Final Fantasy Hacktics

Good stuff Dome!
Will you be posting a change list?

Quote from: Dome on March 20, 2012, 03:26:34 am
Because if we allow the AI to learn it, there is a chance enemies will equip it
And the AI cannot use it at all

What do you mean by this? In the level 1 battle, Ramza's only action in that battle is "attack" when everyone else can use potion and squire skills. Isn't that easy to fix?

1st battle not too hard, just makes the game feel less polished.

Thanks for the analysis again.

By "first battle", I didn't mean the one with Rad Alicia Lavian.

If an ability cost 0 JP, it should be learned. In the first battle, everyone but Ramza has Item and Weapon Guard (and Equip Change in Vanilla). But Ramza does not get to "learn" them until after the 1st battle. Why do I have to go into the abilities screen to learn something for 0JP?

Guests equipping abilities that they haven't learned is still a bug, randomly selected or not. There are definitely some wrinkles to iron out with Guests being managed by the AI. I like the change though, because it's less units to manage. Plus I don't have to remember to strip him of his equipment before he leaves the party.

And yes poison daggers cannot be cured in the beginning battle. Delita is the only one with Heal but he won't know to use it.

Dome, added some more stuff to my last post, hope it helps.

I am only on the first battle in Chapter 1 and notice some weird things:

- Delita and the generic squires have starting skills such as Potion / Weapon Guard learned and equipped. Why not Ramza?
- In Vanilla, everybody had Equip Change learned. ie, skills that cost 0 JP should be learned by default.
- Delita has Counter Tackle equipped even though he hasn't learned it. After first battle, it changes to Weapon Guard.
- Delita's skills goes weird in between battles. When the first battle is over, unlearns Heal. After the next battle, his skillset gets renamed to "Guts".
- Algus has Concentrate equipped even though he hasn't learned it. Like Delita, it changes to Weapon Guard after his first battle.
- Algus's skills also goes weird. Head Break and Armor Break are duplicated and displayed as Squire skills. He learns the Squire version and not the Knight version.
- Delita and Algus can learn Equip Axe and Monster Skill
- Some starting generics had Ether learned instead of Hi Potion. Was that intentional?
- Poison daggars before a cure is available? Only Delita has Heal.
- Self destruct ability says it "blinds and slows" but effect only says Slow. Is it blind too?

One last question, whats the idea of ditching 1.3 Ramza abilities and Yell, then add Inspiration and Hold the Line? He seems pretty good already plus they overlap other abilities.

Quote from: Neophyte Ronin on January 31, 2012, 07:35:47 am

Uselessness is one thing, but something that is too useful overrides everything else.  During many hunting trips, I noticed one character was getting high levels due to constant use: the character with Yin Yang Magic.  The complete set, save Condemn, seemed like a no-brainer to have.  Now, creatures tend to have status immunities, but they are not abrasive or all-encompassing.  Also, the Knight's Precision ability more than compensates for the inability to directly adjust Faith scores.  Coupled with Pray Faith, my answer to practically every encounter ended up as two words: "Giant Frog."

Seriously.  Sending the original Black Magics of Frog and Poison to the Oracle/Onmyoshi/Mystic and then making Poison a permanent affair made for a character who has the answer to practically every monster encounter.  That's pretty much the story behind Beowulf's original Templar Class command and its success in hunting monsters: these spells are brilliant.  Adding Frog and Poison, on the other hand, makes Yin Yang Magic the catch-all solution to practically any bad-ass.  Even the Squids and Illithids can't match the party if they themselves have found the dark, terrible secret they have always sought after: "Giant Frog."  Black Magic can't match that anymore, even though it used to be perfect alongside Yin Yang Magic for these reasons and more.

Given some thought, I'd say Summon Magic has some real issues, enough to take this crown of most useless special.  It's worthless against the aforementioned Illithids, since their answer to everything is "Counter Flood" and their stats override the original limits of Geomancy.  As for Summoning, all they do is deal thematic elemental damage and, if not, deal slightly better non-elemental damage or do so instantly.  Big deal.  So can the Attack Command, and it's cheaper.  Regardless of cost, Elements are nowhere near as good as they used to be.  Monsters who were originally weak to some kind of element are no longer weak to it, or had their affinities adjusted, or some creatures (goblins and squids) are impossible to face with magic.  That's okay--they're all "puzzle encounters", where you gotta have the proper abilities to ensure a smooth fight.  Which isn't Summon Magic.

Not to mention, Summons were dummied just because the Summoner used to do a good job protecting the party as well.  Can't have the ability to heal and protect and still be considered fair and balanced, it seems.  Mog, Fairy, Golem, and the seemingly redundant Salamander and Cyclops were dismissed from the roster.  When the Summoner's supportive and healing abilities went by the wayside, my interest in the command was lost, chiefly because I never considered Summon Magic to be a mere replacement for the Black Magic command.  It was never that.  Golem seemed like too much of a cheat against human encounters, mostly because it was expensive but quick to cast and operated on the user's Maximum Health.  It didn't cover all attacks and is nowhere near a perfect defense, yet it was dummied.  Mog and Fairy used to heal, but they were ousted also.  To be quite frank about the affair, once Summoners got pegged for doing nothing but wreaking havoc with the classic damage-based Summons, they simply became a homogenized Black Mage with a few extra elements tagged on.  Longer casting ranges mean nothing if they don't deal enough damage to faze the enemy's tactics.

That's pretty sad, considering there could be other things that Summons can do from any distance that don't need to revolve around damage (barring the exceptions of Earth and Water, namely Titan and Leviathan, and even they could use some adjusting).  All things considered, Lich is pretty much your go-to guy since he wasn't changed a whole lot.  Even though you can cast from long distance, any distance really, the others aren't doing enough damage to warrant prolonged use of anything else but Lich and Precision.  With the exception of risen bones, phantoms, or anybody claiming to be a master bonecraftsman, you can go no better than a couple Lich summons to ruin the battlefield.  And any Class Specialty where only one ability is worth the time of the player is a Class Specialty that's better off reworked or abolished entirely.

(newbie) Get Ying Yang, avoid Summon. Got it.

Nice post. It does seem over powered. Monster buffs dont mean anything if they are Frog and Poisoned.

Wow thanks for the analysis. I am still a noob but that makes sense

Dome, might be the wrong topic but what are your thoughts on the new Squire skills? My initial impression is that Squires are getting roles that were intended for other jobs?

Not sure if mentioned already but the online help for Dash is missing a line break after the fullstop so the Range and Effect is shown on wrong line.

The description for Inspiration is not formatted inline with the other desriptions where effects are separated by a dot rather than a space.
edit: Looking at the new skills, this applies to those descriptions too. Sometimes commas are used (Cat Kick), sometimes space is used.

I read release notes for past versions but was wondering if the party roster hack is in the current version?

No questions but welcome back and looking forward to the patch.

Hi Dome, have always wanted to play FFT and just discovered (from reading wikipedia) there were superior versions available. After much reading, I am set on FFT+ because:

1) Want a game that's balanced and not too easy. These games takes a long time to balance and its been 10+ years. Yay.
2) I hate games where permanent stats can be affected the class / item equipped when leveling up because it encourages a strategy that detracts from gameplay. Also hate stats that are determined by a random number generator. Thank you for taking that out!
3) Similarly I am the type who will reload a battle if I miss a rare item drop / steal / poach. It's not fun but I do it anyway to optimize my characters. I think you addressed this too.

Can't comment on the other features because I haven't played the game.

Waiting for next patch before starting. When might that be?

Looking forward to it.