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FFT: Human Advancement - FFT/FFTA/FFXII Class-Patch

Started by The Damned, November 18, 2012, 09:58:48 am

Should Rad be a Geomancer, an Elementalist, a combination thereof or neither?

Combination thereof.
4 (40%)
Neither.
4 (40%)
Geomancer.
0 (0%)
Elementalist.
2 (20%)

Total Members Voted: 10

The Damned

November 18, 2012, 09:58:48 am Last Edit: November 19, 2012, 03:43:17 am by The Damned
(I guess this means I'm technically the first after that redaction. Hunh.)

So, I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days even though now I can't really remember what brought it up due to getting constantly distracted by TVTropes: Would there be any interest at all in a patch that combines FFT with the good elements from FFT:A (and lesser elements of FFXII)?

I'll explain what I mean by this.

First and foremost, this would be a class-change-"only" patch since those tend to be the only patches that get finished around here (so far). Other things like items and abilities would get changed by association, but there would be very little story alteration here. There would be some story alteration though, if only in the form of minor references to (long) past events and now-extinct species and perhaps the Rafa/Rapha and Malak/Marach sub-plot.

Given the sheer amount of player classes in just FFT:A--there's like 35 not counting its sequel--and the only 20 spots available for Jobs in FFT, there would obviously be some class consolidation and combination going. This would apply even for the classes that weren't represented (by any one class) in FFT:A at all, such as Mediator. For example, Juggler would likely end up combined with, say, Thief. Not every class can make it even when consolidated, obviously, and a few can't make in it in anything but name onl due to programming issues that would be way too much trouble to implement. This namely affects Beastmaster, Morpher, Gadgeteer and to a degree, Alchemist, Dragoon and Ninja. (Jump and Throw are going to have to die by "necessity" to replicate FFT:A Dragoon and Ninja respectively, but Chemist's Items trumps Alchemist's Item + other stuff focus for now, so that's likely to stay. Meanwhile, Draw Out, Elemental and Math Skill are also likely to die).

And then, of course, some classes just kinda suck, like the aforementioned Gadgeteer and the boring FFT:A Illusionist class. Elements of them will show up in other classes still, but not necessarily player-available ones and the classes themselves won't show up at all.

Similarly, when I say the "good" elements of FFT:A, I am exempting the broken aspects of a lot of the classes thereof. So while Juggler elements may exist as part of Thief as aforementioned, egregious crap like Smile is getting euthanized.

When it comes to other "goodness", it's probably easier to make a list here off the top of my head:

1. No Obnoxious Law Cards That Penalize You For Playing the Damn Game: Rather self-explanatory. Even if monsters aren't figured out yet, partly due to trying to be realistic about sprites--*unfairly looks at Choto*--and such, you'll at least be able to damage them without having to worry about crap like "Damage to Animals" auto-losing you the battle.

2. No Judges: At least not on Chocobos.

3. No Instant Spellcasting: Debatable whether this was "bad", but it certainly made things less "Advanced" in terms of strategy.

4. MP will Regenerate for Every Unit: Finally, something that isn't goodness through absence. It's a good way to solve the "MP" problem and not make everything so damn dependent on Ethers, Chakra, Angel Song and Move-MP Up. If it works well enough, I might use it for Embargo.

5. Units will be Able to Die Permanently Outside of Jagds: Again, debatable whether this was a "bad" element or not, but it made things less strategic. Also, since Treasure and learning through Crystals will probably stay around here unlike in Embargo, it will also be beneficial. (Units that are Always: Undead will be immune to both things though.)

6. No Learning from Equipment: Partly since that's currently impossible as far as I'm aware, though now I'm reminded that I think I need to bug Xifanie about something....

7. Opening Classes Will be Relatively "Easy": Given that most of the classes in FFT:A generally opened after you learned 2 skills, I've already worked out a job tree that branches and opens relatively early without the need to really grind for levels. Nothing's official yet of course, but outside of perhaps the four "Complex" classes, it's unlikely the requirements will go beyond "get to Level 3 of [Insert Class Here]" at most. Might be as low as Level 2. As in Embargo, Mime, which is sticking around due its "uniqueness", will not be as obnoxious to open as it was in vanilla. It similarly won't be the be-all, end-all class though.

8. You'll Get to Be Assassins. Maybe: I'm currently thinking about making the absurdly busted Assassin class the Female-only replacement for Dancer, primarily as a challenge to see if I can make them not break the game. If this somehow manages to happen, then it almost goes without saying that Celia and Lede will be getting buffs to "compensate".


So...yeah. Any potential interest in this? For several reasons, I figure I could use a "lighter" project to work on while still slowly working on Embargo. (Yes, I am still working on Embargo. I just keep stuck on redoing equipment, which is almost done again and perhaps competently this time, and monsters.)

P.S. It pretty much goes without saying (explicitly), but due to the aforementioned attempt at practicality, all of the sprites would be Humes/Humans. So none of the other Job-species from FFT:A would be showing up. Closest thing would be different versions/colo(u)rs of Chocobos beyond the three represent in Vanilla, but I haven't thought about monsters too much yet despite Blue Mage being guaranteed a spot.
"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 took the liberty of redoing the title myself. Working title, but it's probably going to stick unlike Embargo, which I've already changed like...months ago, but haven't revealed yet. At present, the only other competing title for this is "Hume Advancement", which is basically the same damn thing.)

Great. Now I look extra lazy having two patch threads and not having updated the other one in four months, but meh. I am lazy, so it's not like it's false advertising or libel or anything.

That said, this will likely be finished way before Embargo even if my plans for that are finally coming together (again). I'm still open to ideas that aren't adding the other races because they can't be done.

Otherwise, I'll "try" to get something up around Thanksgiving day since I've the class divisions more or less worked out already.
"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

November 23, 2012, 01:36:54 am #3 Last Edit: April 13, 2013, 03:05:22 am by The Damned
(So I guess that means "no". Good to know.

In the meanwhile, enjoy a certain song from To Be Or Not To Be just because I'm listening to it as I type and paste this.)

Well, arranging abilities took longer than I thought, but considering how things are going in Embargo, that's hardly surprising. "To Be Or Not To Be" is kind of an appropriate thing to ask here considering I've left that hanging on the forums for the last four months after I said I'd update "next Friday", but it's still on-going.

Regardless, we're not here to talk about that--just shamelessly self-promote our sloth.

This post will be dedicated to going over Classes, but it will also go over four other core issues in addition to that:


1. Monsters: Mostly just saying which monsters I'm planning to use.
2. Statuses: Mostly just saying which statuses I'm planning to use.
3. Equipment: Mostly just saying how I plan to "break-up" weapons here.
4. Story Changes: Just quickly note how, at present, there are very few planned with what little that are to deviate being mostly centered around Rafa/Rapha & Malak/Marach. (The names will probably end up being the "proper" PSP ones as with Embargo, but as with Embargo I'm not yet entirely decided on that.)


Those things all come after the main issue of Classes, though. So, first, I'll list two things about how I'm handling that and then have a much longer set of lists of stuff as per usual:


1. FFT:A Classes: I'll put a list of the player FFT:A classes and note which ones I'm drawing from for generic use, player use, non-player-use or not at all.

2. Inspirations & Replacements: I'll label all 20 classes with "[Class Name]" followed by a dash and then a set of the classes it draws from and what class it "replaces" if it's something other than itself. For example, Thief will be labeled "Thief - {Thief, Juggler, Mediator} - Replaces Thief" (provided the set brackets work in spoilers).

3. The "At Least" I Could I Do: At present, all Job requisites that aren't "Automatically open" are followed by "(at least)". As one can probably guess, this means that this requirement is probably the baseline for opening that class and will probably only go up from there if it goes up at all. Going "up" could also mean the Level for one job goes down, but then it's likely that another job will go up or an entirely new class will be added to opening it.

4. Equipment for Each Class: Is something I'm ignoring for now. I'll talk about this in at the brief Equipment section.

5. Department of Redaction: I'm going to, as always, redact some things. For the most part, it will be because they aren't programmed or tested at least. This will be indicated by [Redacted]. I may use "???", but that will mean I'm actually utterly undecided as to what it does presently.


With all of that said and done, let me say before I begin that I am, as always, open to reasonable suggestions for things. Even if I don't agree with something, it's just nice to know that I'm not blathering at myself and wasting even more time.


With the exception of Green Mage, which was taken from FFT:A2, no other FFT:A2-only class was considered given it's a game I've never played and don't really want to. Green Mage is the starter generic mage class:


1. Soldier - This is one of the starter generic classes and the one that replaces Squire.

2. Paladin - This is its own generic classes.

3. Fighter - This more or less didn't make it in since it's a repeat of Monk.

4. Thief - This is a generic class.

5. Ninja - This is a complex generic class.

6. White Mage - This is a generic class.

7. Black Mage - This is a generic class.

8. Illusionist - This got broken apart over two classes since otherwise it's immensely boring, weak and overall worthless.

9. Blue Mage - This is a generic class.

10. Archer - This is a generic class.

11. Hunter - This is a generic class.

12. Warrior - This is basically redundant to Soldier & some other things and got ignored.

13. Dragoon - This is a generic class.

14. Defender - A few aspects got folded into Paladin. Otherwise, it's too busted, i.e. Aura, and is currently utterly ignored.

15. Gladiator - Will likely show up only as a non-player class if it shows up at all.

16. White Monk - This is basically the same as the starter generic class Monk.

17. Bishop - This will be a non-player class. Think Zalmo.

18. Templar - This will be a non-player class.

19. Time Mage - This is a generic class.

20. Alchemist - This got broken up between generic Arcanist and Sage. It's relationship to the generic starter class of Chemist would be in name only at present.

21. Beastmaster - Ignored since it can't be replicated, at least easily, and it's not really worth it.

22. Morpher - See above.

23. Sage - This is the male-only complex generic class.

24. Fencer - This is a generic class.

25. Elementalist - Aside from possibly being replicated as reaction-only Geomancy, this has been ignored at present.

26. Red Mage - May or may not be a player class. Since it was going to be the starter generic class until I decided to use Green Mage, it will probably show up in some capacity at least.

27. Summoner - This is a generic class.

28. Assassin - This is the female-only complex generic class.

29. Sniper - This was going to be combined with Archer, but I figured I only had room to "fix" one really broken (Viera) class and Assassin is more interesting, so this ended up getting ignored more or less. Maybe show as a non-player class.

30. Animist - These poor little guys got utterly ignored. Might get its name "stolen" by Blue Mage, but I'm not sure how I'm naming mages in this patch yet.

31. Mog Knight - These poor little guys got ignored even more despite not being crap.

32. Gunner - Elemental aspects of this show up in Archer & Hunter classes, but otherwise, their aspects are getting relegated to Engineer/Machinist. Maybe.

33. Juggler - Half of it got merged with Thief. The other half is currently ignored.

34. Gadgeteer - This crappy class may be merged with Gunner to form the new Engineer/Machinist. Then again, I might just outright ignore them since they're that bad.



There are four starting classes:

SOLDIER [Req.: Automatically open.]
BATTLE SKILL
Active Abilities
1. Barter - It gets this, which is now essentially renamed Negotiate, and Thief gets Mug.
2. Rend Power - May be limited to Rng: 1, not Rng: Wpn. Will need Xifanie's limiter on this.
3. Rend Magick - See above.
4. Rend MP - Lowers enemy's MP.
5. Rend Speed - Getting changed to Slow. Maybe.
6. Provoke - Single-target Add: Berserk should be fine if [Redacted].
7. Body Slam - Dash turned into ARENA Bullrush.
8. Drone - Renamed Mimic Daravon turned into single-target Add: Sleep.
9. Gauge - I'll make this a lesser version of ARENA Refute.
10. First Aid - A renamed Revive given that purposely Monk lost.
Reactions
1. Counter Tackle - Given it has Body Slam.
2. Finger Guard - I suppose. I might just "kill" it.
Supports
[None now.]
Movements
3. Move-EXP Get - Figured someone might as well get it.
4. Move-JP Get - Got this back from Monk.


CHEMIST [Req.: Automatically open.]
(Innate: Throw Item.)
FIELD MEDICINE
Active Abilities
1. Potion - Restores 30 HP.
2. Hi-Potion - Restores 80 HP.
3. X-Potion - Restores 130 HP. Unusable w/ Auto Potion.
4. Ether - Restores 50 MP.
5. Elixir - Fully restores HP & MP.
6. Phoenix Down - Cancels KO and restores 1-19 HP.
7. Antidote - Cures Poison and only Poison.
8. Eye Drop - Cure Blind and only Blind.
9. Echo Herbs - Cures both Silence and Confusion.
10. Golden Needle - Cure Petrify and only Petrify.
11. Maiden's Kiss - Cures Frog and only Frog.
12. Chronos Tear - Cures both Stop and Sleep.
13. Holy Water -  Cures both Undead and Oil.
14. Bandage - Cure both Immobilize and Disable.
Reactions
1. Auto Potion - Because duh. Caps at Hi-Potion now.
Supports
2. Throw Item - Though they'll still have it innate.
3. Maintenance - No reason for them not to have it. For now.
Movements
4. Move-Find Item - Might as well give them all their Vanilla skills.


MONK [Req.: Automatically open.]
MARTIAL ARTS
Active Abilities
1. Cyclone - AoE 2, non-discriminating physical attack.
2. Pummel - Unavoidable Water (???) close-range physical.
3. Aurablast - Range 3, single-target Holy physical.
4. Shockwave - Range 5 Linear Earth physical attack.
5. Doom Fist - Close-range Add: Doom. Now phys. & avoid.
6. Purification - A lesser but instant Esuna. (Single-target?)
7. Chakra - Restoration of HP & MP that can't hit self.
8. Seal Evil - Adds Disable or Stop, but only to Undead.
9. Fire Dance - AoE 2 semi-physical Fire attack.
10. Air Blade - AoE 1 range 4 physical Wind. Hits self.
Reactions
1. Caution - Meh. Someone has to have it.
Supports
2. Defend - A natural extension of the above.
3. Brawler - A renamed Martial Arts that is no longer to be innate for Monks.
4. Equip Clothing - For pseudo-nudists like Monks, this would allow for Hats, Clothing & Robes to be equipped.
Movement
[None now.]


GREEN MAGE [Req.: Automatically Open]
GREEN MAGICK
Active Abilities
1. Protect - Add: Protect in AoE 1 with Vert. 1.
2. Shell - Add: Shell in AoE 1 with Vert. 1.
3. Protectga - Add: Protect in AoE 2 that ignores foes.
4. Shellga - Add: Shell in AoE 2 that ignores enemies.
5. Blind - Add: Blind in AoE 1.
6. Unction - Add: Oil(y) in AoE 1.
7. Silence - Add: Silence in AoE 1 with Vert. 2.
8. Sleep - Add: Sleep in AoE 1 with Vert. 1.
9. Poison - Add: Poison in AoE 2.
10. [Redacted] - [Redacted].
11. Faith - Add: Faith to single-target.
12. Blindna - Cancel: Blind in AoE 0 with HP healing.
13. Poisona - Cancel: Poison in AoE 0 with HP healing.
Reactions
1. Absorb Used MP - Since still rather weak. May move up.
Supports
2. Equip Low(er) Magegear - Will allow for equipping of Rods, Staves and Maces.
3. Gained EXP-UP - "Has" to be on some starter.
Movements
4. Jump +1 - As a lame way to "make up" for Leap not being existent.



There are four Tier 1 classes:

FENCER [Req.: Level 2 Soldier (at least)]
FENCING SKILL
Active Abilities
1. Swarmstrike - Close-range weapon attack with Psn.
2. Checkmate - Close-range Dark attack that kills Critical only. Doesn't work on Undead.
3. Nighthawk - Wind-based physical attack with Rng 3.
4. Featherblow - Weaker but unavoidable physical attack.
5. Rend Shield - Destroys target's shield.
6. Rend Armor - Destroys target's body armor.
7. Rend Helm - Destroys target's headgear.
8. Swallowtail - Self-AoE 1 discriminating phys. attack.
9. Shadowstick - Close-range semi-physical with Slow.
10. Manastrike - Rng 1 Weapon-based MP drain.
Reactions
1. Awareness - Instead of broken-ass Reflex/FFT:A Abandon.
Supports
2. Equip Shields - Decidedly moved up from Soldier, this will allow for Shields, Ribbons and Knuckles to be equipped.
3. Defense UP - Might have this come later. Unsure.
Movements
4. Any Ground - Meh. Might as well go somewhere.


ARCHER [Req.: Level 2 Soldier (at least)]
AIMING SKILL
Active Abilities
1. Aim: Legs - Weapon-range single-target Immobilize.
2. Aim: Arms - Weapon-range single-target Disable.
3. Blackout - Add: Blind in AoE less than Blind spell.
4. Silver Blow - Weapon-Range Slow & Poison against Und.
5. Poison Cloud - Add: Psn in AoE less than Poison spell.
6. Oil Bomb - Add: Oil in AoE less than Unction.
7. Flaming Shot - Weapon-Range Fire element damage.
8. Sureshot - CT 3 or 4 unavoidable weapon-range dmg.
9. Cover Fire - Ranged-only. Rdm physical AoE 1 attack.
Reactions
1. Catch Blades - Traded down from Hunter because it will only work on Bladed weapons now.
Supports
2. Attack UP - Might have this come later. Unsure.
3. Equip Ranged - Will allow for equipping of Longbows, Guns & Crossbows and/or Greatbows.
Movements
4. Jump +2 - Mostly just padding things out right now.


BLACK MAGE/WIZARD [Req.: Level 2 Green Mage (at least)]
BLACK MAGICK
Active abilities
1. Fire - AoE 2 Fire elemental, speedy but weakest
2. Fira/Fire 2/Fire II - AoE 1 version of above.
3. Firaga/Fire 3/Fire III - AoE 0 version of above.
4. Blizzard/Ice - AoE 1 Ice elemental, middle & low MP.
5. Blizzara/Ice 2/Ice II - AoE 0 version of above.
6. Blizzaga/Ice 3/Ice III - Above but ignores M-EV?
7. Thunder/Bolt - AoE 1 Lightning element, high & slow.
8. Thundara/Bolt 2/Bolt II - AoE 0 version of above.
9. Thundaga/Bolt 3/Bolt III - Above but ignores M-EV?
10. Water - AoE 3 Water elemental, weakest. Ignores Rfl.
11. Stone - AoE 1 Earth elemental middling. Ignore M-EV.
12. Confusion - Add: Confuse to single-target. NOT self.
13. Zombify - Add: Zombie to single-target. Ignores M-EV.
Reactions
1. Gaia Revenge - Renamed Counter Flood. Geomancy will be compressed into the six abilities from Embargo.
Supports
2. Magick Attack UP - Might move up. Or really up JP.
Movements
3. Any Weather - Because meh. Someone needs it.


WHITE MAGE/PRIEST [Req.: Level 2 Green Mage (at least)]
WHITE MAGICK
Active Abilities
1. Cure - AoE 2 non-elemental, non-discriminate healing.
2. Cura/Cure 2/Cure II - AoE 1 non-elemental, non-discriminate healing.
3. Curaga/Cure 3/Cure III - AoE 0 non-elemental healing.
4. Esuna - Cures Psn, Bln, Imb, Dsb, Cnf, Slp in AoE 1???
5. Raise - Cures KO and heals 50% HP. Costs 22+ MP.
6. Arise - Cures KO and heals 100% HP. Costs 50+ MP.
7. Regen - AoE 1 Add: Regen. Doesn't discriminate.
8. Refresh - Cures Chm, [Redacted], Stp, Und & Adl in AoE 0???
9. Aero - AoE 2 Wind elemental. Ignore Rfl, but not M-EV.
10. Dispel - AoE 0 cnc all positives + Faith & Doubt.
11. Aeroga - AoE 0 Wind elemental. Ignore Rfl, not M-EV.
12. Vox - AoE 0 cancel Silence + HP healing.
13. Stona - AoE 0 cancel Petrify + HP healing.
Reactions
1. Share Blessings - Renamed Distribute. Might move this up due to potential player abuse versus AI stupidity.
2. Regenerator - "Makes sense" here after all.
Supports
3. Magick Defense UP - Might move up. Unsure and such.
Movements
[None.]
[None]



There are eight Tier 2 Classes:

PALADIN [Req.: Level 3 Fencer (at least)]
CHIVALRY/PURE SKILL
Active Abilities
1. Nurse - Add Regen & Defending to self only.
2. Rend Weapon - Hunh. Only Defender had this in FFT:A2. Regardless....
3. [Redacted] - [Redacted].
4. Healing Wish - Rng 3 instant revival attempt.
5. Iron Defense - Add Protect & Shell to self only.
6. Saint Cross - AoE 1 Weapon-based attack. Hits self.
7. Northern Cross - AoE 1 Weapon-based attack. Does not hit self.
8. Parley - Basically Mediator's Persuade by a new name.
9. Shield Bash - Shield-only ability that adds Sleep???
10. Holy Blade - Strong close-range Holy attack.
11. Southern Cross - Minor Holy elemental to all foes.
Reactions
1. Counter - So *someone* finally gets it.
Support
2. Equip Blades - Will allow for Knives, Swords, Knightswords & "Foreign Blades".
3. Equip Heavy Armors - Still "only" allows for equipping of Heavy Armor/Mails & Helms.
Movement
4. Walk on Water - ...Hey, it's basically the most religious (physical) generic class....


DRAGOON [Req.: Level 3 Fencer (at least)]
(Innate: Doublehand.)
DRAGONHEART
Active Abilities
1. Jump - Spear-only, heavy damage Rng 4 attack. Wind?
2. Lancet - Close-range HP drain physical ability.
3. Beasttamer - Charm only on monsters.
4. Fire Breath - Rng 2 Linear Fire dmg. Learn hit too?
5. Bolt Breath - Lightning version of above.
6. Ice Breath - Ice version of above.
7. Beastkiller - [Redacted] only on monsters.
8. Freya's Wind - Physical Add Regen in self-AoE 1.
9. Transfusion - AoE 2 discriminating HP-recoil healing.
10. Trance Rain - [Redacted].
Reactions
1. Dragon Soul - Renamed Dragon Spirit because, sigh, Reraise still around.
Supports
2. Equip Polearms - Will allow for Polearms, Poles and Axes & Hammers.
3. Two Hands - Has to go somwhere. Not to be x2 dmg.
Movements
4. Jump +3 - And there goes Ignore Height's use for now.


HUNTER [Req.: Level 3 Archer (at least)]
(Innate: Monster Skill.)
HUNTING SKILL
Active Abilities
1. Aim: Vitals - Add: Rdm: Psn, Doom, Dsb, Imb or Bln???
2. Praise - Still +4 Brave? Can't use on self.
3. Undermine - Still -20 Brave? Can't use on self.
4. Addle - Add: Addle on only monsters.
5. Sonic Boom - Bow-only? Linear Wind attack.
6. Intimidate - Add: Disable or Slow to target.
7. Advice - Add Defending & Haste to target. Can't target self.
8. Freeze Shot - Weapon-range Ice element physical.
9. Lightning Shot - Lightning version of the above.
10. Net Arrow - Bow-only. AoE Slw, Dsb, Imb and/or Stp.
11. Accumulate - Add PA +1 to self.
Reactions
1. Dodge Projectiles - Renamed Projectile Guard that will also probably work Guns here since people seem to like that.
2. Brave Up - Because it's not THAT strong.
Supports
3. Train - If it still exists at all.
4. Monster Talk - Will probably have this innately.
Movements
5. Move +1 - I might move this back to Ninja or Thief. Not sure.


THIEF [Req.: Level 3 Archer (at least)]
(Innate: Flee.)
THIEVERY
Active Abilities
1. Steal: Armor - Even if it still doesn't make sense.
2. Steal: Shield - This is logically fine. Unavoidable.
3. Steal: Accessory - Wonder if I can make Shoes immune?
4. Steal: Helm - Also logically fine. Avoidable.
5. Steal: Weapon - This is...dubious, but b/c dangerous.
6. Mug - I still don't understand why Soldier got this in FFT:A and not Thief.
7. Steal: EXP(erience) - Rng: 1 Add: Silence or Add: Addle.
8. Steal: Luck - Rng: 3 Add: Curse or Doubt.
9. Dagger Toss - Knife-only. Dmg + 20% Dsb, [Redacted] or Dmd.
10. Fire Bomb - Fire-damage + 20% Berserk. Limit?
11. Smile - Rng 1 Unisex Charm??? Doesn't work on monster.
12. Preach - Still +4 Faith? Can't use on self.
13. Solution - Still -20 Faith? Can't use on self.
14. Gil Toss - Throw 30+ Gil at one unit. Unavoidable.
Reactions
1. Speed Save - +25 CT to self. How to prevent abuse?
Support
2. Secret Hunt - Will probably still exist.
3. Concentrate - "Has" to go somewhere. Disabled by Blind & Confuse statuses.
Movement
4. Flee - Adds +3 Move if unit is in Critical.


ARCANIST/ARCANE MAGE [Req.: Level 3 Black Mage (at least)]
ARCANE MAGICK
Active Abilities
1. Dark - AoE 1 Dark elemental, moderate-high damage.
2. Berserk - AoE 0 Add: Berserk. Can target self.
3. Curse - AoE 0 Add: Curse.
4. Drain - AoE 0 20% HP Drain. Rng 4 or 5. Unavoidable?
5. Syphon - AoE 0 20% MP Drain. Rng 4 or 5. Unavoidable?
6. Darkra - AoE 0 Dark elemental. Higher dmg.
7. Prominence - Minor Fire damage to all enemies only.
8. Freezeblink - Minor Ice damage to all enemies only.
9. Tempest - Minor Lightning damage to all enemies only.
10. Bio - AoE 1 non-elemental with Psn chance. No Rfl.
11. Vanish - AoE 0 Add: Transparent. Cannot target self.
12. Darkga - AoE 0 Dark elemental. Can Add: Blind.
13. Focus - +1 MA to self.
Reactions
1. Return Magick - Was going to go to Wizard originally.
2. MP Restore - Since it doesn't "deserve" to be at the very top.
Supports
3. Equip High(er) Magegear - Will allow for equipping of Tomes, Instruments & Souls.
Movements
[None]


BLUE MAGE/ANIMIST [Req.: Level 3 Black Mage (at least)]
BLUE MAGICK
Active Abilities
1. [Something from Chocobos]
2. [Something from Panthers]
3. [Something from Bombs]
4. [Something from Malboros]
5. [Something from Dragons]
6. [Something from Lamias]
7. [Something from "Turtles"/Rockbeasts]
8. [Something from Flans]
9. [Something from Flying Eyes]
10.[Something from Goblins]
11. [Something from Dryads]
12. [Something from Tonberries]
13. [Something from Antlions???]
14. [Something from Bull Demons]
15. [Something from Aevises]
16. [Something from Behemoths]
Reactions
1. Mana Shield - MP Switch WITH OVERFLOW DAMAGE TO HP.
Supports
2. Unyielding - Still unsure about this as a whole.
Movements
3. Fly - Will need to cost a lot of JP.


TIME MAGE/DIMENSIONALIST/TEMPORALIST [Req.: Level 3 White Mage (at least)]
TIME MAGICK/DIMENSION MAGICK
1. Haste - Add: Haste in AoE 1. Non-discriminating.
2. Slow - Add: Slow in AoE 1. Non-discriminating.
3. Gravity - Inflict 25% HP in AoE 1. Current or Max HP???
4. Graviga - Inflict 50% HP in AoE 0. Current of Max HP???
5. Stop - Add: Stop in AoE 1???
6. Reflect - Add: Reflect in AoE 0. Can target self.
7. Quicken - Add: Quick in AoE 0. Can target self.
8. Float - Add: Float in at least AoE 1.
9. Immobilize - Add: Immobilize in at least AoE 1.
10. Disable - Add: Disable in AoE 1.
11. Hastega - Add: Haste in discriminating AoE 2.
12. Slowga - Add: Slow in discriminating AoE 2.
13. Bleed - Add +1 MA to self.
Reactions
1. Critical/Last Quicken - "Has" to be here.
2. Share Pains - Renamed Damage Split. This is as close to "Balance" the player is getting (on a generic).
Supports
3. Short Charge - No reason to move this. Needs balance.
Movement
4. Levitation - Float Movement renamed. Similarly no reason to move this.


SUMMONER [Req.: Level 3 White Mage (at least)]
SUMMON MAGICK
Active Abilities
1. Ifrit - AoE 3 Fire spell, weakest/fastest??? Avoidable???
2. Shiva - AoE 2 Ice spell, middling/least MP??? Avoidable???
3. Ramuh - AoE 2 Lightning spell, strongest/slow??? Avoidable???
4. Titan - Instant Self AoE-2 Earth spell. Avoidable.
5. Moogle - AoE 1 restores HP with some status restore.
6. Seraphim - Old Fairy. AoE 2 discriminating Regen.
7. Phoenix - Old Salmander. AoE 1 discriminating revive.
8. Leviathan - Water elemental. [Redacted].
9. Odin - Instant Linear avoidable spell. Holy elemental.
10. Bahamut - AoE 2 non-elemental summon.
11. Carbunkle - AoE 1 discriminating Reflect.
12. Siren - AoE 0 Add: Silence & Undead.
13. Cyclops - AoE 2 discriminating Wind spell.
Reactions
1. Faith UP - Nowhere else for it go really.
Supports
2. Half of MP - Will probably become only 75% of MP.
Movements
3. Pilgrimage - I'm no longer convinced deserves to be at the top despite adding +2 Faith per move.



Finally, there are four Complex Classes:

MIME [Req.: Level 5 Chemist & Monk (at least)]
(Innate RSMs: Brawler, Concentrate, Share Pains & Move-HP Up.)
(Innate Immunities: K.O., Undead, Petrify, Berserk & Doom.)
MIMICRY
Active Abilities
[None]
Reactions
[None]
Supports
[None]
Movements
[None]


NINJA [Req.: Level 5 Chemist & Monk (at least)]
(Innate: Dual Wield.)
NINJUTSU
Active Abilities
1. Kagesougi - Basically a way to "replicate" Throw.
2. Katon - UnFaith Fire attack with chance of Confuse.
3. Doton - UnFaith Earth attack with chance of Slow.
4. Fuuton - UnFaith Wind attack with chance of Blind.
5. Suiton - UnFaith Water attack chance of Silence.
6. Mokuton - Weaker UnFaith atk with chance of Disable.
7. Mahou no Shi - Weapon-based attack + Dispelling of positive status.
8. Boukyaku - Rng: 3 Direct Dark element attack + Addle.
9. Mushin (no Shin) - Add: Doubt to self.
Reactions
1. Conceal - I decided it no longer needed to be top.
2. Abandon - This will be getting nerfed to "only" 50%.
3. Meatbone Slash - Almost forgot about this entirely.
Supports
4. Two Swords - Ninja still has this innate. It's getting low PA to compensate.
5. Overwhelm - As with Unyielding, still unsure about.
Movement
6. Warpath - Again, no longer convinced this is "tops" due to adding only +2 Brave/Fury/[Redacted] on every move.


SAGE [Req.: Male; Level 4 of Tier 2 Mages (at least)]
ANCIENT LORE/ANCIENT MAGICK
1. Wild Tornado - Wind damage to *all units*.
2. Soil Evidence - Earth damage to *all units*.
3. Deluge - Water damage to *all units*.
4. Wall - AoE 0 Add: Protect & Shell.
5. Reraise - AoE 0 Add: Reraise.
6. Astra - AoE 0 Add: Bless.
7. Countdown - AoE 0 Add: Doom. Cannot target self.
8. Apostasy - AoE 0 Add: Doubt.
9. Frog - AoE 0 Add: Frog.
10. Break - AoE 0 Add: Petrify.
11. Holy - AoE 0 Holy attack spell. Ignores Reflect.
12. Flare - AoE 0 non-elemental. Ignores Faith & M-EV.
13. Meteor - AoE 3 non-elemental. Ignores all of above.
Reactions
1. HP Restore - Because until it's 1-only and/or the AI can see reactions, it's "tops."
2. PA Save - Too abusable to be lower even with Xifanie's limiter???
3. MA Save - Too abusable to be lower even with Xifanie's limiter???
Supports
[None]
Movements
4. Move-HP Up - Again, "top tier" movement.
5. Move-MP Up - Again, "top tier" movement.
6. Teleport - I'll maybe let players have this in Human Advancement.


ASSASSIN [Req.: Female; Level 4 Tier 2 Fighters (least)]
KILLING HAND
1. Ague - [Redacted] to single-target at Rng 3.
2. Rockseal - Close-range, add Petrify. Can be dodged.
3. Last Breath - KOs Critical or Doomed or Stp targets.
4. Shadow Stitch - Weapon attack + add Imb, Dsb or Slw.
5. Slit Throat - Dmg + Slc & Dmd. CT. Blades-only. Human only???
6. Poison Kiss - Add Poison & Charmed. Human only???
7. Heartbreaker - Heavy damage to Charmed targets.
8. With Knives - Knife-only. [Redacted].
9. Nightmare - Add Addle & Sleeping. Probably won't work on Sleeping targets.
10. Sky Twister - Fists or Knuckles-only (probably). [Redacted.]
11. Shadow Counter - Katana-only. [Redacted.]
12. Rising Nova - Sword-only. [Redacted.]
13. Bound Shot - Bows or Guns only. [Redacted.]
Reactions
1. HP Restore - Because until it's 1-only and/or the AI can see reactions, it's "tops."
2. PA Save - Too abusable to be lower even with Xifanie's limiter???
3. MA Save - Too abusable to be lower even with Xifanie's limiter???
Supports
[None]
Movements
4. Move-HP Up - Again, "top tier" movement.
5. Move-MP Up - Again, "top tier" movement.
6. Teleport - I'll maybe let players have this in Human Advancement.



Bloody hell. Not only do did that take longer to edit despite just copying and pasting most of that, but I also just realized I forgot to give Focus--MA +1 equivalent of Accumulate--to anyone. Maybe I'll give it to Time Mage or Arcanist. Hmmm....

Anyway, considering that still turned out longer than I thought it would be, I'll save the more minor things for next post. I guess I'll deal with them tomorrow or something. Shrug.


P.S. And by "reasonable" responses, I'm also excluding one-word replies here they're avoidable or replying to things have nothing to do with anything like things I might post from Youtube. That's what PMs are for. Thanks.

SOLDIER
1. Rend Power renamed Rend Strength.
2. Rend Magick renamed Rend Mind.
3. Rend MP renamed Rend Magick.
4. Pilfer Gil "replaced" with Barter.
5. Mimic Daravon renamed Drone.
6. First Aid split between Gauge & Revive.
7. Revive renamed First Aid.
8. Soldier lost Equip Shields to Fencer.
9. Soldier gained Move-Get JP from Monk.
10. Equip Shield renamed Equip Shields.

CHEMIST
1. Chemist officially has Innate: Throw Item.

MONK
1. Pummel is "decidedly" Water elemental for now.
2. Monk lost Move-Get JP to Soldier.
3. Monk gained Equip Clothing from Fencer.

GREEN MAGE
[No changes.]

FENCER
1. Fencer lost Equip Clothing to Monk.
2. Fencer gained Equip Shields from Soldier.

ARCHER/MARKSMAN
1. Archer/Marksman lost Dodge Projectiles to Hunter.
2. Archer/Marksman gained Catch Blades from Hunter.
3. Projectile Guard renamed Dodge Projectiles.
4. Blade Grasp renamed Catch Blades.
5. Cupid is dead (for now).

WIZARD
1. Wizard lost Bio to Arcanist.
2. Wizard gained Zombify from Arcanist.
3. Zombie renamed Zombify.
4. Counter Flood now guaranteed.
5. Counter Flood renamed Gaia Revenge.

PRIEST
[No changes.]

PALADIN
1. Paladin gained Southern Cross from Arcanist.

DRAGOON
1. Skill set renamed Dragonheart, not Dragon Soul.
2. Dragon Spirit now renamed Dragon Soul, not Dragonheart.
3. Dragoon has Innate: Doublehand now.

HUNTER
1. Capture is dead.
2. Threaten Intimidate is now in its place.
3. Vanilla Threaten renamed Undermine.
4. Hunter lost Catch Blades to Archer/Marksman.
5. Hunter gained Dodge Projectiles from Archer/Marksman.
6. Hunter officially has Innate: Monster Talk now.

THIEF
1. Steal: Voice & Steal: Experience merged.
2. Steal: Voice technically dead.
3. Thief gained Steal: Luck.
4. Thief has Innate: Flee now.

ARCANIST
1. Stardust is dead.
2. Arcanist gained Curse.
3. Arcanist lost Bleed to Time Mage.
4. Arcanist gained Focus from Time Mage.
5. Arcanist gained Zombify from Sage.
6. Arcanist lost Zombify to Wizard.
7. Arcanist gained Bio from Wizard.

BLUE MAGE
[No changes (yet).]

TIME MAGE
1. Time Mage lost Comet.
2. Time Mage lost Focus to Arcanist.
3. Time Mage gained Bleed from Arcanist.
4. Damage Split renamed Share Pains.

SUMMONER
1. Odin "decidedly" Holy elemental for now.
2. Silf turned into Siren.
3. Due to this, Cyclops now decidedly Wind elemental.

MIME
1. Mime now has Brawler, Concentrate, Share Pains & Move-HP Up as its innate RSMs.
2. Mime now has innate immunity to K.O., Undead, Petrify, Berserk and Doom.

NINJA
1. Shikage renamed Kagesougi.
2. Mugen renamed Mahou no Shi.
3. Oyami renamed Boukyaku.
4. Ninja gained Mushin (no Shin).
5. Ninja officially has Innate: Dual Wield.

SAGE
1. Sage lost Zombify to Arcanist.
2. Sage gained Astra.

ASSASSIN
1. Assassin lost Moonlight Cut, Blizzard & Tres Flores to Samurai (Lavian).
2. Assassin gained Sky Twister, Rising Nova & Bound Shot.
3. Assassin will decidedly have access to Guns now.
4. Oblivion renamed Nightmare and slightly buffed.
"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"

Dome


"Be wise today so you don't cry tomorrow"

The Damned

(Hunh. I hadn't realized I reached 1600 posts with that last post. Not that it matters or anything, even if it's a semi-interesting number in general....

Regardless, I didn't mean for my useless ass to lazily fall asleep for about eight hours. I blame "Sora" for preemptively lulling me to sleep.)

Anyway, I at least don't have to double post, even if I've kept Dome waited for 17 hours now. Hurray!

Before I answer him, I'll get the above "minor" issues out of the way, starting with a few things I realized after going back to edit that class post quite a few times:

1. No one has Focus. At present, I'm probably going to give it to Time Mage for now and have Comet be Blue Mage only (in the form of Choco Comet). Alternately, I may just kill off Graviga, but the Comet for Focus option seems better for now.

2. No one has Doubt. I suppose I'll kill off Erase for Doubt since I was going to give Doubt to Sage anyway. Erase will probably become enemy-only if it still exists.

3. I should indeed probably move another revival down to the start classes. As such, Revive will go to Soldier and Paladin will get another revival called "Healing Wish", that's Range 3 and instant but lesser. Basically the plans for the change to ARENA's Squire's Wish, except I would like to think that maybe it will actually be useful unlike the current version of that technique now.

4. I remembered that I could "borrow" from Eternal's Grim Grimoire patch in some instances given the subject of its changes being balance and such. At present, this would probably only really affect the Bolt series of spells.

5. I remembered that Ice is supposed to be named Blizzard...which is the same name as Saga Frontier ability that Assassin has. Meh. Maybe I'll slightly rename Assassin's Blizzard to something else, but for now people can deal because they're hardly alike outside of both being Ice elemental at present.



Let's now equip Monster Talk:

There's no much else I can say at present that Blue Mage hasn't already pointed too. However, I'll point out that since part of the reason I'm doing this part is to test out things for the more complex Embargo, Squidlarkins, Skeletons, Ghosts and Hydras still exist, but only as special monsters. Therefore, the only monster that's currently completely "extinct" is the Uribo...whose sprite I will still be using for Antlions at present. Aevises and Behemoths may join them in "extinction, but both of those are more likely to become special only monsters than utterly die.

Let's quite list the monsters that will supposedly exist as "normal monsters" and how guaranteed they are to stick around:


NORMAL MONSTERS
1. Chocobos - Guaranteed because duh.

2. Panthers - Pretty damn good.

3. Bombs - Guaranteed.

4. Malboros - Guaranteed.

5. Dragons - Guaranteed.

6. Lamias - Guaranteed since it actually has a custom sprite. (Thanks, Kagebunji and co.)

7. "Turtles"/Rockbeasts - Iffy despite having a custom sprite, mostly because their skills are going to be difficult to balance. (Thanks again, Kagebunji.)

8. Flans - Guaranteed, especially now that I realize Choto finished the sprite months ago. (Thanks, Choto.)

9. Flying Eyes - Guaranteed, though they (unfortunately) won't have the huge-ass monsters they had in FFT:A.

10. Goblins - Guaranteed.

11. Woodfolk/Treefolk/Dryads - Pretty good, though again there are...naming issues.

12. Tonberries - Rather good considering they've had custom sprites for a while, though like Rockbeasts, they are going to be difficult to balance. (Thanks yet again, Kagebunji.)

13. Antlions - Extremely iffy. No one's really clamoring for them and I'll currently have to use Uribo sprites, but the other choices aren't exactly stellar aside from Wolves & Cactuars, which I'm already using in Embargo; I want there to be some differences monster since I don't have to worry about story as much here. I'm considering using Werewolves since they have a sprite, but something...bugs me about them. I can't put my finger on it at present.

14. Bull Demons - Quite good despite having only nominal significance again here as in Vanilla.

15. Aevises - Might become special-only monsters, though that's unlikely.

16. Behemoths - Likelier than the above to become special-only monsters for several reasons, one of which include the inclusion of Rockbeasts. If they do, though, they'll show up as special monsters and probably in at least one story battle.


Speaking of stories, as with Embargo, I'm going to try to have Monsters show up more in Story Battles. Considering that I'm thinking about killing Invite here as well, there will probably be some random encounter join events as well. Aside from that, I'm not sure if I'm going to go to the same lengths of "monster diversity" as in Embargo, but there's a decent chance that Monster Skill is staying dead regardless.



Let's speak of Invite more closely:

Unlike Embargo--I swear, only three more instances of explicit comparison to that in this post after this sentence--where I'm killing like 10 statuses, at most 6 statuses here "have" to die:

REVISED STATUSES:
1. [Redacted] - [Redacted].

2. Crystal - Necessary. Letting it keep its learning.

3. KO - Dead renamed. I suppose "Knocked Out" might do.

4. Undead - Necessary. Not sure if I'll "test" all my Embargo changes here, but I'll definitely at least try "Unit Absorbs: Dark and becomes Weak: Holy".

5. Charging - Necessary. Might lose mid-charge bonus.

6. Banish/X-Zone - Given both it and Jump remove units.

7. Defending - Will be merged with Chicken here too.

8. Performing - "Necessary", though may be replaced.

9. Petrify - Necessary. [Redacted.]

10. Invite - For now I'll just merge Chicken & Defend (alive) so that this can "live" for now. It may still die though.

11. Blind - Necessary. Canceled on KO here too now.

12. Confused - "Necessary". Will be made finite by using Reflect's CT. We'll see how that turns out.

13. Silence - Neccessary. Canceled on KO here too now.

14. Astra - Blood Suck again replaced by [Redacted.]

15. Addle - Wonder if there's a way to make finite....

16. Treasure - Can stick around this time. For now.

17. Oil - Necessary. Easy to fix and customize now.

18. Float - Necessary. Probably still "opposes" Imb.

19. Reraise - Can continue to stick around now.

20. Transparent - Can...probably stick around for now.

21. Berserk - Necessary. [Redacted.]

22. [Redacted] - [Redacted.]

23. Frog - Necessary. Cancel on KO here as well.

24. Critical - Necessary. Not so important here though.

25. Poison - Necessary. Will probably last past KO now.

26. Regen - Necessary. Will probably last past KO now.

27. Protect - Necessary. Unlikely to change at all.

28. Shell - Necessary. Unlikely to change at all.

29. Haste - Necessary. Likely only 33% boost at max now.

30. Slow - Necessary. Likely only 33% cut at max now.

31. Stop - "Necessary". Differs from X-Zone...for now.

32. [Redacted] - [Redacted].

33. Faith - "Necessary". [Redacted.]

34. Doubt - "Necessary". [Redacted.]

35. Charm - Necessary. Will probably lower CT time.

36. Sleep - Necessary. Will probably lower CT time.

37. Immobilize - Necessary. Will likely break evasion.

38. Disable - Necessary. Will likely break up evasion.

39. Reflect - Necessary. I wonder if there's a way to make it reflect back, though that's not terribly important.

40. Doom - "Necessary". Death Sentence renamed. See if I can add Sap to it?


Redactions aside, it's easy to see that I'm not doing anything nearly as radical here, including leaving the names mostly alone (for now).



Let's end with Equipment:

Invoking George Takei aside, for the most part, the type of equipment will be the same as it was in Vanilla. Not to say that I won't try to make everything more viable and that I won't tell misandry to sod off, but I'll try not to...obsess over it as much as I tend to do.

Similarly, given that I'm taking FFT:A as a larger influence here, when it comes to weapons, it's a task of getting rid of entire categories that has to be done first. I'm pretty sure that FFT:A and its sequel have the most amount of weapons of any Final Fantasy game save for maybe FFXI (which I've never played). So therefore it's an understandable annoying task, which is why I kind of fell asleep earlier.

That said, I think I've gotten the basic "gist" of things down enough. So let's talk about what's getting in and what's (probably) not:

1. Fists - Kind of the default. They're probably going to "borrow" the ARENA formula of PA * 9 because any formula being quadratic just asks for problems.

2. Daggers/Knives - Sticking around (in people's ribs).

3. Ninja Swords - These are...surprisingly iffy since both FFT:A Ninja and Assassins use Katana instead. They're not guaranteed dead yet, but their odds aren't looking good.

4. Swords - Of course. [/M. Bison] These will probably include "Sabers", "Blades" and "Broadswords" from

5. Knight Swords - These will also definitely exist and are probably absorbing FFT:A Greatswords, which means that some Knight Swords might actually get to be one-handed.

6. Katana - "Of course"...unless Ninja and Assasins

7. Axes - These are probably getting combined with Hammers (again), though FFT:A only has like four Hammers, so there will be less of them.

8. Rods - These will remain their usual Range 1 selves here. May or may not let them become MA * WP.

9. Staves - Also staying more or less the same.

10. Flails - These will probably become FFT:A Maces as much as that makes medievalists scream. If not, then they're probably become FFT:A Hammers,  as much as that's probably even worse.

11. Guns, Physical - Will still be usable generics here. Not going to even bother including FFT:A2's Hand Cannons here. Probably.

12. Guns, Magickal - Will...probably still exist. Shrug.

13. Crossbows - Currently unsure whether I should replace them with Greatbows, combine them with Greatbows or just have Greatbows be their own category.

14. Longbows - ...Or have Greatbows be the latter part of this category as they ended becoming in Embargo.

15. Instruments - I'll see if I can include Bells I had planned in Embargo originally, but for now you're "stuck" with Harps.

16. Dictionaries - These are...surprisingly iffy. They don't show up in FFT:A at all and when they showed up in FFT:A2 they were apparently just glorified cudgels. If they continue to exist, I'll try to not end up making them overpowered as happened in my initial plans for that which has past its naming limit.

17. Spears - These are guaranteed.

18. Sticks/Poles - Like Dictionaries, these are surprisingly iffy since they only show up in FFT:A2 apparently. They'll probably stay around and probably remain MA * WP here. Probably.

19. Bags - These are doubtless dying because misandry can be burn. Otherwise, I guess I'll make them unisex and available to all classes as in ARENA, but there's only so much Item Attribute space.... Currently planning to replace these (or Ninja Swords) with Rapiers though.

20. Cloths - These are dying and being replaced by Knuckles (and NOT Cards) probably. I just...have to make the sprites for those. Hurray.


I'm not even thinking about making stats for things yet.



With that finally all said, I can now reply to Dome:

Quote from: Dome on November 23, 2012, 04:47:05 am
"Move = 0"
"Move - 1"
What the?


I really have to remember that not everyone around here checks up ARENA just because it's part of the same forum.

Anyway, both of those Movements are from the latest version of ARENA and both do exactly what they say, except that Move=0 has the hidden caveat of saving you 20 CT because you aren't moving/can't move but aren't inflicted with Don't Move/Immobilize. So therefore it has actual use for the player on certain classes, like Arcanist (which is why in that class) and Sage, as well as the AI on a few maps. This as opposed to Move -1, which if it even exists in Human Advancement, would be AI only to make it slightly less stupid.

Of course, this is rather arrogantly assuming that FFMaster will me use his ARENA stuff in the first place, but considering how much I nag him as it is....
"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

Adding either Move = 0 or Move -1 to a non-AI patch is a terrible idea.  The player has the Wait command and since it's PvAI those Movements shouldn't be as necessary since you have far more control of AI battle formations than a player in Arena does.

The Damned

(*facepalms*

I can't believe I forgot about Wait.)

Hmmm...I suppose it would be useless to players then. That said, even with the control of AI formations, given we still don't much about the AI instructions in ENTD, Move=0 and Move -1 could be useful in some places for the AI. It wouldn't be freely available to them though of course.

Then again, I guess I could just make some dummy classes with Move of 0 automatically, but I'm not sure how many classes I'm going to "need" at present even with all the extra space and what might happen with monsters. It's also not like I couldn't "buff" Move=0 if need be, though I suppose I'll need something else to give to Arcanist now.

Too bad everything else that's left over from Vanilla either is broken (Hamedo, Non-Charge, Gained JP Up (in a way)) or sucks (everything else), not counting the Equip skills I haven't decided on yet.
"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

...We have a fairly good grasp of how the ENTD works.  I can use ENTD instructions to make two AI teams play King of the Hill if I wanted to.  They should be on the forum if you dig a bit since that's where I found them.  Either that or the wiki.  I'd post them but I forget where I saved them to at this particular moment.

The Damned

(Weird that I didn't notice you posted in here until Friday night. ...Or was it 2:00 A.M. Saturday morning? Everything kind of bleeds together....)

Anyway, in lieu of doing anything else productive yesterday despite up since the aforementioned 2:00 A.M., I think I've managed to "hash out" the basic equipment stuff. As in, what equipment type of is (probably) getting in, what Equip X Support it's getting assigned to and what generic class is (probably) getting what.

I'll make three lists for this, of course:

So, Bags and Cloths are definitely dead. Beyond that, things are still hazy with regards to Ninja Swords/Ninjato & Katana, Crossbows & Greatbows and, now, Magick(al) Guns. That said, I did decide on a new weapon type yesterday:


1. Fists - Everyone has them.

2. Knuckles - Replace Bags. I was going to give them to everyone, but they'll probably be kind of exclusive now.

3. Daggers/Knives - Will be more or less the same.

4. Swords - These will probably include "Rapiers" now along with "Blades", "Sabers", "Broadswords" and the like.

5. Knight Swords - I'm still going to try that Greatsword thing here for now.

6. Axes & Hammers - Will stay as one category for now.

7. Spears/Polearms - Are the same.

8. Sticks/Poles - Are the same and definitely staying now.

9. Guns - Are staying around as a generic equipment still, but will probably have their accuracy "experimented" on. Also, magick guns now look rather uncertain.

10. Longbows - Are still around, though the whole Greatbow issue is still up in the air.

11. Rods - Are of course around. They'll remain close range here, but I'll probably allow them to be MA*WP instead of PA*WP.

12. Staves - Are also of course staying.

13. Maces - Replace Flails (for now). They're basically going to be more offensive versions of Staves in a way (and they're going to make medievalist historians cry).

14. "Foreign Blades" - Currently the name I've given to Katana since I'm still unsure if they'll supersede Ninjato entirely, combine with them or get replaced by them.

15. Books/Tomes/Dictionaries - These will remain as they are since making them mere cudgels like in FFT:A2 would be immensely boring.

16. Instruments - Unfortunately, these are probably going to still only be Harps.

17. Souls - Replace Cloths. These are not buyable in stores and partly the reason that magick(al) guns are now uncertain.


I'm still not entirely satisfied with these, but at least Arcanist has something to replace Move = 0 when it comes to player-usable RSMs:

1. Equip Clothing (Equip Gun): I added this last since I originally had other things in mind, but I figured since I'm "stealing" from ARENA anyway.... It helped that I remembered that not all classes will have auto-access to Clothes/Clothing as Embargo presently allows, which helped sway me. Anyway, this includes Hats, Clothes & Robes and currently belongs to Soldier (which I only just realized this morning creates minor issues with Cloud's class's name). This may go to Monk instead now that I think about it though.

2. Equip Low(er) Magegear (Equip Katana): This will allow for equipping Rods, Staves & Maces at present. This will stay with Green Mage.

3. Equip Shield: At present, I'm planning to have this allow for equipping Ribbons alongside Shields; it might also allow for Knuckles. Presently, it got bumped up to Fencer, but it might go back to Soldier even if it doesn't get the ability to allow for Knuckles.

4. Equip Ranged (Equip Crossbow): This will contain Longbows, Guns and whichever makes the cut of Crossbow or Greatbow. If both then, it will contain both of those. Probably. Currently on Archer, though I may move it up to Hunter, partly because I just realized that Train may die, if only because I might not be able to "isolate" Invite within it and it only.

5. Equip Blade(s) (Equip Sword): If the above already seemed possibly cluttered, then this one is even more so between it currently being certain to hold at least Knives, Swords, Knightswords and "Foreign Blades". If "Foreign Blades" split up and both Katana & Ninjato exist as separate categories, then they'll still both be here. It's rather...unprecedented to have four equipment pieces under an Equip X space, much less five, but I figure that Equip X needs to be more useful anyway without allowing for everything under the sun (for now). This is currently bumped up to Paladin since essentially both Equip Light Blade and Equip Heavy Blade--again, ARENA references--combined here for reasons that will obvious on the last entry.

6. Equip (Heavy) Armor: This will definitely remain "merely" Armor & Helm since it was always the only useful Equip X ability all the way back in Vanilla outside of maybe Equip Shield. This is also assuredly remaining on Paladin.

7. Equip Polearms (Equip Spears): This will combine Spears/Polearms, Sticks/Poles and, partly because they have nowhere else to go, Axes & Hammers at present. This Equip alone was part of the reason I entertained making Rapiers their own category, but I'm increasingly unconvinced that they should be, so it's fine. Probably. Anyway, this is of course on Dragoons and of course is staying there.

8. Equip High(er) Magegear: With the addition of Souls and what I intend for them, I decided to split up Magegear along the lines of ARENA's Blades. This was partly because Arcanist needed an RSM, but not entirely. Anyway, this is currently to contain Tomes, Instruments and Souls.


On top of all of that, Martial Arts may or may not allow the user to equip Knuckles if those doesn't go to the potentially hodgepodge Equip Shield.


I'm pretty much copying this wholesale from my brainstorming in Notepad yesterday, where I realized that the only class that is remotely decided at present is Dragoon. It's rather surprising that I have any class decided already, actually.

That said, given I'm trying to not go overboard with equipment accessibility "just because" like in Embargo, much of what's in parentheses likely won't happen. Additionally, Tomes and/or Instruments perhaps won't be so seemingly ubiquitous:


1. All Classes: Fists, Knuckles, All Accessories. [Actually, the more I think about it, the more Knuckles should maybe not be for everyone.]

2. Soldier: Knives, Swords, Axes & Hammers, Spears, Shields, Hat, Clothes. (Heavy Armor? Helms? Robes? Poles? Longbows? Ribbons?)

3. Chemist: Knives, Tomes, Guns, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Instruments instead of Tomes? Longbows? Crossbows? Shields?)

4. Monk: Poles, Ribbons, Clothes. (Spears?) [Knuckles if not for everyone.]

5. Green Mage: Rods, Staves, Maces, Instruments, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Tomes? Instead of Instruments?)

6. Fencer: Knives, Swords, "Foreign Blades", Hats, Clothes, Helms, Heavy Armor. (Spears? Poles?)

7. Archer/Marksman: Longbows, Guns, Crossbows (unless part of Greatbows), Hats, Clothes. (Shields?)

8. Wizard/Black Mage: Rods, Tomes, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Knives?)

9. Priest/White Mage: Staves, Maces, Instruments, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Axes & Hammers? Tomes?)

10. Paladin: Swords, Axes & Hammers, "Foreign Blades", Knightswords, Shields, Helms, Heavy Armor, Robes. (Knives? Maces?)

11. Dragoon: Swords, Axes & Hammers, Spears, Poles, Shields, Helms, Heavy Armor.

12. Hunter: Knives, Greatbows (or Longbows), Guns, Hats, Clothes. (Shields?)

13. Thief: Knives, Longbows (or Crossbows), Hats, Clothes. (Swords? Guns? "Foreign Blades"? Ribbons?) [Knuckles if more exclusive?]

14. Arcanist: Rods (or Staves if coming from White Mage), Tomes, Instruments, Souls, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Maces?)

15. Blue Mage/Animist: Knives, Swords, Rods, Staves, Souls, Shields, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Maces? "Foreign Blades"?) [Knuckles if exclusive.]

16. Time Mage/Temporalist: Staves (or Rods if coming from Black Mage), Tomes, Poles, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Souls? Instruments? Maces?)

17. Summoner: Rods, Staves, Tomes, Instruments, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Souls?)

18. Ninja: Knives, Foreign Blades, Hats, Clothes. (Longbows? Swords?) [Knuckles if more exclusive.]

19. Mimes: N/A.

20. Sage: Rods, Staves, Maces, Tomes, Instruments, Souls, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Ribbons? Poles?)

21. Assassin: Knives, Swords, "Foreign Blades", Longbows, Hats, Clothes, Robes. (Spears? Axes & Hammers? Guns? Ribbons?) [Knuckles if more exclusive.]



I'm still not really sure about "monster" classes, at least when it comes to the whole Antlion issue. As such, I can't really "start" on abilities or stats just yet.

Anyone have any particular feelings about Antlions, giant bugs that are likely to use Earth elemental attacks and Blinding abilities, one way or the other?

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on November 24, 2012, 06:04:59 pm
...We have a fairly good grasp of how the ENTD works.  I can use ENTD instructions to make two AI teams play King of the Hill if I wanted to.  They should be on the forum if you dig a bit since that's where I found them.  Either that or the wiki.  I'd post them but I forget where I saved them to at this particular moment.


I see. That's good to know. Thanks.

I'll have to make sure to look it up when I get back from my walk. I suppose that I should open the page now given my tendency to procrastinate and forget.

We still don't know about when specific random encounters open though, correct?
"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

December 06, 2012, 08:47:16 pm #10 Last Edit: December 06, 2012, 09:32:36 pm by The Damned
(I might as well this now before I forget as well.)

So...I'll count that as "strike two" for anyone having any reservations or preferences to Antlions one way or the other. I'm not exactly "thrilled" about them myself, but I figure that's part of the reason I should probably ultimately do them: no one else seems to wonder anything to do with them. When combined with the fact that I find the Sprite monsters kind of stupid and Bug-type monsters showed up in FFXII, that seems further "evidence" that I should keep with that.

(Even if I'll have to continue to use the Uribo sprite for at least a while, if not longer, which is fine because it feels unfair to ask people to make custom sprites for several reasons. If I had to ask for one, then I'd probably just ask for Cactuar really and use that hear as well, but I'm digressing as always.)

Beyond that, I forgot to say that I'm undecided on some of the (ally) special classes:


1. Rod er...Rad: He's currently the most flexible unit since in Human Advancement he'll likely be back to having no personality much like Alicia & Lavian. At the very least, he'll be back to having next to no plot importance unlike Embargo. As such, I'll just make a simple poll with regards to the route of his job since he needs to be something other than a measly not-actually-special Squire.

2. Alicia & Lavian: Will stick around in this patch, though again, they'll probably still have real personality at all. At present, I'm planning to make them both Samurai of sorts, though not of the Draw Out kind. However, I'm now somewhat wondering if I should try making them (slightly) different sword classes just because it's already impossible to tell them apart as it is and I'd rather have them both becoming actually-special mean something.

3. Boco: Still as undecided as he still kind of is in Embargo, though part of that is because I still have no idea what I want to do with Human Advancement's monsters as a whole yet.

4. Cloud: Will probably still exist. Probably. I'm probably going to screw around with Limit a bit depending on some things or, at the very least, vary Limit more than other people have (if I still have the space).

5. Byblos: May die again. At the very least, he needs to join before you open Deep Dungeon, even if it means he gets "nerfed" a bit.


Not really much else to say right now. I just wanted to add what I forgot before I forgot again.

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on November 24, 2012, 06:04:59 pm
...We have a fairly good grasp of how the ENTD works.  I can use ENTD instructions to make two AI teams play King of the Hill if I wanted to.  They should be on the forum if you dig a bit since that's where I found them.  Either that or the wiki.  I'd post them but I forget where I saved them to at this particular moment.


Raven, I have been unable to find that Wiki page that supposedly has ENTD instructions. Given how obtuse can be and how relatively short my search was, it is entirely possible I just overlooked it, but I didn't see it either way.

So, if you could please point me at it, then I would be gradual grateful.
"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

(Just in case no one else can see it: the Poll ends on Friday at 5:50 P.M. Pacific Standard Time.)

*grumbles something about being horribly doomed, even more so than usual*

Sigh. I figure I should post this before I go on hiatus for the next four days, especially since I of course had a big revelation about something the day after I "swear" to starting doing some actual work and ignore FFH for about (half) a week.

Anyway, there are quite a few breakthroughs I had just this morning:


1. Byblos is now definitely dead (again), at least as an ally. His replacement is secured and indeed comes before Deep Dungeon even opens up.

2. Cloud is definitely sticking around now.

3. Cloud's Cherry Blossom Limit is dead. His other ones were already getting upgraded though, so he'll get "other" compensation.

4. Cloud's Limits will likely generally be usable with Swords, rather than just with Buster Sword or Materia Blade or whatever will be his "unique" Sword.


Everything else relates to Knuckles, which may now be called Gauntlets.



There will be about 7 Knuckles at most. Originally, I was going to have them only be 5 in number despite realizing that FFT:A2 and especially FFT:A had a lot more than I remembered. However, then I remember I had to account for Genji Gauntlets, now a two-of by necessity, as well as Thieves Gloves.

The latter being "necessary" was actually due to a change that I conceived of over the weekend: the Gauntlet accessory will now become the sprite used for the Knuckle (or Glove or Gauntlet) weapons. Due to this change, this means that I'm looking for a new type of accessory, but that can wait. More importantly, that means I don't have to try to make some type of sprite for any of the new weapons already, which is excellent, because as everyone knows, I value indolence.

More seriously, though, deciding that also meant that I've decided on other properties of Knuckles. I even have the proto-types of 7 Knuckles for now:


1. All Knuckles can be used with Two Swords/Dual Wield.

2. No Knuckles can be used with Two Hands/Doublehand.

3. Knuckles will become a part of Equip Shield(s) alongside Shields and Ribbons.

4. Knuckles will indeed be exclusive now. Probably.

5. Magick Hand/Glove(s): +1 MA & Block: Berserk.

6. Poison Claw(s): Add: Poison; Block: Poison.

7. Metal Bracer(s): +1 PA.

8. White Fang(s): Ice element; Block: Slow; Add: Slow.

9. Thief Glove(s): +1 Sp; NAIS (not available in stores); infinitely many.

10. Genji Gauntlet(s): [Redacted]; Block: Don't Act; NAIS; only two of a kind.

11. Godhand/God's Hand(s)?: Holy element; Strengthen: Holy; [Redacted]; only two of a kind.


All of this is subject and open to change or comment of course.



Beyond that, I won't be working on anything until Saturday if I can "help" it.

Regardless, I'll maybe try and do reveals of equipment and such that way in the future if I get any feedback on it one way or the other. It probably beats redoing them over and over again either way.
"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

(Well, only two people voted.

...This is why I don't even bother with polls.)

Anyway, with that said and not exactly being surprising, I've decided something: Alicia will become an Oracle and Lavian will remain a Samurai.

Or vice versa.

Everyone knows I'm indecisive like that.

Regardless, I'll post something more substantial tomorrow and maybe I'll change the poll to something else "important" if I'm feeling masochistic enough.
"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

(Damn. It would seem that I can't make a new poll because the last one had a deadline. That's...a limitation I wasn't aware of, which means that people will have to PM or post for me to know what they want. That or Celdia or Raven or one of the other moderators will have to find some way to fix that...not that anyone really voted last time.

Speaking of things people probably don't care about, currently listening to this song as I type this up: "Breath of Life" by Florence & The Machine.)

First things first: Please go back and check the Jobs post since I just edited that and it has a Changelog of what's been, well, changed. And quite a bit has changed, partly because of my decisions with regards to special classes.


Secondly, speaking of special classes, I've decided on 8 of the 16, with Ramza being counted in that undecided half for now; despite the poll, I'm not counting Rad since if people want for him to be neither, then I no what I'm going to change him to.


1. Alicia: She gets turned into a Vanilla-esque Oracle; I'm specifying this so people won't confuse it with the FFV: Advance Oracle.

2. Lavian: She "remains" a Samurai.

3. Rapha & Marach: Have had that their classes decided a while ago. Suffice it to say, Truth & Heaven Knight and Un-Truth & Hell Knight are dead and staying dead.

4. Meliadoul: Decided just yesterday that she'll be getting all of Zalbag's Ruins that player otherwise no "longer" gets as well keep her own Divine Knight stuff. As such, those Ruins will remain AoE 1 as they were in Vanilla.

5. Cloud: Got a class-name change to Ex-SOLDIER to prevent confusion between his Vanilla class-name and Squire's replacement. Has other changes I'm not going into yet aside from the previous mention of Cherry Blossom's death and probably no longer needing Materia Blade to use all his attacks.

6. Byblos's Replacement: Now has a class-name decided on, though I still have to work out how the abilities are going to work....

7. Reis: Like Meliadoul, she was decided just yesterday. Suffice it to say, she will be a lot less terrifying on the PA side of things in her restored human form now. She'll still be useful though, just not broken. Dragoner is decidedly dead now though.


Speaking of "not broken", I haven't really thought about Orlandu, but he'll probably just become a "hodgepodge" again as he did in 1.3. He's definitely not coming with Excalibur though.

Similarly, I haven't thought much about Agrias, Mustadio, Boco, Worker 8 or, curiously, Ramza yet and Beowulf's skills are probably going to get changed now that Alicia is a Special class Oracle since there's no point in obviating her later on.


Next, when it comes to statuses, I've decided to add Curse as a status as in Embargo. It will oppose the "Bless" status that's basically Veil. Beyond that, Banishment/X-Zone is looking less and less likely, if only because I can't think of a way to make it not affect Ramza if it's permanent; as such, it may very well end up merged with Stop as in Embargo.


Then, when it comes to the poll, I suppose I should explain what I mean by combination thereof: At present, I've decided to "borrow" Eternal's idea for his Parted Way Ninja. This means that Rad will have his Geomancy as a permanent Reaction via innate Gaia Revenge. Meanwhile, his active abilities will all be Elementalist skills.

This will mean that he can't equip other Reactions, but at present he's getting three other innate RSMs to compensate for that. With regards to actual Geomancy, as noted under the Job post's Wizard entry now, Geomancy is getting compromised into the same six skills it did in Embargo. The remaining six slots will be used for Rad's active Elementalist skills (if people approve).


Finally, with that decided, I'm probably going to finally work on monsters now for both Embargo and Human Advancement simultaneously. Ergo, a lot of the skills, innates and such for monsters that are currently described in Embargo's cluttered thread will probably be making their way over here, different monsters & statuses between the two patches aside. At present, Boco & Worker 8/Construct 8 seem like they will be markedly different from their Embargo counterparts at least, but I promise nothing.
"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

April 13, 2013, 03:03:57 am #14 Last Edit: April 27, 2013, 05:36:11 am by The Damned
(...And the poll still won't allow for votes. I could have sworn I asked something--Xifanie?--about this.

Oh well. Guess that means you guys are going to force me to do something I'm actually good at: nagging.

*cracks knuckles*

Prepare your PM boxes.)

Still, even while "waiting" for the poll to be fixed, that's not really an excuse for taking this damn long to update, especially since this was supposed to be the "easier" patch of two between itself and Embargo. And yet with the story revelation in Embargo a couple of days ago, I just realized how little of Human Advancement I've planned out still outside of "necessary" changes to Rafa & Malak's stories and the story of who replaces Byblos.

Oh well, I'm sure that I can start giving that more focus after finally update (normal) monsters fully. I know I said it would be more of a class-patch than a sizeable overhaul of everything like Embargo, but I'd still rather change some story things to at least add to flavor (and unpredictability).

Much like the Embargo thread I just updated, for now (Friday--well, now a minute after midnight and thus Saturday), I'll just be putting up a list of the changed abbreviations for monster names so that I don't have to keep referring back to Excel tomorrow or Sunday, especially since I don't even have a monster post in this thread yet. For shame:


1. Yellow Chocobo (YC)
2. Brown Chocobo (OC)*
3. Green Chocobo (GC)
4. Red Cap (RP)
5. Blaknamy (BY)
6. Gobbledeguck (GK)
7. Fiery Balloon (FB)
8. Living Grenade (LG)
9. Primed Explosive (PX)
10. Ose (OS)
11. Couerl (CU)
12. Grimalkin (GR)
13. Blank Lamia (BL)
14. Lilith (LI)
15. Morrigan (MO)
16. Iced Flan (IF)
17. Flaming Pudding (FP)
18. Shock Jelly (SJ)
19. Blade Biter (BB)**
20. Jagdtoise (JT)**
21. Gil Snapper (GS)**
22. Flying Eye (FE)
23. Ahriman (AH)
24. Plague Horror (PH)
25. Axebeak (AX)
26. Steel Aevis (SA)
27. Cockatrice (CC)
28. Flowsand Serf (FS)**
29. Snow Lion (SL)**
30. Flowsand Knight (FK)**
31. Dryad (DD)
32. Treant (TT)
33. Feywood (FW)
34. Minotaur (MU)
35. Bull Devil (BV)
36. Sacred (SC)
37. Common Malboro (CM)
38. Ochu (OU)
39. Lord Malboro (LM)
40. Humbaba (HB)
41. Lesser Behemoth (LB)
42. Greater Behemoth (GB)
43. Common Dragon (CD)
44. Frost Dragon (OD)
45. Flame Dragon (LD)
46. Pug Tonberry (PT)
47. Tonberry Guard (TG)
48. Holy Tonberry (HT)


*Possibly not a normal monster in Human Advancement, so it would go back to being replaced by Black Chocobo.
**Monster probably exclusive to Embargo and thus probably not shared with Human Advancement.

As for why some of these changes came about, I'll put that in a spoiler since much of it is probably boring to most people (even though its rather concise compared to most things I write). The Adamantoises (Blade Biter and co.) and Antlions (Flowsand Serf and so) are entirely new, so I'll just repost what I just posted in Embargo minus Cactuars and Wolves:

1. Chocobo(s): Only decided about a couple of days ago that Chocobos need to be even more in line with their FFT:A(2) counterparts to degree, hence Blue Chocobos "dying" and merging with Green Chocobos, though that's more just a dye-job and rename, and Black Chocobo being replaced by non-Flying Brown Chocobos among normal monsters.

2. Goblins: Outside of a slight shift to Red Cap's abbreviation becoming RP since Red Chocobos will probably exist again and Gobbledeguck being shifted to GK for unrelated reasons, these didn't change much name-wise.

3. Bombs: These probably changed the most of any class since all of them changed names since felt that the names were still kind of "bland" and would, in-universe, be potential cause for confusion that people would likely have tried to do away with rather swiftly in the language. So, for the most part, the latter two Bombs became something like puns and the first Bombs name is just a reference to some type of Bombs often being called a "balloon"; the "fiery" is there, again, to get rid of Blandness without being a generic color description.

4. Panthers: Of these, only Grimalkin got changed it and kept having to be shifted due to something in the past couple of days. It's "settled" at GR, even if that "annoys" me since it's less specific than "GK" previously was, but whatever.

5. Lamia(s): These didn't change name-wise and even with my liking of Jot5's name choice for the Class A Lamia, "Morrigan" will probably remain the name of Class A Lamias in Embargo (and Human Advancement).

6. Flans: These also didn't change and are also unlikely to change.

7. Flying Eyes: Doomgaze got changed "back" to the Plague Horror name from Wars of the Lions. That's it.

8. Aevises: These didn't change at all, though Axebeak and Steel Aevis's names may yet change as may Cockatrice's abbreviation.

9. Treefolk: On top of deciding to use the Magic the Gathering-esque name for the group as a whole finally, Feywood now uses "FW" instead of "FY", due entirely to the aforementioned mysterious shuffling.

10. Bull Demons: These didn't change and are really unlikely to change.

11. Malboros: Great(er) Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat switched names, so the former became the Lord Malboro with the appropriate change in abbreviation.

12. Behemoths: As per the above, Great(er) Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat switched names, so the former became the Greater Behemoth...and then got boosted to being the Class A monster of the group because Dark Behemoth got kicked out of normal monsters. In its place comes the Humbaba, which is the "Least Behemoth" I suppose since Lesser Behemoth is now Class B. They can all kick your ass even harder now though.

13. Dragons: These didn't change at all.

14. Tonberry(s)/Tonberries: These didn't change at all.


Much like the Embargo thread, I'll probably update monster stuff the same day, since (for now), the changed monsters mostly share moves.

Because I'm lazy like that. [/indolence]


...Oh, and yeah, before I forget: Ninja's "Shi no Mahou" should have been changed to "Mahou no Shi" ages ago. "Death's Magic(k)/Magic(k) of Death" is slightly different from "Magic(k)'s Death/Death of Magic(k)" and I could have sworn I fixed that as soon as I noticed, but I guess not; figures. So...yeah. At present, that's all that's been changed under the class post if you were wondering.

Mahou EDIT: Whoops, I didn't update the change to Dryad & Treant's abbreviations here like I did on Monday of this week in the Embargo thread.
"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

(Belated thanks, Raven.)

Sorry for yet another delay. I was still debating on some of Antlions' skills as well as how to "finalize" Aevises, but I think I've decided both; Aevises are now upgraded in the Embargo thread as well.

Not much else to say here, so I'll just post things:


Chocobos:

Notes:
1. Brown Chocobos replace Black Chocobos as normal monsters, though Black Chocobos still exist. Green Chocobos replace Blue Chocobos entirely, though it's barely a change really outside of name and slight color; they'll probably even be a sort of bluish green or greenish blue since it's mostly cosmetic and those colors are pretty close anyway, especially in Japan(ese).

2. I'm not including Boco here still since this is normal monsters. "Ironically", he's a Black Chocobo now though, which used to be a normal monster.

3. The Classes of these are fixed now, with Green Chocobos definitely being the Class A ones while Brown Chocobos are "only" Class B despite being more offensive than Green Chocobos and Yellow Chocobos being the most common ones still despite having revival.

4. Choco Guard no longer exists on normal monsters and not just because Defending "died"/is planned to get a massive change. In its place, Choco Flame exists on Brown Chocobos, which Black Chocobos were going to get anyway.

5. Still a minor aside, but due to historical convention, Chocobos are (still) now the only monsters who be entirely going off the rather boring [Insert Color Here] [Monster Name] naming scheme. They shall (continue to) remain as such.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Chocobos: Weak: Dark.
2. Yellow Chocobos: Resist: Ice.
3. Brown Chocobos: Resist: Fire.
4. Green Chocobos: Resist: Water.


Shared Shared Affinities: Immune: Blind, Oily & Disabled (NEW!...and tentative).

Shared Abilities:
1. Choco Cure: Much the same in its instant healing. However, I've now decided that it will definitely be stronger than vanilla AND have a chance to add Regen(ing).

2. Choco Ball: No longer Black Chocobo's exclusive move and not just because they "left", this is physical distance move of Range 3 that may or may not be Direct and may or may not self-damage. It will definitely have a chance to add Oil(y) and Blind though as well as possibly another status.

3. Choco Barrier: This will now definitely add Protect(ed) & Shell(ed) at 100%, but in a Linear Self-Auto AoE of 1 rather than a non-Linear Auto-Self AoE 1 that saw me being ambivalent about its success.


Yellow Chocobos (YC): Still the "sharing" ones, they have innate Distribute and are the first monster you're likely to get that can resurrect with their Choco Revive Down, a close-range, instant, but not all that restorative skill. (Immune:  ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)

Brown Chocobos (OC): The replacement "surly" ones, these are the "desert" type chocobos...despite their being only two real desert areas in Ivalice. As such, they may take over Reds' canon aspect of being the "mountainous" ones, but that's of little import at present. Regardless, they are quite use to heat and flame and can us their own Choco Flame to barbeque or at least Slow down attackers with Fire elemental damage; Choco Flame will can a secondary status besides Slow(ed), though that's dependent on whether its Embargo or Human Advancement. (Immune:  ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)

Green Chocobos (GC): The "skittish" ones (still), they are (still) the only mountable monster at present that can walk on water despite my making it so that very few monsters are(heavily) disadvantaged by water. They have now exclusively have Choco Esuna, which is back to being AoE 1, but will actually differ from Esuna now, especially since what Esuna cancels will remain "nerfed" across both versions. (Immune: Poisoned.)



Goblins:

Notes:
1. No longer quite monster Monks, they're more like monster (Embargo) Soldiers than pugilists since they are now modeled a lot more on their Baknamy "ancestors" from FFXII like they should have been from the beginning.

2. As such, "Blaknamy" might simply change to "Baknamy" eventually.

3. With "Steal Weapon" for sure dying in Embargo and being iffy in Human Advancement, where Thief is actually still available to the player, Gobbledeguck ends up not having Steal abilities like either of its brethren.

4. Regardless, "Ogre Run" is dead.

Elemental Affinities:
1. Red Caps: Resist: Fire; Weak: Ice.
2. Blaknamy: Resist: Lightning; Weak: Ice.
3. Gobbledeguck: Absorb: Ice; Weak: Fire.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Poisoned, Charmed, Doubtful & Blind (NEW!).

Shared Abilities:
1. Dash: The same skill as the hume Dash/Body Slam.

2. Goblin Punch: Currently a range 3, instant physical ability that deals semi-random damage and is Wind element.

3. Eye Gouge: Now adds Blind & Disabled instead of Blind & Confused, partly because Confused is dead in Embargo at present.


Red Caps (RP): The red-topped, most common of Goblins is capable of using the hume spell Fire, capable of forcefully putting others to sleep (especially from behind) with its Sleeper Hold and adept at Steal Shield like hume Thieves. (Immune: Sleeping.)

Blaknamy (BY): The black-topped Goblins tend to thieve wholesale from humes, being quite good at using their Cure and Bolt spells and their ability to Steal Helms. (Immune: Disabled.)

Gobbledeguck (GK): A goblin who tried to overcome its aversion to Ice and end up becoming absorbent of Ice at the cost of constantly shivering and chattering all the time it, its skin is hardened by ice crystals and it is quite good at using Ice to heal itself and hurt others. Additionally, it attempts to steal both health and magick through the obscure hume spells of Drain and Osmose respectively. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)



Bombs:

Notes:
1. Yeah, I decided to go with Balloon over Red Bomb even since even as silly as Balloon sounds--sorry, Karnov--and may be something of anachronism, it at least has quite a bit of historical precedence and I was sick of having "Red" [whatever]. I then stuck "Fiery" onto as a part of an "obvious" description loophole--bet you can't wait for "Wet Mindflayers" (Gone Wild). Other than, the other names are based on "puns" since, as aforementioned, in-universe it would both help to cut down on possible confusion between non-monster explosives and Explosives; that and it would just be something humanity would do.

2. Drench is now quite unlikely to die, seeing how it's been done to not be either useless as broken as it once was in its doubtless absurd AoE 3 form. It being exclusive to Fiery Balloons is still up in the air, but I'm already having space issues, so....

3. It needs repeating (again) that Bombs aren't going to show up early on even as much as I want to try to balance monsters to be useful through the game. Them showing up at Sweegy Woods in that story battle would mean that you wouldn't get past that point. Ever. They probably won't show up until Chapter 2 at this point.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Bombs: Absorb: Fire; Resist: Lightning; Weak: Water; Immune: Earth (by virtue of Floating).
2. Fiery Balloons: Resist: Dark; Weak: Ice
3. Living Grenades: Resist: Wind; Weak: Holy
4. Primed Explosives: Resist: Dark; Weak: Holy


Shared Shared Affinities: Immune: ???, Undead, Petrified, Poisoned, Regening, Oily, Immobilized, Reflective. (Reraised might still be here if it wasn't dead...in Embargo at least; in Human Advancement, it's still up in the air whether Bombs will be immune to Reraise there.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Fiery Emission: Currently a quite long range, magickal Fire-element attack meant more to cause a "spark" with its ability to perhaps add Oil on top of damage than to BBQ anything to death.

2. Fire Breath: Back on Bombs as a whole and shared with Flame Dragons as the usual Linear Range 2 Fire-elemental attack since it just makes too much damn sense for them not to have it otherwise it should still exist.

3. Blow-Up: Currently still the only "Shock"-based attack in Embargo, though that may change with Dimensionalists maybe getting Balance, it is also still has Auto-AoE of 2; it is still, however, now Critical Only currently. Due to the recent release of Journey of the 5 revealing its possible, its damage will probably "only" (HP Lost/2) rather than equal to HP Lost; I'm still not sure if it should be Fire element though.


Fiery Balloons (FB): Bright red orbs of death, it doesn't take 99 of these to kill you. Now the sole Bomb with the ability to Drench its foes and cover them in Slowing Oil, it's more of a support unit than the other Bombs, but no less dangerous. (Immune: Slowed.)

Living Grenades (LG): Heavily armored Bombs, they are sometimes said to still be often employed by inquisitors for their supposed strength against unbelievers, earning them the nickname Hell's Furnace despite no clear confirmations of their use. Said also to be wielders of the mysterious Chaos Fragment. (Immune: Blind.)

Primed Explosive (PX): Bombs made from darkest and most sinister flames, they harness fiery power that cannot be held at bay with Fire-proof means: the dreaded Flare spell. In addition to that dread magick, they hold the equally dreaded ability to Prime their enemy and turn them into a bomb of sorts. (Immune: Berserk.)



Panthers:

Notes:
1. Vampire Cats are now special monsters. So, like Boco, they're not getting mention here beyond this sentence.

2. Catnip and Cat Kick are now dead. It would have liked to test the former, but...meh. Just to clarify, Blood Suck does still exist, though it too has a changed a bit in that it no longer causes Undead (since that's self-defeating).

3. In talking with Panda_Tar in that same short back and forth that brought up the Workers, I somewhat agree with him that panther sprites would have larger whiskers at least. For my own purposes, a more squid-like head as with FFXII would also be beneficial, especially due to the Wolves I'm using and obvious similarities between them. Hardly a pressing matter, though.

4. Speaking of which, I admit that I'm (still) not really sure what color Grimalkin and possibly even Ose should be. Couerl is staying the same golden (brown) color though. Ose probably stays a reddish brown and Grimalkin is probably a purplish brown. Brown colors for everyone!


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Panthers: Absorb: Lightning.
2. Oses: Weak: Earth.
3. Couerls: Resist: Ice & Water; Weak: Fire & Earth. (Aside: It's always bugged the hell out of me how, in FFXII, an entire species that supposedly survived an Ice Age is weak to Ice. What.)
4. Grimalkins: Resist: Water; Weak: Fire.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Cursed, Slowed, Disabled & Doomed.

Shared Abilities:
1. Poison Claw: A single-target, pouncing ability much like 1.3, except that it does damage and slightly drains health while Poisoning.

2. Hastebreak: A stronger, close-range only physical ability that has a chance to inflict Slow.

3. Blaster: Previously the signature of Couerls, it is now a familial ability. It has also changed in that while it is still Lightning element and single target, it now inflicts damage and 100% Silenced, Slowed, Disabled or Doomed.


Oses (OS): Long thought to be servants of Hell who stalked in shadow, these large cats can actually be quite flashy with their Lightning-based Discharge ability, which electrifies everyone unfortunate enough to be in close-proximity to them and not absorb Lightning. (Immune: Faithful & Doubtful.)

Couerls (CU): Still thought to be some bizarre experimentation of those hellish, elusive beings known as Illithids, they share the Mindflayer's ability to Mind Blast targets, sending them into doomed confusion and damning rage. (Immune: Berserk.)

Grimalkins (GR): Thought increasingly to be familiars of witches who would hide from the Church's eyes, these cats can blasphemously walk on water and even more queerly generate water from nowhere, shooting it in a crashing line for their Big Wave attacks. (Immune: Oily.)



Lamias:

Notes:
1. Lamias (still) now "replace" Illithids (as normal monsters) instead of outright replacing Uribos, which is now Cactuars' "job".

2. Lamias are intentionally weaker against monsters than they are humans because monsters really, really don't care about mammary glans.

3. Innocence and Fire Kiss are still dead.

4. I am extremely wary of Poison Frog, but since Lamias tend to historically have it, I decided to let Blank Lamia have it, if only at close-range and with dubious accuracy. Unlikely to be any of this distance or at least multi-target Frogging BS.

5. Not really sure about the colors of these gals, though Blank Lamia is probably an icy blue, Lilith the more "normal" red and Morrigan is probably greenish.

6. Lamias now share the first two spells in the Dark series.

7. Morrigan has traded "White Wind" to the Behemoth Humbaba for the formerly Dark Behemoth only Night, which is now definitively called "Stardusted Night"

Elemental Affinities:
1. All Lamias: Weak: Earth.
2. Blank Lamias: Absorb: Holy; Resist: Ice.
3. Liliths & Morrigans: Absorb: Fire; Resist: Holy.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Confused (in Human Advancement at least), Oily, Doubtful & Charmed.

Shared Abilities:
1. Captivate: Shared with Vampires and the Assassins, the snake-women of Ivalice entice man and woman alike with their alluring hypnotism, Charming them from up to three panels away. Other monsters of Ivalice are immune to this type of allure.

2. Snake Dance:  Disarming dance that currently potentially affects those in Auto-AoE of 2, regardless of allegiance, with Slowed, Immobilized, Disabled or ??? (Confused in HuA) if they don't look away.

3. Dark: Being monsters oddly concerned with the hearts of things, Lamias share an odd connection with Ivalice's Skeletons in their ability to tap into the heart of darkness, even though it's for the exact opposite reasons.

4. Darkra: Much like Skeletons, stronger Lamias can use the stronger abilities of the Dark as well.


Blank Lamias (BL): Lamias with cold, dead eyes, they are theorized to have burnt out any capacity to feel emotion long ago. It is said that some have been seen with a smirk as they listen to the pained croaks of those they have turned into Poison Frogs, but this has never been confirmed. (Immune: ??? in Embargo, Poison(ed), Frog(ged).)

Liliths (LI): Lamias especially attracted to displays of emotions, they easily shed false tears, using their infamous Chronos Tears to stop all but the most steel-willed or... literally monstrous in their tracks as they overcome by waves of guilt and remorse.  (Immune: ??? in Embargo, ???, Faithful.)

Morrigans (MO): Conjectured to be something like Lamia royalty, these green-framed serpentine mistresses are masters of the Stardusted Night[/b], able to call upon shadow to lull all present into  deep sleep. It is said that they even have spoken to some, offering the gift of eternally peaceful repose for the mere price of eternal bondage.... (Immune: ??? in Embargo, ???, Sleep(ing).)



Flans:

Notes:
1. These overachieving desserts are still pretty damn lazy. The only reason that I got away with giving monsters back 6 skills is because these guys (and Goblins) steal from everyone else. Goblins at least have their own unique skills; Flans stole theirs from the Dragons.

2. Similarly, Flans are the only monster who have only one shared ability...which is Common Malboro's "unique" ability "Goo". Or it was, rather. It's now Acid, which is basically just a rename but also a technique that Common Malboro no longer has.

3. Previously held Aqualung before thieving from Dragons instead of Illithids.

4. Oh, right. These are Skeletons' "replacements" as normal monster.

5. Iced Flan is lighter blue in color. Flaming Pudding is a light red, maybe even orange. Shock Jelly is a bright yellow.


Elemental Affinities:
1. Iced Flan: Absorb: Ice; Resist: Water; Weak: Fire.
2. Flaming Pudding: Absorb: Fire; Resist: Water; Weak: Ice.
3. Shock Jelly: Absorb: Lightning; Resist: Wind; Weak: Earth.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: ???, Berserk, Frogged, Reflective, Disabled. (They used to have way more than this, but this is more than fine and should be actually fair; they might become immune to Petrified again, though. They're no longer immune to Undead for...story reasons. Hehehe.)

Shared Ability: Acid - Ranged ability that causes damage and can Poisoned, Immobilized or Disabled randomly.


Iced Flans (IF): These even harder than normal monstrous desserts are masters of Ice magick, capable of casting Blizzard, Blizzara, and Blizzaga in addition to what is arguably the pinnacle of Ice magick with their Freeze spell, which will encase an entire area in its icy ire. Despite the many cracks in their shell should one be unfortunate enough to come upon one or more of them, they undergo a quite constant state of regeneration that almost demands Fire be used to soften them. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Stop(ped) in Human Advancement.)

Flaming Puddings (FP): These more runny, red globs reduce all to ash and slag should they remain for long enough, fueled by powerful flames of madness. More akin to Bombs in this sense than their fellow Flans, they are still more solid than they look and rather likely to make things combust even before they begin slinging around Fire magick like Fire, Fira or Firaga or its arguable pinnacle of Ardor, a Fire-elemental magick with wide, explosive range. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)

3. Shock Jellies (SJ): Rubbery yellow slime encases hard yellow eyes full of loathing, ready to electrocute or at least electrify any that fall in range of its powerful Lightning magick. Whether emitting Thunder, Thundara or Thundaga or its single-target, but quick and powerful Burst, it is best to keep one's distance from it or else one is in for a nasty, potentially fatal shock. (Immune: Cursed.)



Flying Eyes:

Notes:
1. Still not entirely sure why Floating Eye wouldn't Float while it had Fly the last time I tested things, though I finally realized that apparently it had Initial Floating status rather than Innate Floating status or Self-Levitate (Float movement) like it should have had. Initial status tends to override things anyway though....

2. Doomgaze's name has been changed "back" to Plague Horror (as from War of the Lions).

3. Part of me feels like Flying Eyes should be weak to Water still as they initially were given that they're one of the few monsters that still can't enter water at all now. However, enough things--probably way too many--are already weak to Water that I'm wary of doing that simply to be "coherent". As long as I'm coherent with most things, I figure a few exceptions won't matter all that much.

4. At present, all Gazes are still Direct despite their massive overhauls. Whether or not they'll still be able to be affected by Steel Will is up the air now though.

5. Piercing Gaze is now dead and the Flying Eyes no longer have Reflect either.

6. Finally "decided" on how to pluralize Ahriman, though that may yet change: Ahrimen. (Still tempted to go with "Ahrimani" though admittedly.)


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Flying Eyes: Weak: Wind.
2. Floating Eyes: Absorb: Dark; Resist: Holy; Weak: Lightning; Immune: Earth (by virtue of Floating).
3. Ahrimen: Absorb: Dark; Resist: Earth & Holy.
4. Plague Horrors: Absorb: Holy; Resist: Earth & Dark.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Blind, Frogged & Immobilized. (Actually might not get anymore since they're the one of only two families to all have two individually different immunities as well.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Stare: Distance AoE 1 magickal attack that damages all in its gaze, whether friend or foe, and has a chance to cause ??? in Embargo or Confused in Human Advancement.

2. Holy Circle: Imported from Human Advancement's Paladin to Embargo, meaning Paladins & Flying Eyes in both versions have it now.

3. Stun Gaze: Now shared by all Flying Eyes, it has a random chance of Disabling, Immobilizing or even Slowing all the limbs of the target.


Floating Eyes (FE): Prying eyes of prurient indolence, they bob up and down, moving quickly only to flee when damaged. Of course, damaging them is difficult in the first place given the liberal use of their Charm Gaze, a hypnotic gaze that causes the afflicted to slip into a state of Charmed servitude or deep Sleeping. (Immune: Disabled & ???; Always: Floating.)

Ahrimen (AH): Eyes of evil malice, their stare is compared to that of the Devil, capable of bringing Blinding, Poisoned & Cursed misfortune upon any who fall under its Devil's Gaze. (Immune: Cursed & Poisoned.)

Plague Horrors (PH): Said to be the eyes of death itself and hence why images of the reaper have only hollow sockets, these monsters' unblinking gaze whimsically dooms those it falls upon. The skin crawling before it begins to tear and bleed is the only warning that one gets that they have been affected by varying but all terrible fates of Doom's Gaze. (Immune: Undead & Doomed.)



Aevises:

Note:
1. Steel Aevis was initially weak to Lightning before trading that to Snowtuar for weakness to Dark instead.

2. Of the monsters currently without absorptions, Steel Aevis ties for first with...Blue Chocobo--well, Green Chocobo now--as the monster next in line to get one possibly.

3. With the changes I plan to make to Petrified, these will be the monsters most affected by that. (Still need to test those changes...and learn coding. Sigh....)

4. (04/27/2013) Okay, so Aevises are no longer "under construction". In fact, they become the first monster to vary between both Embargo & Human Advancement though more are likely to follow: Steel Aevises in Embargo get Twister while in Human Advancement they get the hitherto missing Aera/Aerora spell. In addition to that, Feather Bomb becomes both shared and upgraded, Beak gets and upgrade and Stone Breath dies, becoming Stone Gaze. Beak may go back to being shared though. I'm not quite sure.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Aevises: Resist: Earth.
2. Axebeaks and Cockatrices: Weak: Wind.
3. Steel Aevises: Weak: Dark.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Blind, Petrified, Poisoned & Oily. (No longer universally immune to ???, though they haven't been for a while. They may become Immune: Immobilized since I might do that for all Fly)

Shared Abilities:
1. Shine Lover: Being lovers of beauty, these avians take quite good care of themselves, able to meticulously clean their feathers and even the skin of others to bolster their resolve and their speed.

2. Hawk Glare: Direct glare that can be evaded like a physical attack due to the sheer weight of predation behind it, it Disables prey from a far range before the aevis swoops in.

3. Feather Bomb: To further aid its ability to hunt prey, the Aevises have the unusual ability to trap energy within feathers and then discard them, leaving to shortly blow up and fill an area with quill-sharpnel, even from a distance.


Axebeaks (AX): The most aggressive of the aevises, it is no surprise that it much enjoys divebombing down upon its prey, with such speed and ferocity as to cause heavy damage with its Beak. Given the Cockatrice does not possess a monopoly among its kin with regards to petrification, an Axebeak's already devastating beak can Petrify its prey, turning them into a shiny statue waiting to further carved and polished before being eventually eaten. (Immune: Blind & Doomed.)

Steel Aevises (SA): The heaviest of the birds is not markedly less aggressive, though due to its weight it is generally less mobile than its brethen, preferring more to snipe from a distance with its feathers as it closes in. In fact, its even able to conjure up a mid-ground ability between Aero and Aeroga dubbed Aerora and use magick unlike its brethen. Many have wondered if White Mages eschew using Aerora simply because this monster can or simply because they somehow can't. (Immune: ??? & ??? in Embargo/Confused & Addled in Human Advancement and Floating in both.)

Cockatrices (CC): The most poisonous of the known aevises, it said even its very breath can fell almost instantly. Whether this is actually true is still unknown, as most close enough have met either its rending steel-hard beak & claws or been subjected to its lethal Stone Gaze, meaning they have already been felled.



Treefolk:

Notes:
1. I decided to go with Treefolk over Woodfolk as the family name as it is far more amusing to use the former. (Damn, I'm going to have remember to name at least one of these guys Doran....)

2. Not really sure if Dryad or Treant need an "s" to be plural, but right now I'm pretending they don't. I'm more definite on Feywood not needing to be plural.

3. Sap Spirit is now dead, especially since Treefolk kinda "stole" Pearl Wight's "Mighty Guard".


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Treefolk: Absorb: Wind; Weak: Dark.
2. Dryad & Treant: Absorb: Water; Resist: Earth; Weak: Lightning.
3. Feywood: Absorb: Holy; Resist: Fire; Weak: Ice.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Undead, Petrified, Floating, Frogged & ???.

Shared Abilities:
1. Leaf Dance: An Auto-AoE 2 of magickal nature, it may be somewhat weak, but its Wind-elemental quality makes it rather difficult to dodge, especially when it blankets the area after repeated uses. (I'm still really tempted to name this "Petal Dance"...and have it add Confused, at least in Human Advancement.)

2. Mighty Guard: A single-target ability that bestows Protected, Shelled & Hasted upon a single target. (That Hasted aspect might become something else given how...obsessed the AI is with applying to Hasted.)

3. Rootgrapple: Using the power of the earth, Treefolk are capable of using roots from the ground to damage and Immobilize and/or Slow enemies in a wide yet discriminating area of AoE 2 at range 3.


Dryad (DD): Fledgling wood golems, despite what is arguably a more obvious anger at man's world compared to the other Treefolk, they still possess a Spirit of Care that Cleanses in a wide area around the Dryad's self. (Immune: Immobilized.)

Treant (TT): More mellow than what are believed to be their beginning forms, their Spirit of Calm transcends fixing mere physical ailments, focusing on temporal ones as it Returns spatial and temporal oddities to their normal order. (Immune: Disabled.)

Feywood (FW): Elderly yet perhaps eternal guardians of the woods they are a part of, through the use of their discriminating Spirit of Life to restore the fallen, they prove that any life is precious...so long as it protects nature. (Immune: Stopped.)



Bull Demons:

Notes:
1. Not much to say about these guys outside of the fact that they were the first to make me aware of the Monster Talk issue, which has long since been addressed (at least temporarily), and they share perhaps too much with Orator now.

2. I said the above even before I recently (read: around mid-March 2013) decided to give them three more Orator skills across the board, partly because of Bull Demons' story importance to at least Embargo. I'm not quite sure how they'll act in Human Advancement, though even with the "death" of Orator there, they'll probably be no less talkative. Still, it feels somewhat unfair to a lot of the other monsters....


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Bull Demons: Absorb: Earth; Resist: Fire; Weak: Water.
2. Minotaurs & Bull Devils: Absorb: Dark; Weak: Holy.
3. Sacreds: Absorb: Holy, Weak: Lightning.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: ??? (in Embargo)/Confused (in Human Advancement, Sleeping, Immobilized & Doubtful. (Lost immunity to Chicken's replacement...a while ago. Got two new immunities, though one of those is patch specific since Confused no longer exists in Embargo.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Wave Around: Charging their axe with lightning, they then it swipe around their bodies, creating an unavoidable field of lightning that shocks their enemies.

2. Intimidate: Same as the Orator's.


Minotaurs (MU): Despite having an apparently brilliant mind for puzzles such as mazes, they focus primarily on violence. They are easily angered, lashing out with Rejections and Provoking insults that would make even the most surly Mediator blush when not lashing out with their axes. They will even thrash about like a petulant, overgrown child, shattering the ground in their pale mimicry of Titan with their Earth Shaker, a trait they and the Ochu curiously share. They can Converse calmly as well, but it's usually just as a distraction for another monster's deleterious blow; never listen to them. (Immune: Faithful & Blind.)

Bull Devils (BV): Channeling the anger that so steers the Minotaur to ever fouler ends, Bull Devils utilize a Curse of Rage that causes the afflicted to become Cursed by Berserk feelings, losing one's head figuratively before often literally losing it to the blade of the Bull Devil's axes. Even when not dabbling in blacker magicks, they possess an underhanded eloquence that can be used to Praise, Caution or even lull with a Drone as any silver-tongued devil, which is precisely why they too should never be listened to. (Immune: Cursed & Blind.)

Sacreds (SC): Monsters or perhaps even actual demons that would openly mock Ajora more than with  just their mere presence, they claim to know the "truth" behind Ajora. Among their ludicrous claims, they are often reported saying that they can Preach, Refute or even Befriend better than any benighted human preacher or philosopher. Their blasphemies go further still, as they are able to utilize not only Raise, but the vaunted Holy to smite actual true believers. Increasingly, some have begun to think of them as God's punishment, itself a crime quickly labeled as blasphemy. (Immune: Undead & Berserk.)



Malboros:

Notes:
1. Yes, I am aware that Ochus aren't really related to Malboros, at least outside of FFT. As much space (sprite-wise) and time as it might potentially save me to just make it a separate family of monster, I'm going to continue to run with Ochus as Malboro "cousins". This rather than replace them with another types Malboro and separate Ochus into their own family of (same-looking) three entirely.

2. Ochus still have starting status Sleeping at present, if only because I still haven't been able to test that out, particularly to see how the (allied) AI reacts to it. (I'll have to remind myself to not put them with any Lancers/Dragoons, at least until that Jumping issue is fixed....)

3. As aforementioned under Flans, Common Malboros previously shared "Goo" with the deadly desserts. Flans then decided to be assholes and hog "Goo" all it for themselves, re-branding it as "Acid" before claiming legal rights. Common Malboros plan a class action suit.

4. Speaking of "legal issues", Greater Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat switched names, with Greater Malboro becoming "Lord Malboro". Please address it as such.

5. Cloying Breath is now exclusive to Common Malboros (for now) and Common Malboros & Lord Malboros now share Aero (for now) because air does not distinguish between class...unless you're a filthy Ochu. Oxygen's too good for those guys. [/speciesist]


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Malboros: Absorb: Water; Resist: Wind; Weak: Fire.
2. Common Malboros & Lord Malboros: Absorb: Dark; Weak: Holy.
3. Ochus: Absorb: Earth, Weak: Ice.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Blind, Poisoned, Doomed & ???. (No longer universally immune to Charm or Confused.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Constrict: Whether with tentacles that looks like green ropes or thorny vines, those within the Malboro family are able to Immobilize and Disable any prey they get close enough to catch, tenderizing them before consumption. Despite their multitude of limbs and eyes, though, they tend only to be able to focus on one victim at a time.

2. Bad Breath: Infamous for its detrimental effects, this breath is more than just "bad", even if very few other words would do it much justice in so succinct a space. Capable of causing hysterical Blindness, emetic Slowness, Poisoning, Silence through throat swelling and even immediate deep Sleeping or severe ???, it is best to never get close enough to partake of it.

3. Aero: Shared only by the Common Malboro and the Greater Malboro. Same as the hume spell.


Common Malboros (CM): These plant-animal hybrids are fond of swamps, but picky neither about environment or food. They can breathe a Cloying Breath that greatly differs from the more infamous Bad Breath of Malboros as a much more pleasant, sweet smelling breath used for alluring prey...and mates alike. Non-Malboros targets breathing in the Cloying Breath experience either Charmed delusions or even an immediate Sleeping state and the results of these effects are...less than lovely. Thankfully it takes breathing in a lot of the breathe to be affected unlike the repellent Bad Breath. (Immune: Sleeping & Petrified.)

Ochus (OC): Fond of sleeping more than 12 hours a day, they differ greatly from their Malboro cousins, being decidedly more plant-like in their physiology. It is guessed that they use photosynthesis for much of their energy despite their size given how quickly they can heal when they Rest. However, they are also decidedly carnivorous and violent if awoken, thrashing about violently with an Earth Shaker that puts the Minotaur's to shame. They are even capable of twisting the ether and mist into a likeness of the Aqua spell somehow. There's a reason "Let sleeping Ochus lie" is a proverb. (Initial: Sleeping; Immune: Immobilized & Floating.)

Lord Malboros (LM): Older in age than the Common Malboro, their production of Fruit, goo and Cloying Breath has mostly "dried up" and they even have begun to upon a petrified looked at the end of their tentacles. They are still hearty and long-lived though. As such, in dire straits, they can still exhale a wretched, Putrid Breath capable of felling even the toughest warrior. (Immune: Sleeping & Charmed.)



Behemoths:

Notes:
1. I finally decided to make Dark Behemoth a special-only monster. At present, it is not Always: Undead, however, given that I already have a bunch of those anyway between Ghosts, Skeletons and other things that got bump in the night. 

2. The new monster is named "Humbaba" and is the new "class C". It takes White Wind from the Morrigan class of Lamia. Humbaba will probably of a greenish coloration. It may end up moved to Class B. Not quite sure yet.

3. The two previously existent Behemoths get moved up a "class" as a result, with Greater Malboro and King Behemoth somewhat "switching" names, the latter becoming "Greater Behemoth".

4.  The previous entire shared moveset of pretty much dead. Like "Disaster Warning" died a year ago (sigh), "Mark of the Beast", "Luck's Nadir" and, to a degree, "Comet" died, which is part of the reason why Dimensionalist is losing it.

5. "Ironically", the long-dead "Cursed Wail" returns, though it is massively changed.

6. I'm still debating if I "should" make an RSM like a "Counter Comet/Meteor" when I start (finally) changing RSMs. Counter Magick or Counter Tackle are likeliest to end up dying if that is made though.

7. These were previously the only monster family to resist more than two elements as a whole, though now with Humbaba's inclusion, that's been "broken". Oh well.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Behemoths: Resist: Fire & Lightning; Weak: Water.
2. Humbabas: Absorb: Ice & Wind; Weak: Dark.
3. Lesser Behemoths: Absorb: Wind; Resist: Ice.
4. Greater Behemoths: Absorb: Earth; Resist: Ice.


Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Confused (now Human Advancement-only), Cursed, Floating, Charmed & Disabled. (Technically got one more immunity since Confused/Confusion is HuA only at present, but those immunities aren't shared.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Cometeo: All Behemoths are capable of calling down debris from the sky that can bring devastation, though the extent of its destruction on any given person or area is directly tied to random caprice of the sky and the foul magick that backs it.

2. Cursed Wail: Marking the target through sheer magickal force of will now rather than needing proximity or physical contact, any Behemoth can afflict any unfortunate within its sight from  with a heavy, constant Curse that causes great pain and eventually death.

3. Gore Abyss: Attempting to surround a Behemoth to take it out is just as ill-advised as trying to apply oil to a Bomb. Like the disasters they bring about and embody, a cornered or even just opportunistic Behemoth will thrash about wildly, goring and bludgeoning all near it with its sharp horns and tremendous weight & strength. Wounds inflicted by this tend to be horrific and are often susceptible to ???, Silence if damage the throat or lungs. a Doomed fate if more severe or at general Slowing of the afflicted.


Humbabas (HB): Long thought to not be closely related to other Behemoths despite their similar looks, these beasts manipulate their environs not to calamity but instead to restoration, being able to call a chilly yet soothing White Wind that restores the body. Still, given the supportive nature of this wind to their more destructive brethren and its innate ferocity, they are still disasters by association. (Immune: ??? in Embargo and ???.)

Lesser Behemoths (LB): Even the lesser of these disastrous beasts is capable of bringing utmost calamity to any area, capable of creating sudden Tornadoes of such wide-berth destruction that it is difficult to escape their paths unscathed  even with the length of time that they take to create. (Immune: Imperiled in Embargo, ??? and Poisoned.)

Greater Behemoths (GB): The heaviest of the cursed beasts of burdens that spread, this particular Behemoth spreads that curse through the very earth it treads upon, they can create devastating Quakes to ravage the landscape if given enough time. (Immune: ??? in [i}Embargo[/i],  Immobilized and Poisoned.)



Dragons

Notes:
1. I'm sure I mentioned this more than a year ago before the initial version of this, but "Green Dragons" have been "Common Dragons" for a well over a year. I might change the Common here to some else eventually since it and Malboros (still) sharing that slightly irks me, but it's far better than "Green".  I can't really use "Lesser" here either due to the same issue with Behemoth.

2. I'm still not sure as to the fate of Dragoons (in Embargo) ultimately, but all the stuff that Dragons lost to Flan will go to good use. Besides, Frost Dragon at least got Aqualung out of the deal, even if that's still shared with Illithids. (Dragoner is probably dead though, at least in Embargo.)

3. At present, these all have still initial Reraise(d) in Human Advancement due to Dragon Spirit, but since Reraise(d) still needs a change overall and since Reraise(d) might be staying dead in Embargo.

4. Dragons were pretty much the only family to not get any changes to their moves, but instead  see (only) changes to their elemental and status affinities. Lucky them.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Dragons: Resist: Earth. (I still need to check if Fly even works for them sprite, though. I still can't remember.)
2. Common Dragons: Absorb: Lightning & Wind; Resist: Fire; Weak: Ice & Water.
3. Frost Dragons: Absorb: Ice & Water; Weak: Fire & Lightning. (It's actually absorbed Water for a while; I'm not sure why it wasn't noted.)
4. Flame Dragons: Absorb: Fire & Wind; Resist: Lightning; Weak: Ice & Water.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Floating, Poisoned, Doomed, Petrified & ???; Initial: Reraise(d) (in Human Advancement at least--may get initial: Blessed in Embargo; shrug).

Shared Abilities:
1. Dragon Roar: Releasing a deafening roar in front or around it, a dragon can Slow, Immobilize or even Stop any who are unfortunate enough to hear it.

2. Tail Swing: An close-range ability of varying power, it is nigh impossible to avoid. Should one be unfortunate enough to in the tail's path, they can only hope that its blow lands more softly than usual.


Common Dragon (CD): The common dragon of Ivalice is rather attuned to the element of Lightning, breathing its terribly swift Light Breath upon foes faster than they can react. It also uses its Lightning-affinity to shred a particularly hated target to bit with a Gil Storm fashioned from the coins it loves to hoard, though this tends to take all of its concentration. (Immune:  Cursed, Berserk & Faithful.)

Frost Dragon (OD): As with many Ice-favoring monsters this dragon is more frequently encountered in the north, its Ice Breath carrying with it the cutting, fatal chill of winter. However, it also is known to make its den near large bodies of water regardless of clime, seemingly having been the source of Illithids' ability to use the explosive bubbles known as Aqualung though perhaps the opposite is true. Regardless, as such it is frequently seen near coasts as well, oddly making little distinction between freshwater and salt water. (Immune: ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement, Slowed & Charmed.)

Flame Dragon (LD): On the other hand, this dragon is rather peculiar about its habitats, tending to not venture very far from the again active Bervenia Volcano, where most of them nest. When and where it does venture forth, however, its devastating Flame Breath is sure to leave a trail of destruction as it rains down from the sky. Even the very Wind from its wings is a Choking Gust akin to the Poisoning, sulfurous gasses of that troublesome volcano. (Immune: Oily, Sleeping & ??? in Embargo/Confused in Human Advancement.)



Tonberries:

Notes:
1. These are perhaps the most difficult monster to balance after maybe Behemoths and perhaps Malboros since all three of these monster families need to be tougher than average due to historical "weight", but not so much that they obviate other monsters even despite different affinities and immunities. Ignoring the fact that Nietzsche would bitch at me for being so bound to history (and also for not being his sister), I'm leaning towards being "historically" conservative with regards to these guys being (rather) stronger than the average. As such, I'll (still) try to temper that more later on as statuses, RSMs and formulas as well while stats settle.

2. Related to that notion, Holy Tonberry is the only monster to have no elemental weaknesses. This despite the fact that it absorbs Holy (obviously) and that the other two Tonberries are weak to something. Even in light of what was said above, this might remain so; it's partly balanced by also being the only monster to resist no elements at all.

3. Similarly, at present, Tonberry Guard is the only generic monster still capable of using Teleport.

4. They got Dispel (Magic) over Debarrier a long while and still retain it, though that's still kind...meh. As such, they all got other additions partly between Dispel (Magic) not being enough and "needing" to have Holy Tonberry not be such an outlier even among its brethren.

5. Finally, yes, I'm aware that my Tonberries (still probably) suck quite hard--they're basically porn stars right now--compared to everyone else's Tonberries presently in terms of power. I'm trying to rectify that without having them being kill-everything, instant-death machines. I think the most recent, pilfered additions have done are a decent step in that balanced direction, but they might yet need more.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Tonberries: Absorb: Holy.
2. Pug Tonberries: Resist: Dark, Weak: Lightning.
3. Tonberry Guard: Resist: Lightning, Dark & Ice, Weak: Wind & Earth. (Now weak to Wind instead of Ice, which they now resist.)


Shared Statues Affinities: Immune: Cursed (in Embargo)/Addled (in Human Advancement), Floating, Frogged, Disabled, Imperiled (in Embargo)/Confused in Human Advancement) & Doomed.  (Yeah...they might still have a bit much, though like Flan [and Bombs], they were sadly [even] worse once upon a time. They lost immunity to Undead [universally], Hasted & Slowed already and they might lose Doomed, but I can't see them losing more than that to be honest, especially if they're not getting Petrified back. They might get immunity to Immobilized over Disabled, though. Cursed immunity is now patch specific currently for...reasons.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Chef's Knife: Unavoidable, knife-stabbing attack with rather varying power and the ability to cause ???, it's best to not let Tonberries near you in the first place.

2. Devil's Candle: The icy-chill of a cold flame marks the Tonberry's chosen victim of the moment, making it more difficult for that selected target to escape between the injury, induced sluggishness and even the possibility of ???.

3. Dispel: The same as hume spell.


Pug Tonberry (PT): With its ability to reportedly swim for days in pursuit of its target, it is no surprise that it will aggressively stalk its target over land as well. For what reasons it Stalk/Pursues its victims so aggressively to corner & kill them is unknown, though it does so with the utmost preparation. Its seemingly boundless stamina may come from its ability to use the spell Regen, though some have speculated the reverse is true. Regardless, it can also use the inverse spell of Bleed to further press its advantage on unlucky targets that its knife or foul candlelight cannot yet reach.  (Immune: ???.)

Tonberry Guard (TG): Despite rumors of a Tonberry King, these creatures are so named because one must be ever vigilant due to their ability to teleport. These wordless cowards are fond of teleporting behind their victims, fatally stabbing in the back. Though they speak no words, those who have encountered these creatures and survived without falling into madness or death have heard repeated whispers of "Everyone hates you!", "This is Karma!" or "Behold Everyone's Grudge!" before suffering through a bout of many maladies that arise from seemingly nowhere. Whether this is from the Tonberry itself or some ghostly, frequent companions have to be accurately determined. It has been determined that in addition to their ability to teleport, they can manipulate space to create Walls and even manipulate the mist to use Esuna. (Immune: Immobilized.)

Holy Tonberry (HT): Another mockery of Ajora's religion that befouls Ivalice, it is so-named not because it speaks of religion like its bullish counterpart the Sacred, but because it is said to be capable of smiting with a power equal to God with its Ray Bomb. Utter blasphemy and hyperbole aside, an increasing number of cults have popped up to pay homage to its silent, terrible glory. This rare monstrosity has been said to be able to Bless its followers with holy magicks such as Arise or even Reraise, though this has yet to be confirmed by captured, tortured cultists. (Immune: Undead.)



Human Advancement-only Normal Monsters:


Adamantoises:

Note:
1. The elemental aspects of the "unique" attacks aside from Angry Stamp are still subject to change, especially Matra Magick.

2. The names of these are pretty much decided upon already.

3. Similarly, while the elements of the two abilities are up in the air, for the most part their abilities are decided. Magnetic Resonance & Limit Glove might switch AoEs, but otherwise the only thing I'm not really sure what to do should I kill off Rend Weapon obviously.

4. In fact, the most undecided thing about these guys is whether to refer to them as turtles or, as the current family name implies, as tortoises. Shrug.


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Tortoises (or Turtles): Resist: Lightning & Water.
2. Blade Biter: Resist: Wind.
3. Jagdtoise: Resist: Holy.
4. Gil Snapper: Resist: Earth.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: ???, Doom(ed), Oil(y), Poison(ed) & Addle(d). (May lose Oil immunity, but that would be it outside of maybe becoming immune to Floating because they're fatasses or, to be PC, "big-shelled".)

Shared Abilities:
1. Magnetic Resonance: Part of what makes these massive beasts the bane of blade-wielding warriors is  that in addition to their extreme physical toughness, they often have eaten enough metal that they can create magnetic fields of Lightning in front of their mouth, capable of drawing, shocking and Slowing foes in on go all in one go.

2. Limit Glove:  Foes that manage to stay away from the mouth of an Adamantoise are not necessarily safe, for all of the beasts can cover themselves in a Watery film that saps the strength and health of those immediately around it.


Blade Biters (BB): The smallest of the beasts that came from the East, they have with the fearful Wind of that foreign land: the dread Kamaitachi. Although the cuts it inflicts may be relatively small in comparison to the Winds ferocity, the sharp blades of Wind can pierce almost any armor and even capable of causing horrible ???. Even without that horrible Wind, the beast, as its names lludes to, will gladly Rend Weapons and even Rend Shields that attempt to curb its appetite. (Immune: Berserk.)

Jagdtoise (JT): A beast who diet is more based around rock rather than metal, it is quick fond of eating the increasingly rare Jagd stone. Due to the incorporation of the Jagd into their bodies through diet or mere birth, these repel magicks far more easily than other Adamantoise. They can actively use Magick Ruin to sate themselves and even rend Rend Minds as if Mindflayers. They most dread ability, however, is the ruinous Matra Magick, which conjures missiles of pure magickal energy that can be so destructive that some liken them to Holy judgment. (Immune: Frog[ged].)

Gil Snapper (GS): So named not because of its love of money, but because of the countless Gil spent on blades that break upon its shell, it is the most massive of these beasts, partly as it seeks to Rend Helms and Rend Armor to sate itself. It is also the quickest to anger, often restoring a simple yet devastating Angry Stamp that attempts to flatten a target and drive into the Earth. There has been much gallows humor that those felled by such beasts have already been given a proper burial due to the force and weight of such attacks. (Immune: Confuse[d].)



Antlions:

Note:
1. Given the lack of sprites for these at present, I'll probably just Uribos as filler since those poor things currently seem to be dead in Human Advancement as well now.

2. That said, I think I'm pretty certain that Antlions will be the 16th monster of Human Advancement despite everyone else's seeming ambivalence about it and my own earlier uncertainty.

3. Not much else to say about this these guys though. Flowsand Serfs will probably be black or brown while Snow Lion will be white or blue. Flowsand Knights would definitely be a grayish or silver color though.

4. Aside from oscillating between between wanting Sandstorm to be Earth-elemental or Wind-elemental (since in a "perfect world" it would be both & still work) and being rather uncertain about "Sand Pearl", their abilities are pretty much decided upon. Cannibalize/Spit-up may change a bit as may Snow Out, but otherwise they're basically "done" first go. Of course, I've said that before....


Elemental Affinities:
1. All Antlions: Absorb: Earth.
2. Flowsand Serf: Resist: Fire & Dark; Weak: Water.
3. Snow Lion: Absorb: Ice; Resist: Water; Weak: Fire & Lightning.
4. Flowsand Knight: Resist: Fire & Holy; Weak: Water.

Shared Status Affinities: Immune: Immobilize(d), Addle(d), Charm(ed) & Confuse(d). (Seems pretty fair while also getting across the "hive" mentality.)

Shared Abilities:
1. Sandstorm: Patient creatures by design, the monstrous bugs tend to lie in wait and sending vortexes of Earth and Wind to damage prey as well as Blind or Confuse it into stumbling farther towards them. It has been theorized recently that many of the sudden sandstorms in Ivalice's deserts are the designs of these demonic denizens, a theory that needless to say many find disturbing.

2. Draw In: Despite their fearsome size, the jaws of the Antlion are used more for the Immobilzing impalement of prey rather than its crushing or bisecting so that Antlion can suck out its fluids and carry its nutritions back to the hive. It is best not to think about how this knowledge was confirmed.

3. Spit Up: As per their function within a hive, Antlions can quickly regurgitate a thick, mucous film of nutrition to boost the health and defenses of any of their brethren or, far less commonly, those non-Antlions allied with them for reasons beyond comprehension. Their accurate aim with such a film is just as disturbing as its contents...and taste.


Flowsand Serf (FS): The drones of the hive, while they may mercifully number less than the drones of hive of insects that are far more normal in size, they are needless to say far more dangerous. Due to its drone duties, the Serf has ability to tunnel quite quickly. Even just one can Tunnel Down extremely quickly, creating passages or that pits that extend far in front of it even when completely above ground. (Immune: Poisoned.)

Snow Lion (SL): The outlier of the Antlion family, this bane of the north is still an ambush predator. It is merely that its behavior and even the nature of its hive are more mysterious than those of the well-known brethen of hotter climes, partly because its ability to Snow Out its prey in Blind sheets of Ice mean far fewer live to tell the tale. It has been spectualized that their hives, if they have one, might be led by a Snow Queen, but as of yet, those rumors are just as unsubstantiated as the existence of the legendary Flowsand Lord. (Immune: ???.)

Flowsand Knight (FK): The guards and warriors of the unseen head of the hive, their even more armored exoskeleton and coloration as well as abilities to more readily gather & use energy are where its name come from. Its energy-gathering abilities are readily made evident in its Sand Pearl ability, a brilliant display and brutal dispensing of magick that marks also as the only known Antlion to make use of Mist and magick at all. (Immune: ???).



I haven't gotten much else done this week, though that's in part due to the lengthy editing and annotations of Journey of the Five videos. I won't be here much of today (Saturday), but I should have things finished up there for a bit by Sunday.
"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"