Time Mage may be a bit more useful.
-Slow: 4 range (+1)
-Stop: 4 range (+1)
-Undo: 4 range (+1), normal accuracy, skill moved to Force Rod (you can get it sooner)

Alchemist
+Concept: Similar to Bishop's Holy, Flare is too expensive for what it does, so it needs a buff. Parity buffs with Black Mage spells are also present. Toad is strong, but chance to hit is still low, so it shouldn't have as much MP as instant death or ultima.
-Protometeor: 4 range (+1)
-Flare: 90 base (parity with Gigaflare), 4 range (+1)
-Poison: 30 base, half damage, chance to poison (weaker version of Bio)
-Toad: 16 MP (-16), 4 range (+1)

Arcanist
-Gravity: 50% accuracy (buff)
-Graviga: 50% accuracy (buff), 24 MP

Sage
+Concept: Similar to Toad's huge MP cost, why does Scathe and Gigaflare cost the same as Ultima or Last Breath?
-Blind: AoE
-Scathe: 24 MP (-8)
-Esunaga: removes ALL debuffs
-Gigaflare: 24 MP (-8)
-Bio: 4 range (+1)

Scholar
+Concept: Everyone knows you're supposed to use Scholar with everyone absorbing one element. However, that setup is not very achievable early, so it's okay to give Scholar a low power spell that doesn't destroy his allies.
-Illumination: hits foes, heals allies, low damage, holy (replaces Mad Scientist)

Beastmaster
*Speed increase, Attack decreased, Magick increased
-All skills: 4 range

Fencer
*Jump 3 (+1)
-Swarmstrike: full damage, 4 mp
-Shadowstick: 4 range (fixed), chance to slow
-Featherblow: full damage
-Nighthawk: 4 mp

Green Mage
*Defense increased
-Blind: AoE
-Oil: AoE

Elementalist
+Concept: Elementalists feel very underwhelming when compared to other Viera magic classes, and especially to Juggler. A buff is needed.
-All damage spells has a chance to lower resistance

Red Mage
*Speed adjusted to be between White mage and Black mage

Spellblade
-Each blade now has a separate element for variety

Summoner
-Unicorn: lower base, 24 mp (higher)
-Phoenix: lower base, 36 mp (higher)
-Damage summons: lower base, same mp

Assassin
-All skills have changed MP costs
-Aphonia and Ague: half damage (buff)

Sniper
+Concept: Sniper probably has the best "attack twice" skill because Double Shot has no weapon, range, or base power restriction. Simply put, it's just too safe to plink away with a bow.
-Volley (replaces Doubleshot): 3 attacks, damage halved each arrow (total 1.75x damage)
-Beso Toxico: 8 mp

Moogle Race
*Speed increased, base HP decreased, base Defense decreased, base Resistance decreased
+Concept: simply put, I want to make these little buggers faster and more fragile

Animist
+Concept: As a support tank, Animist had way too huge MP costs. The changes are geared towards supporting and offers no extra damage buff.
-100% Wool: AoE on self
-Cuisine: 16 mp (buff)
-Toadsong: 12 mp (buff)
-Catnip: 4 range
-Friend: mp removed

Moogle Knight
+Concept: Some may argue that Moogle Knight is already too strong, but that's only because they use Fusilier skills while waiting for Ultima, ignoring the rest of Moogle Knight's skillset. Thus, buffing Moogle Knight doesn't affect the Fusilier + Moogle Knight combo yet makes other combos possible.
-Moogle Focus (replaces Moogle Guard): defend and focus (increases defense, resistance, and attack for the next turn)
-Moogle Lance: 04 range, bypass defense (it should pierce like its name implies)
-Moogle Shield: astra and shell
-Moogle Aid: 1 range (parity with First Aid, but remove debuffs instead of regen)

Juggler
+Concept: Although Juggler doesn't need a buff, Smile Toss does come very late and I replaced Gil Toss with an AoE ability, Grenade. While it might seem powerful, it costs a lot of MP and does magic damage, which Jugglers should not have a high amount of.
-Ball Toss: does damage like the other abilities
-Grenade (replaces Gil Toss): 40 base magic AoE fire damage, 16 mp

Tinker
*Speed increased
+Concept: Even in the best scenario, which is casting debuffs with your entire party wearing immunity, your Tinker is still sitting around half of the turns wasting MP. Therefore, Tinkers should always target allies or foes depending on the spell, with steeper MP costs.
-Red Spring, Gold Battery, Gold Moogletron always hit allies
-Green Gear, Silver Disc, Black Ingot, Chroma Gem always hit foes
-Blue Screw hits everyone
-Black Ingot: Immobilize instead of Doom
-Gold Battery: lower base
-All skills have MP costs adjusted (nerfed)

Chocobo Knight
*Attack and Magick increased
*Axes now have +Magick (indirect buff)
+Concept: This thing just needs buffs badly...
-Choco Cure: 12 mp (indirect buff for White Mage)
-Choco Beak: lower base, double damage

Flintlock
+Concept: Prime sucks.
-Prime is no longer needed
-Prime: increase attack and accuracy
-Cure, Protect, Shell, Ether Cannons: 8 mp
-Cure Cannon, Ether Boost, Blowback: lower base
-Teleport Cannon: normal accuracy

Berserker
+Concept: Similar to Soldier and Warrior, I want to give Berserker their signature move, which is Battle Rage.
-Scream: also removes weak debuffs on self
-Battle Rage (replaces Hone Senses): 2x damage, full accuracy, user suffers defense and resistance down
-Furore: higher base
-Inner Calm: adds critical up (combined with Hone Senses)

Ranger
+Concept: Mirror Items needs a nerf....
-Mirror Any Potion: nerfed
-Mirror Phoenix Down: damage cap added

Lanista
-Block!: half chance to grant Astra also
-Strike!: half chance to increase accuracy also

Viking
*Axes now have +Magick (indirect buff)
+Concept: Thunder spells are tied with Black mage, so we can't change them. So we put +Magick on axes to give their magic spells a buff. This also buffs Chocobo Knight, but that class also needs a buff.
-Tsunami: lower base, no longer requires water, physical damage, no longer damages MP, 12 MP (+4)
-Pickpocket: makes foe berserk if steal is successful

Ravager
+Concept: Sneak Attack doesn't need a buff, but if the skill is called "sneak attack," then it should be harder to miss.
-Battle Cry: now also increases critical
-Sneak Attack: higher accuracy (not perfect)

Geomancer
+Concept: Even though their skills are 6 range, they're too weak, considering the restrictions placed.
-Nature's Embrace: 4 range, AoE, air damage
-All other spells: increased base damage, AoE spells gain height difference
-Mist Storm: 20 mp (-4)
-Artifice, Life, Earth's Embrace: now has an element associated to it

Sky Pirate
-Trophy Hunt: full damage
-Life of Crime: better accuracy

Dancer
-Blade Dance: 8 mp
-Mincing Minuet: hits all foes, lower base, half accuracy, half damage, 8 mp
-All Other Dances: hits all foes, half accuracy, 4 mp

Bard
-Requiem: hits all zombies and zombie corpses, 4 mp
-All Other Songs: hits all allies, half accuracy, 4 mp
-Magick Ballad and Soul Etude: heals even zombies, 8 mp

Heritor
-Viola: 4 range (nerf), half damage (buff)
-Adelaid: all stats up, regen


Patch type: NPS (use NUPS)

EDIT: If you downloaded 0.56, there is a huge Raise bug, so please get the new one.

Ninety

I can get behind buffs over nerfs. Are there any changes to enemy formations?

IcyGlare

Quote from: Ninety on February 06, 2016, 03:58:00 pm
I can get behind buffs over nerfs. Are there any changes to enemy formations?


Hi there. Can you elaborate on changing enemy formations? It's certainly possible, but how would you change it and how would it affect the game?

Ninety

I mean, FFTA2 isn't a terribly hard game, especially if you know what you're doing. And your patch is making several classes quite a bit more powerful. Have you considered modifying enemies so that they'll pose more of a challenge by using said improved abilities in useful combinations?

Eternal

Something to note is that during my test run for FFTA2 GG, a lot of enemies in fights seem to have set AI patterns of which skills they'll use. I'm not sure how/why that works, but alas. Even with buffed skills, enemies still act very foolishly quite often, which takes away a lot of the challenge. Brute forcing it with buffs alone doesn't seem to work. :(
  • 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

IcyGlare

February 08, 2016, 05:38:53 am #5 Last Edit: February 08, 2016, 05:45:06 am by IcyGlare
I do notice exactly what you're talking about. For example, Flintlock no longer needs Prime to use one of its moves. However, the AI is still following the Prime + attack + Prime + attack pattern for whatever strange reason.

I think one solution could be to modify the Enemy Data spreadsheet to deliberately give enemies moves that will provide more of a challenge. (That could be exactly what you're talking about; I'm just not used to using the term formation.) For example, Story Mission 15 is one of the late game missions, and yet the Fighter doesn't know Aurablast, the Sniper doesn't know Doubleshot, etc... In the mission after that, the Summoner knows all 3 elemental summons but none of the healing spells.

I just recently uploaded ver 0.55 which should include most of the changes I want. I'll start working on the enemy formations. Thanks everyone for your input.

EDIT: I still haven't changed ingame tool tips for the changed skills.

Knivingdude

March 31, 2016, 03:16:38 pm #6 Last Edit: April 22, 2016, 12:32:28 pm by Knivingdude
Quote from: IcyGlare on February 01, 2016, 08:12:33 pm
EDIT: If you downloaded 0.56, there is a huge Raise bug, so please get the new one.


If you do certain cheat codes like the one where you add items this bug happens again.

Also "Duel" for soldiers is hilarious. It's like a sniper or something just shoots the enemy. The End. It's pretty broken with Dual-Wield too. The attack value get's really high!

EDIT: Also you state that "Duel" has a cost - but there is no self-damage occurring during the animation...?

EDIT2: Nevermind. After about an hour of playing around with Duel I figured out it takes some life to use it. If the damage is less than 20 it doesn't seem to take any life. (That or the Regen on First Aid negates the cost).

EDIT3: Can you double check if the Speed that Chocobo Knights grow is nerfed/buffed from patching? Could've sworn it was higher in Vanilla.

EDIT4: Mog Focus doesn't retain the "Focus" aspect of the buff. I think the duration of the effect is affected (or tied) by the "Shield" status therefore the only way to even use the status buff of the "Focus" on the Mog Focus skill is to give the moogle the "Counter" R-Ability. Is this supposed to be intended? I was hoping to have my Fusilier be able to "Focus" before wrecking with Mog Rush.

EDIT5: (4/22/2016) Was it intended that the Beast master could also control his allies?!? This is a really fun (maybe unintended change) to the Beast master! Basically if there is a monster on the field, and your Beast master could control it, you can TARGET your ally with that skill! Allowing them to use a skill! It's like an awesome specific version of Smile or Quicken.

I imagine the Beast master drawing power from the monsters to imbue it on your allies to do an action. It's an amazing change! I recommending to keep this! This way, the Beast master has more of a role in the game... 
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The new "Shadowstep" Skill for thieves I think is bugged however. Invisibility isn't granted on the account of the animation looking as if the character is hurt at the end... or something like that... Thanks for making such a fun patch!

IcyGlare

Quote from: Knivingdude on March 31, 2016, 03:16:38 pm
If you do certain cheat codes like the one where you add items this bug happens again.

Also "Duel" for soldiers is hilarious. It's like a sniper or something just shoots the enemy. The End. It's pretty broken with Dual-Wield too. The attack value get's really high!

EDIT: Also you state that "Duel" has a cost - but there is no self-damage occurring during the animation...?

EDIT2: Nevermind. After about an hour of playing around with Duel I figured out it takes some life to use it. If the damage is less than 20 it doesn't seem to take any life. (That or the Regen on First Aid negates the cost).

EDIT3: Can you double check if the Speed that Chocobo Knights grow is nerfed/buffed from patching? Could've sworn it was higher in Vanilla.

EDIT4: Mog Focus doesn't retain the "Focus" aspect of the buff. I think the duration of the effect is affected (or tied) by the "Shield" status therefore the only way to even use the status buff of the "Focus" on the Mog Focus skill is to give the moogle the "Counter" R-Ability. Is this supposed to be intended? I was hoping to have my Fusilier be able to "Focus" before wrecking with Mog Rush.

EDIT5: (4/22/2016) Was it intended that the Beast master could also control his allies?!? This is a really fun (maybe unintended change) to the Beast master! Basically if there is a monster on the field, and your Beast master could control it, you can TARGET your ally with that skill! Allowing them to use a skill! It's like an awesome specific version of Smile or Quicken.

I imagine the Beast master drawing power from the monsters to imbue it on your allies to do an action. It's an amazing change! I recommending to keep this! This way, the Beast master has more of a role in the game... 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The new "Shadowstep" Skill for thieves I think is bugged however. Invisibility isn't granted on the account of the animation looking as if the character is hurt at the end... or something like that... Thanks for making such a fun patch!


Thanks for all of the comments. I'm surprised and glad that someone took their time to play it.

1) You're right about Duel, I may have "overbuffed" it because I felt like Soldier was a class that you use until you get "better" classes, so I wanted it to have some endgame impact. However, I should make the recoil damage higher to justify the high damage cost. Also, I don't know much about animation so some of the abilities do have weird effects.

2) Mog Focus and Shadowstep is bugged I see. I think that every time I want to put too many effects on a move, it breaks, and sometimes I don't know why.

3) Beastmaster change was definitely intended. The guy I was working with also agreed that Beastmaster in the original game was kinda boring so we wanted to make him fun. In fact, I think it's the class we edit the most after Thief.

If anyone wants to try, please be my guest. :)

Knivingdude

I've played this version on FFTA2 for a while now (on and off if time allowed) and completed 250 quests. This is also the only FFTA2 version I've played - never touched Vanilla -  only compared stats and effects on GameFAQs to know certain things.

here are some new things I noticed:

1. Blue Mages did not have a change. Was this intended? Kind of expected some random discovery like I did with Beastmaster lol.

2. Moogle Focus is surprisingly balanced when using it in tandem with a Beastmaster. It's still defends you but uses the focus charge if the Beastmaster has his turn after the Moogle. Certainly gives other shots alot more oomph if Ultima Shot is not achievable earlier in other setups.

3. After playing Theif classes and putting them together with other classes, Even though Shadowstep doesn't give invisibility as intended, it's a strong tool just for the movement option if you don't want to use a Green Mage or "waste" a class ability slot for Green Mage. Gives a little more of flexibilty options when making a team for fights, and I find that fun!

4. After a few levels on chocobo knight, I concluded that the knights are in fact faster than thieves.

5. I tried playing Brightmoon Tor quests and filly expected to be outsped by the monsters there for at most 5 turns and such. I think the Monster speed huff made them take 7-8 turns before I did! Not sure if this should change or not, but I can totally try to fight these guys with level 99 Clan members later and check it out then. I thought a level 99 Paravir was going to be able to carry that fight xD


I love this version of the game and how flexible it is to use different classes for fun. I hope there is a version where the text changes the skill descriptions one day and a few kinks get worked out. Other than that, thanks for making such a fun version and I hope you'll keep working on this - if only for a few moments a day.