(*is now even more tempted to have (some) stuff not progress just to be contrary despite the difficulty*)
I'm guessing all these changes will be occurring (or have occurred) in the main patch for "PSX" rather than the "PSP" version that you're (still?) working on, correct?
And after months of updates... progress!
-Phalanx status is now Veil status, which renders total immunity to all debuffs.
-Dark/Evil Looking status is now Curse status, which renders total immunity to buffs and makes a unit unable to React.
-Freelancers now get a basic skill from most generic jobs.
Thief! [/hypocrisy]
....
*steals Curse preventing Reactions*
-Shinobi are gone. They're being replaced with Blue Mages. Gerard's base class will learn Blue Magic as well, but his will be a bit more advanced.
Difficult to go wrong with Blue Mages. Just remember to try not to make them obviate (the) monsters (that they're borrowing from). [/obvious "advice" you already know]
-Snipers are gone. They're being replaced with Corsairs. Corsair skills can buff or debuff the entire party. Probably won't use them, right? Well, they have a skill called "Card Counting". It has 4 Range, but only affects a single unit. It makes them immune to all debuffs... including those that can be landed by Corsair skills. So you can take your luck and try to buff your party from the get-go, or you can make a safer bet by using Card Counting on everyone first.
Hmmm...using "Veil" to make a Gambler-esque class worth-using is so obvious, but pretty ingenious. Congrats to both thinking of it and "overcoming" the targeting problem, though I'm assuming when you say "the whole party", you're just talking about allies, so that means the "problem" doesn't come up as much anyway.
Have you tested how the AI reacts to these "random" skills, though? I ask given the problems random skills have, especially since you got rid of Gadgeeter in your
FFT:A patch and I'm not even sure if you flagged Corsair's skills as random.
-Throw Meteor is making a triumphant return, but you'll have to go to END to find it...
...Buh?
-Many useable items are changed. In one of the riskiest changes I've ever made in my patchmaking, Potion no longer restores HP directly. Rather, it imbues Regen. That makes it harder to sandbag using items, and you'll need a Devout or another healer to help sandbag.
-Tortoises!
I support both of these changes.
Are we privy to what monsters Tortoises are replacing though?
As far as events go, I'm planning things out. I have a very good idea of how I want Chapter I to go, and how I want Lucavi fights to go. A timed Zalera battle is in the works, and each Lucavi fight has a gimmick, as I was planning in PW 2.0.
Ugh. A timed battle? How the hell are you going to make that work? I mean, obviously you can't use the five-minute timer that
FFXII uses, but even like a 30-minute timer might be too little depending on what
Parted Way Zalera has, especially given his (type of) allies. You'd likely have to make the timer pause on
every single animation, including movement and regular attacks, if you did anything less than an hour, which then seems kinda pointless.
I suppose you could maybe do it by number of total moves (for the party), but even that's kinda...iffy, especially if you're including uncontrollable Guest Meliadoul's actions.
Hmmm....
...Good luck.