Final Fantasy Hacktics

Welcome to the Shrike Patch! This is a mod for Final Fantasy Tactics A2 that aims to make the game more fun and engaging. Features include:

- Combat has been heavily rebalanced to be swingier and burstier. Most of the game's abilities, enemies, jobs, and equipment have received changes to make combat more exciting.

- Enemy gear and ability sets have been massively expanded and their stats and levels improved to make the fights more engaging. This isn't a kaizo hack that aims to kill you in the tutorial, but you'll need to pay attention to what you're doing. In addition, all non-Hume characters now have elemental weaknesses and resistances to consider.

- The Thief, Tinker, Scholar, and Moogle Knight jobs have received extensive reworking to make them more fun and reliable to use.

- AP and gold costs have been slashed dramatically across the board, and gear sells for more of its base value. In addition, which gear teaches which abilities has been shuffled around extensively to give you access to fun toys earlier than normal. Related, it has been made much easier to obtain loot via use of the Thief class, which makes the bazaar much less frustrating.

WHAT'S NEW?

HIGH-LEVEL CHANGES:

- It's the patch of the Moogle! Moogles received buffs across the board, both in stats and abilities. Of particular note are buffs to the Juggler, Moogle Knight, and Fusilier. In addition, the Moogle inherent bonuses were changed to be less bad, no longer crippling their attack stat.

- The Scholar received a complete reworking, and the White Mage, Arcanist, and Fencer received some sizeable improvements as well.

- The base stats and stat growths of all jobs and monsters have been completely recalculated from scratch. Special thanks to ScarletMagi for her help with the math and balancing on this. A lot of the weaker and slower jobs got stronger, as did most monsters, whereas a few of the high-end jobs and monsters got a touch weaker. Raptors and Lanistas are also now more focused on their role as tanks and less on their role as physical bruisers. Due to the stat changes I recommend starting with a new file for this patch, but if you really want to keep using your old file it should work.

- Mid-to-late game weapons with few or no abilities on them gained substantial buffs to their stats to make them more exciting to obtain, and make endgame gearing more interesting. All weapons and armor have had their gil costs recalculated based on their stats and rarity.

- Abilities were moved between weapons to smooth out when you have access to which skills, and some abilities were given AP cost adjustments. Passives are available to more jobs and they're available on much earlier gear. Some very powerful abilities like Geomancy have become rarer and more exclusive, while other key abilities like Dual Wield and Halve MP are now available to more units. The basic stat boosting passives like Attack UP and Magick UP have been made much more numerous and accessible, being spread mostly across the intermediate jobs and put on more common gear. And a couple of passives (Immunity and Maintenance) were removed entirely.

- Reduced the difficulty of late-game story missions and made serious nerfs to the difficulty of Lord Grayrl, The Cat's Meow, The Eastwatch, Lanista's Pride, Ravager, and Banbangaa! This should make it possible to do them earlier and unlock the advanced classes more easily. They're still challenging fights, I just toned down the absolute insanity like Magick Frenzy Dual Wield Ninjas and max evasion Monks with Bishop spells and Halve MP. I also made smaller difficulty adjustments to many, many other fights. I'm still in the process of doing more fight editing, but it's taking a really long time and I didn't want to hold the next update hostage for eighteen months while I dig through all of them.

KNOWN BUGS:
- Random encounters with the Bangaa Brotherhood are locked to levels in the 30s instead of scaling to the player.
- Two of Vaan's abilities, Crime Spree and Jackpot, do not function.
- Steal Life and Feeding Frenzy do not show HP gained by the user (visual bug only; HP is still restored.)
- Forbidden Lore does not show MP gained by the user (visual bug only)
- Vicious Clash does not show damage taken by the user (visual bug only)
- Swarmstrike sometimes does not display damage numbers for all of its hits (visual bug only)
- Power Within does not display buff to Move (visual bug only)

WHITE MAGE:

White Mages were suffering with the global increase to the MP cost of healing abilities, so I decided to swap out Arise for Benediction. This new spell has very long range and no MP cost, giving White Mages something proactive and useful to do while they're charging up for their spell turns. (I *may* have stolen this basic idea from ScarletMagi's Final Fantasy Tic-Tacs mod >.>) Turbo MP felt like a bad fit for them since their MP costs are already really high, so I replaced it with Regenerate as a nod to the original FFT.

o No longer learns Arise; now learns Benediction instead.
o No longer learns Turbo MP.
o Now learns Regenerate.

+ Benediction: MP Cost 0; Range 7; adds Regen and buffs Resilience of one ally, increasing their resistance to negative status conditions.
+ Cure, Cura, Curaga: Base healing increased by ~50%.


BLACK MAGE:

Geomancy was too powerful an ability to have on a base job. I made it appropriately more exclusive; now Humes and Moogles can't learn it at all, and it's restricted to late-game Nu Mou and Gria.

o No longer learns Geomancy.


THIEF:

I'm honestly not sure why Waylay didn't already deal the same damage as Strongarm. Now you won't have to deal less damage when you're farming gil. I also gave Thieves Gil Snapper, mostly for flavor. Safeguard has been removed from the game entirely since the gear stealing and destroying abilities have been removed from almost all enemies.

o No longer learns Safeguard.
o Now learns Gil Snapper.

+ Waylay: Base damaged buffed by ~50% (Now deals the same damage as Strongarm)


ARCHER:

Concentration has been bumped from the basic ranged jobs to the more advanced ranged jobs.

o No longer learns Concentration.


PALADIN:

Like several other healing abilities, Bright Halo got a bit overnerfed by last patch's global healing MP cost increase, so it's getting a buff to its throughput.

o No longer learns Reflex.
o Now learns Defense UP.

+ Bright Halo [Nurse]: Base healing buffed by ~50%


FIGHTER:

o Now learns Attack UP.


BLUE MAGE:

Immunity, like Safeguard, has been removed from the pool of passives.

o No longer learns Immunity.


HUNTER:

Vital Shot was a mediocre dice roll of an ability that I never really found myself using, so I figured I'd give Hunters a new ability in its place. Seal Evil is a more powerful anti-undead tool than Silver Arrow, and is a reference to Mustadio's similar ability from FFT.

o No longer learns Vital Shot; learns Seal Evil instead.
o No longer learns Regenerate or Attack UP.
o Now learns Concentration.

+ Seal Evil: Petrifies undead enemies (checks evasion instead of resilience) and cleanses undead graves.


ILLUSIONIST:

o Now learns Magick UP.


NINJA:

o Now learns Reflex.


SEER:

+ Cura: Base healing buffed by ~50%


WHITE MONK:

I was unhappy with how Chakra was working out, so I threw in the towel and changed it back into a healing and status dispelling option; it also got a higher MP cost but greater potency, to match the other healing abilities.

o No longer learns Reflex.
o Now learns Regenerate.

+- Chakra: MP Cost 12 > MP Cost 16; Base Healing buffed by ~100%; no longer restores MP; now cleanses all debuffs.


DEFENDER:

Vicious Clash was one of several abilities that was reworked from an earlier ability with a high AP cost, and then never got its AP cost adjusted, so I bumped it down quite a bit. Absorb Damage also felt much more useful on Defender than on Trickster.

o Now learns Absorb Damage.

+ Vicious Clash: AP cost reduced


BISHOP:

o Now learns Magick UP.

+ Cura: Base healing buffed by ~50%


GLADIATOR:

o Now learns Attack UP.


MASTER MONK:

Unscarred has been moved to Dragoon. It doesn't fit Master Monks very well since they like to mix it up in melee and have a pretty potent self-damaging attack.

o No longer learns Unscarred.
o Now learns Reflex and Charged Attacks.


TRICKSTER:

Tricksters got quite a few new reaction abilities, including the extremely powerful Replenish MP which helps defray their relatively high MP costs. It's also nice to put on Bishops and Templars.

o No longer learns Absorb Damage.
o Now learns Critical: Haste, Gil Snapper, and Replenish MP.


DRAGOON:

Dragoons get Unscarred instead of Master Monks because I feel like it plays nicer with their Jump ability. Lancet felt really clunky with an MP cost - you were barely getting any MP back with it until the extreme late game. After some testing I realized that it doesn't need one. Its melee range does a lot to keep it balanced.

o Now learns Unscarred.

+ Lancet: MP Cost 10 > MP Cost 0


TEMPLAR:

I wanted to lean more heavily into Templar's identity as an anti-mage job, so Evade Magick seemed like a natural fit for them. Final Judgment now deals Holy elemental damage as well. I also fixed a bug where it couldn't be used if the caster was in the AOE.

o No longer learns Attack UP.
o Now learns Resistance UP and Evade Magick.

+ Final Judgment [Soul Sphere]: Now deals Holy damage; now deals magic damage instead of physical; fixed a targeting bug.


CANNONEER:

o Now learns Concentration.


BEASTMASTER:

Beastmasters now have a pretty nice pool of passives and reactions which are available on very early gear, which should help with the way Nu Mou often had empty passive and reaction slots until way too late in the game. It also makes the early Beastmaster dip to unlock Sage feel less onerous, because you'll be picking up some useful stuff along the way.

o No longer learns Immunity.
o Now learns Reflex and Defense UP.


ALCHEMIST:

Transmute was hard-coded to suck, so I decided to just replace it altogether. Alchemists get early access to Mirror Items now, which fits thematically and gives them some more versatility. Alchemists now also gain Ribbon-bearer. This leaves Seeq as the only ones who can't wear Ribbons at all, and given that the most reliable way to handle a rampaging Berserker or Lanista is status effects it'll likely stay that way.

o No longer learns Safeguard or Magick UP.
o Now learns Ribbon-bearer.
o No longer learns Transmute; now learns Mirror Items instead.


SAGE:

Blind and Rasp felt out of place on the Sage's move set, so I replaced them. Final Judgment is a big upgrade to Rasp in terms of MP damaging spells, and fits with the Sage's theme of high cost wide AOE spells. Arise is now exclusive to Sages, no longer being learned by White Mages. Healing Light [Esunaga] has been greatly improved, now being a smart-targeting healing spell and anti-undead tool in addition to cleansing status.

o No longer learns Rasp; now learns Final Judgment instead
o No longer learns Blind; now learns Arise instead
o No longer learns Reflex.
o Now learns Evade Magick and Resistance UP.

+ Scathe: AP cost reduced
+ Esunaga: Now called Healing Light; now restores HP in addition to cleansing status effects; damages undead and banishes undead graves in area.
+ Final Judgment [Soul Sphere]: Now deals Holy damage; now deals magic damage instead of physical; fixed a targeting bug.


TIME MAGE:

o No longer learns Evade Magick.
o Now learns Pierce.


ARCANIST:

The Arcanist's level-based spells were unique and it pained me to simplify them, but this is for the best. Arcanists have a couple of reliable darkness-based attacks now. They also gained a strong but short-ranged AOE haste ability. Syphon got some substantial buffs because it's more situational than I initially realized - you need to have an enemy with a big stockpile of MP for it to do anything too crazy. They also get access to Turbo MP now, which restricts the ability to Nu Mou.

o No longer learns Pierce.
o Now learns Turbo MP.

+- Lv. 3 Dark: Now called Dark; base damage nerfed by ~66%; Target All > AOE 1, Range 4; Targets Level Divisible by 3 > Targets Anybody
+- Lv. 5 Haste: Now called Umbral Wings; Target All > Target Self + Adjacent; Targets Level Divisible by 5 > Targets Anybody
+- Lv. ? Shadowflare: Now called Shadowflare; MP Cost 18 > MP Cost 26; base damage buffed by ~66%; Target All > Single Target, Range 4; Targets Level Divisible by ? > Targets Anybody
+ Syphon: MP Cost 12 > MP Cost 0; Drains 25% of damage dealt > Drains 100% of damage dealt


SCHOLAR:

The Scholar got completely reworked, Tinker-style. Ever since I removed the elemental absorption from the majority of gear way back in the first version of this patch they were just trash Illusionists with a few gimmick spells. Now they're a proper endgame job. Their elemental spells no longer target all allies and enemies; instead they are now wide AOE spells that do better than smart targeting. Not only do they not damage allies, but they apply mass buffs. Mad Scientist got a boost to its AOE and also grants random debuffs to enemies in the area. Throw any of these into a huge melee and watch the fireworks. Study has been reworked into a free debuff that makes enemies more vulnerable to spells of all kinds, which gives you something constructive to do when you're not using MP. Forcefield [Force] got its MP cost reduced so that you can use it on your first turn and still have 16 MP for your big spells on the next turn. And Natural Selection was replaced with Forbidden Lore, a powerful MP charging option. To top it all off, they get access to the insanely strong Geomancy passive, which they learned by studying Geomancers. I initially wanted to restrict the ability only to Gria, but ultimately decided that it makes a nice endgame capstone for Nu Mou as well. They're your big magic guns, after all.

o No longer learns Natural Selection; now learns Forbidden Lore instead
o Now learns Geomancy.

+ Forbidden Lore: Drains 25% of the user's max HP in order to gain MP equal to 25% of the damage dealt.
+ Force: Now called Forcefield; MP Cost 6 > MP Cost 4.
+ Study: No longer reveals loot and items; now debuffs Resistance and Resilience with perfect accuracy.
+- Earth Dragon Tome: Now called Earth Dragon Scales; MP Cost 28 > MP Cost 16; Targets All > AOE 2, Range 4; damages enemies and buffs allies' Resistance in area.
+- Rime Bolt Tome: Now called Glacial Wall; MP Cost 28 > MP Cost 16; Targets All > AOE 2, Range 4; damages enemies and buffs allies' Defense in area.
+- Thunder Flare Tome: Now called Cacophonous Storm; MP Cost 28 > MP Cost 16; Targets All > AOE 2, Range 4; damages enemies and buffs allies' Attack in area.
+- Umbral Ghost Tome [Shadow Shade Tome]: Now called Whisper From Beyond; MP Cost 28 > MP Cost 16; Targets All > AOE 2, Range 4; damages enemies and buffs allies' Magick in area.
+ Mad Scientist: AOE 1 > AOE 2; now grants random buffs to allies and random debuffs to enemies in area.


FENCER:

The Fencer has been slowly drifting toward more of a magic knight job and I've decided to just embrace it. Their abilities are slightly stronger and deal elemental damage but have MP costs. Swallowtail in particular got a substantial buff, closer in power to the Paladin's Storm of Vengeance. Manastrike can now be used in conjunction with dark absorption to restore MP. The only thing to get an undiluted nerf was Checkmate because, uh, did you know that Doom is actually a really good status effect? Imagine my surprise.

+ Swarmstrike: Non-elemental > Wind Elemental
+- Featherblow: MP Cost 0 > MP Cost 4; Non-elemental > Wind Elemental
+- Swallowtail: MP Cost 0 > MP Cost 14; Half Accuracy > Normal Accuracy; Non-elemental > Wind Elemental
+ Manastrike: Non-elemental > Dark Elemental
- Checkmate: MP Cost 14 > MP Cost 16


GREEN MAGE:

The Green Mage loses Absorb MP mostly because I needed something to give to Elementalists, who had no passives or reactions at all.

o No longer learns Absorb MP.
o Now learns Resistance UP.


RED MAGE:

Magick Counter is a much better reaction ability than Sticky Fingers, and makes a ton more sense for this job.

o No longer learns Sticky Fingers or Magick UP.
o Now learns Magick Counter.

+ Cure: Base healing buffed by ~50%


ELEMENTALIST:

The Elementalist was one of the few jobs in the game with no passive or reaction abilities of any kind, so I spread things out a little bit to give them a new toy to play with. I also buffed Earthsalve and Whiteblaze's output, since they were falling off really hard in the midgame.

o Now learns Absorb MP and Magick UP.

+ Earthsalve: Base healing buffed by ~33%
+ Whiteblaze: Base healing buffed by ~50%


SUMMONER:

I fixed a bug that was causing Phoenix to always deal 0 damage.

+ Phoenix: Now properly deals damage.


SNIPER:

Sniper had two abilities that got reworked from gear rending abilities, and as such had really high AP costs for no good reason. Fixed now. They also get Concentration, since it got moved up onto advanced ranged jobs from intermediate ones. Death Strike felt like a natural fit for them as well, and is pretty good with Doubleshot.

o No longer learns Regenerate.
o Now learns Concentration, Death Strike, and Attack UP.

+ Ebon Arrow and Masterstroke: AP cost reduced


SPELLBLADE:

I wanted to give the Spellblade some options for a build that doesn't rely on Blood Price, and Doublehand pairs with their stat spread pretty nicely to make them strong physical attackers.  Of course, they have an even better option in that regard now, because...

o Now learns Doublehand.


ASSASSIN:

Turns out Viera can actually learn Dual Wield (giving it to anybody else besides them and Humes will crash the game.) How could I not? Enjoy! Critical: Vanish is also pretty great for the fragile Assassins, ambush predators that they are.

o Now learns Critical: Vanish and Dual Wield.


ANIMIST:

Animists are the most defensive of the basic Moogle jobs, building into Moogle Knights, so they get a suite of reaction abilities that should help them in that niche. They get Regenerate right from the start of the game, which should help with how fragile early Moogles can be. Evade Magick and MP Shield are learned later, but combined with the Moogle Knight's new acquisitions should give you a wealth of options for Moogle builds.

o No longer learns Archer's Bane.
o Now learns Regenerate, Evade Magick, MP Shield, and Resistance UP.


MOOGLE KNIGHT:

I needed to increase Moogle damage, and buffing Moogle Knights was a no-brainer. The damage on their main attacks was kinda pathetic. Combined with their stat boosts they hit much more solidly now. They also get somewhat early access to Absorb Damage, which can help them tank more effectively. And I couldn't resist giving them Dragonheart - it just feels right for them. I also reworked Unstoppable [Moogle Aid] a little bit, making it a stronger tanking tool at the expense of its status healing potential. This way it's not just an exact copy of Chakra. It also got another, more referential rename.

o No longer learns Critical: Haste.
o Now learns Absorb Damage, Dragonheart, and Defense UP.

+ Blade of Peace: AP cost reduced; Base damage buffed by ~100%
+ Blade of War: Base damage buffed by ~100%
+- Unstoppable [Moogle Aid]: Now called Determination; no longer removes status effects; now reduces damage taken by half until next turn.


JUGGLER:

I was really unhappy with where Jugglers were at. They're one of my favorite jobs and for some reason I can't fathom I nerfed the absolute bejeezus out of them. Time for a correction. Dagger Toss and especially Molotov Cocktail got their raw damage output drastically increased. Ring Toss and Ball Toss got unique updates; if they connect they now have a chance to critically hit and apply an extra status effect. I did drop Ring Toss's base effect from stop to immobilize, however, both because a free stop spell was pretty overpowered and there really isn't anywhere further to go from stop anyway. Having both Gil Toss and Juggle [Weapon Toss] was redundant, because they're both ways to turn your spare endgame gil into damage. I kept the more interesting of the two and replaced Gil Toss with the Trickster's Traumatize, which Jugglers can capitalize on beautifully now that they can inflict multiple status effects at once. And Smile Toss is now a free haste spell that has a chance to critically hit and quicken the target. This allows it to be stronger without the guaranteed infinite loops of the old version. (NB: Allies with higher resilience will have a lower chance of getting quickened, so keep that in mind.)

o No longer learns Gil Toss; now learns Traumatize instead.
o No longer learns Sticky Fingers.
o Now learns Critical: Evasion UP and Attack UP.

+ Dagger Toss: Base damage buffed by ~100%.
+ Molotov Cocktail: Base damage buffed by ~150%.
+- Ring Toss: Now inflicts Immobilize instead of Stop; has a chance to critically hit and also Stop the target.
+ Ball Toss: Has a chance to critically hit and also Addle the target.
+ Smile Toss: Now adds Haste instead of a random buff; has a chance to critically hit and also Quicken the target.


FUSILIER:

As part of the general effort to increase Moogle damage output, Fusiliers got some buffs. Fireshot, Boltshot, and Iceshot can now be used in two concurrent turns after a charge turn, which helps round-over-round damage output a lot. Stopshot and Charmshot now deal the same damage as the other status shots, so you're penalized less for fishing for your big status effects.

o No longer learns Concentration.
o Now learns Archer's Bane.

+ Fireshot, Boltshot, Iceshot: MP Cost 16 > MP Cost 14
+ Stopshot, Charmshot: Quarter Damage > Half Damage


TINKER:

Tinkers now get acess to both Absorb MP and Halve MP, neither of which Moogles previously had access to. This should really help your Animists, Black Mages, Tinkers, and Fusiliers in the late game.

o No longer learns Regenerate or MP Shield.
o Now learns Absorb MP, Halve MP, and Magick UP.


FLINTLOCK:

Protect Cannon and Shell Cannon didn't feel like they were worth the Prime turn, so I replaced them with Barrier Cannon and Haste Cannon. Barrier Cannon is still a little meh, but you might have some use for it time to time. Haste Cannon is quite a bit more useful. Teleport Cannon is now perfectly reliable, given that it is both niche and fun to use. I swapped the damage numbers on Ether Boost and Blowback, but gave Blowback recoil based on its damage dealt instead of the user's HP, which should make it a little more dangerous to use all the time.

o No longer learns Protect Cannon; now learns Barrier Cannon instead.
o No longer learns Shell Cannon; now learns Haste Cannon instead.
o Now learns Concentration.

+ Barrier Cannon: Adds Protect, Shell, and Regen to the target.
+ Haste Cannon: Adds Haste and Regen to the target.
+ Teleport Cannon: Half Accuracy > Perfect Accuracy
- Ether Boost: Nerfed base damage by ~20%
+- Blowback: Buffed base damage by ~20%; 20% HP Recoil > 25% Damage Dealt Recoil
+ Ether Cannon: AP cost reduced


BERSERKER:

Vicious Blow, like the Hunter's Vital Shot, just wasn't all that fun or interesting to use. I replaced it with Savage Beating, a low-accuracy spike damage attacking move in the vein of Beatdown or Sneak Attack. Ground Shaker, Thump, and Thrash [Furore] were doing utterly obscene damage. Berserkers have really good attacking stats as it is, and they didn't need a free Earth Render on top of it. This nerf should bring them more in line with other fighting classes. They still hit plenty hard, they just won't be reliably threatening to one-shot squishy units for free any more.

o No longer learns Vicious Blow; now learns Savage Beating
+ Thump AP cost reduced

+ Savage Beating: Weapon attack; Half Accuracy; Double Damage; has a chance to inflict Immobilize on hit
- Ground Shaker: Base damage nerfed by ~33%
- Thump: Base damage nerfed by ~33%
- Thrash [Furore]: Base damage nerfed by ~33%


RANGER:

Ranger traps are fun and interesting, so why not make them easier to use? (Okay, to be honest this is just another thing I'm swiping from Triangle Strategy.)

o Now learns Resistance UP.

+ Sten Needle, Silence Gas, Mana Leech, Love Potion: Range 2 > Range 3


VIKING:

Vikings now get Absorb MP and Halve MP so they can keep up with your other casters better in the late game. Tsunami also became more generally useful at the cost of some of its flavor.

o No longer learns Safeguard or Absorb Damage.
o Now learns Charged Attacks, Absorb MP, Halve MP, and Magick UP.

+ Tsunami: No longer requires the user to be standing in water.


LANISTA:

Absorb Damage was moved from Vikings to Lanistas because it feels more on theme for them.

o Now learns Absorb Damage and Defense UP.


RAPTOR:

Raptors traded in Counter for Blink Counter, since they have a knockback theme now. They also get Absorb Damage instead of Reflex because they're supposed to be lacking in the evasion department. Tank also swapped from Ravagers to Raptors, since Ravagers can no longer equip heavy armor. Raptors are now solidly the defensive job, while Ravagers focus on offense.

o No longer learns Counter, Reflex, or Safeguard.
o Now learns Tank, Blink Counter, Absorb Damage, and Defense UP.


RAVAGER:

Ravagers lost Strikeback for the same reason Raptors lost Reflex. Critical: Berserk is pretty bad and I don't expect you'll ever actually use it, but for pure flavor reasons I felt like it fit.

o No longer learns Tank, Strikeback, or Defense UP.
o Now learns Critical: Berserk, Death Strike, and Attack UP.


GEOMANCER:

Geomancers now have nearly exclusive access to Geomancy, with Scholars being the only other job to get it. Not only does this make a ton of obvious sense, but it's way less broken for them than it is for, say, Paravirs. This will give those finnicky geomancy spells enough punch to be well worth the hassle of using them.

o No longer learns Critical: Evasion UP.
o Now learns Regenerate, Charged Attacks, and Geomancy.


SKY PIRATE:

A couple of Sky Pirate abilities are still broken and I have absolutely no idea what I did. I'm sorry. At least know that when I get these abilities working again they'll have somewhat more generous effects.

+ Jackpot: Now steals double gold four times instead of three.
+- Crime Spree: Instead of stealing one piece of L4 loot, double gold, and one consumable item, now steals double gold and three pieces of L4 loot.


BARD:

Hurdy now gets fighter movement instead of caster movement, since Bard is a hybrid job. I also cut the cost of Nameless Song in half, and fixed a big that was causing Hide to not work.

+ Move 3 > Move 4

+ Hide: Now properly functions.
+ Nameless Song: MP Cost 12 > MP Cost 6


SHELLING:

When I took most of the gear rending abilities out of the game I missed one. Shellings will no longer spike your blood pressure at random points.

- Munch: No longer destroys gear; now deals damage and debuffs Defense.


WEAPONS AND ARMOR:

Mid to late game weapons with no or few abilities got substantial boosts to their stats to make them less disappointing to obtain, and to make late game gearing more fun and intersting. In addition, knightswords and books got some small buffs to differentiate them from each other better. The White Hat, White Robe, and a couple of other high end robes got some buffs as well. Resistance gear in general got better, since it's a less appealing stat than the others. Detailed information on weapon and armor buffs is included in a text file.

COMPLETE CHANGES:










MORE DETAILED INFORMATION IN INCLUDED TEXT FILES!

Seeq seem more like porcine than sharks to me, especially concerning their Final Fantasy XII designs.

Quote from: Dual-Wielding Ninja on November 27, 2022, 04:56:03 amSeeq seem more like porcine than sharks to me, especially concerning their Final Fantasy XII designs.

Huh, looks like you're right. I think I was thrown off by their coloration and pointy snouts. Oh well. It'll give me an excuse to change out their elemental properties.

This looks promising. I'm going to play through this soon and provide some feedback after a full run. Some preliminary thoughts:

1) I'm assuming you haven't done anything with the Chocobo Knight? I'll just ignore them for now, if so.
2) For Al-Cid: maybe just give him Unscarred and boost his attack growth so he has a little niche as a long-range physical damage dealer? Plus maybe Blur or Evade Magic to help him avoid being countersniped. I dunno, he's terrible no matter what but this is what I tend to do when I'm messing around with my own rom.

EDIT: Hey, the Base HP value on the Ninja class in your hack is 79. All of your other Base HP values are divisible by 5 (80, 95, etc). Did you mean to make the Base HP of the Ninja 70? I'm probably gonna switch it to that in my run, assuming that's what you meant. It would be in line with the HP values of the other Hume jobs.

Ignoring the Chocobo Knight is safe. I'm not actually sure it's even possible to give them their own ability set, which is always going to make them marginal. Their stats are really good, though, particularly the ones on White Chocobos who get an innate 75% resilience.

And thanks for the heads up on Ninja HP. That is definitely supposed to be 70 base.

Thanks so much for taking a look! Really looking forward to any further feedback!

Quote from: PeppySSB on December 23, 2022, 12:08:14 am1) I'm assuming you haven't done anything with the Chocobo Knight? I'll just ignore them for now, if so.

So I know I said I didn't change these guys much but actually I kinda did. All Chocobos got their skillsets buffed. I just forgot about it because, y'know, Chocobo Knight. Anyway, they're all boring numbers boosts. Nothing got overhauled, just made a little more competitive. Only nerf was to their MP granting skill which restores 10 now.

Longtime lurker here, first hack in a while that's grabbed my attention enough to log in. Even though I wasn't here at all for like a year
Out of curiosity, do you have any better documentation of the stat growth changes in particular? The file in the .zip mentions things like buffing Viking magic growth but there's no stat numbers given for it so it's hard to gauge whether that's intended to be merely comparable to a vanilla White Mage or on par with the vanilla Moogle mages.
Still, very excited about it and going to give it a shot when I have the spare time. It all looks great and you've clearly put a lot of thought and planning into this.

Quote from: Squire Doodad on February 01, 2023, 07:40:33 pmOut of curiosity, do you have any better documentation of the stat growth changes in particular? The file in the .zip mentions things like buffing Viking magic growth but there's no stat numbers given for it so it's hard to gauge whether that's intended to be merely comparable to a vanilla White Mage or on par with the vanilla Moogle mages.

I didn't make documentation for that, but I definitely could! Should be a pretty quick job. I thought about including it but wasn't sure there'd be a lot of interest. Give me a little time and I'll make it available.

Quote from: Squire Doodad on February 01, 2023, 07:40:33 pmOut of curiosity, do you have any better documentation of the stat growth changes in particular?

Okay, I have these ready but I can't attach them to a reply. I'm going to have to put them in the zip file for 1.1, I'm afraid. If you'd like the notes earlier I can send them to you through Discord or something if you're comfortable with it.

I downloaded the new version, but it still doesn't seem to work with the US rom.  I tried several times with different patchers, and they all report an error.

Quote from: SpaceCowboy321 on April 04, 2023, 08:12:48 pmI downloaded the new version, but it still doesn't seem to work with the US rom.  I tried several times with different patchers, and they all report an error.

I just tested it with the 2384 build and didn't have any problems. Do you have any details on the error you're getting?

Quote from: Shrikesnest on April 09, 2023, 02:28:48 pmI just tested it with the 2384 build and didn't have any problems. Do you have any details on the error you're getting?

When I use DeltaPatcherLite program, I get the following error pop up:

(https://i.imgur.com/AFkreoF.png)

When I use https://kotcrab.github.io/xdelta-wasm/ I get the following error:
Error occurred while patching

Details: unavailable secondary compressor: LZMA (code -17710)
When I use https://hack64.net/tools/patcher.php I get the following error:
Error: Unimplemented feature

See console output for more information.
However, I just now tried using the xdeltaUI program, and that seemed to work without any errors.  Do you think the issue is just with those patchers or is xdeltaUI failing to detect the errors?  What patcher do you use?

I've only been using xdeltaUI, so I didn't realize there were issues with other programs.

Version 1.1 is now available! Let me know if you have any trouble with it and I'll help as best I can.

I've been trying out Version 1.1, and I've been enjoying it a lot.  It really improves on so many different aspects of the game.  I'm only a few hours in, but I just figured I would give some feedback on things I've noticed so far.  Some are bugs and some are just balance feedback.  Also, would it possible to upload the version 1 change descriptions somewhere or update the version 1.1 change descriptions to include the version 1 info as well?  I would prefer the latter, but either would be very helpful.  It's just difficult to fully understand all the version 1.1 changes without the context of the version 1 changes, especially the ability changes.

• The Fencer's Swarmstrike doesn't seem to be hitting multiple times.  Featherblow seems to be working fine.  It does twice the amount shown in the damage estimate.  However, Swarmstrike just does the damage once when I use it.
• I know you intended to make Thief a bit overtuned, but even with that in mind, I think Strongarm is a bit too strong, at least this early in the game.  It does almost twice the damage of a normal attack, is guaranteed to steal 3 loot, and costs no mana.  There is basically no reason to ever use any other abilities.  I like the loot stealing aspect to make acquiring loot less of a chore, but I think maybe either the damage should be toned down a bit or it should have a 10+ mana cost so it can't be spammed every turn.
• Similar to Strongarm, I think the Warrior's Guard Break ability is a bit too strong, though to a less extent.  It does almost as much as Body Slam with no self damage and it bypasses reactions.  Again, I think maybe either the damage should be toned down a bit or it should have a mana cost.
• This is more of an issue with the base game than with your changes, but I think the Animist's Tailwag ability is a bit underpowered.  A 10+ mana 1-range charm is ok if it hits, but it's generally not worth the risk.  It's also outclassed by the Thief's new Charisma ability, which Moogles also have access to.  However, I'm not sure what the best way to change it is.  Just lowering the mana would just let you spam it every turn, which would maybe be ok since the 1-range puts the user at risk, but I could see it getting out of hand.  Giving it range like Charisma would be fine, but then I think the abilities would overlap too much.

Thanks for all the work you put into this.  I'll let you know if I have any more feedback as I continue playing through it.

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it. It's very well-thought out and helpful. I'm looking forward to more of your thoughts as you go.

Quote from: SpaceCowboy321 on July 03, 2023, 10:36:10 pmAlso, would it possible to upload the version 1 change descriptions somewhere or update the version 1.1 change descriptions to include the version 1 info as well?

That's a good idea. I can put this together but it's going to take me some time. Summer's a very busy time of year for me.

Quote from: SpaceCowboy321 on July 03, 2023, 10:36:10 pmThe Fencer's Swarmstrike doesn't seem to be hitting multiple times.  Featherblow seems to be working fine.  It does twice the amount shown in the damage estimate.  However, Swarmstrike just does the damage once when I use it.

I've noticed this issue where sometimes multi-hit attacks or melee attacks that drain health don't show all of the numbers. I'm not really sure why. I think it's just a visual bug and the abilities still have full effect, though.

Quote from: SpaceCowboy321 on July 03, 2023, 10:36:10 pmI know you intended to make Thief a bit overtuned, but even with that in mind, I think Strongarm is a bit too strong, at least this early in the game.  It does almost twice the damage of a normal attack, is guaranteed to steal 3 loot, and costs no mana.  There is basically no reason to ever use any other abilities.  I like the loot stealing aspect to make acquiring loot less of a chore, but I think maybe either the damage should be toned down a bit or it should have a 10+ mana cost so it can't be spammed every turn.

Strongarm is definitely really strong in the early game. I probably do need to tone it down a little. It does fall off pretty hard in the mid-late game, though. It's still strong enough to use, but the better damage-dealing jobs you unlock eventually eclipse it. I'm walking a fine line with this one because I still want it to be usable later in the game. But yeah, if you're finding that you don't want to use anything else then it's too good.

Quote from: SpaceCowboy321 on July 03, 2023, 10:36:10 pmSimilar to Strongarm, I think the Warrior's Guard Break ability is a bit too strong, though to a less extent.  It does almost as much as Body Slam with no self damage and it bypasses reactions.  Again, I think maybe either the damage should be toned down a bit or it should have a mana cost.

This one I could definitely done down. It's less fraught than Strongarm because I'm not trying to keep it eternally viable, and it does kinda make Body Slam less worth using. Body Slam used to be stronger but got nerfed in testing, so there used to be more space between them and I guess I forgot to adjust the other Warrior moves.

Quote from: SpaceCowboy321 on July 03, 2023, 10:36:10 pmThis is more of an issue with the base game than with your changes, but I think the Animist's Tailwag ability is a bit underpowered.  A 10+ mana 1-range charm is ok if it hits, but it's generally not worth the risk.  It's also outclassed by the Thief's new Charisma ability, which Moogles also have access to.  However, I'm not sure what the best way to change it is.  Just lowering the mana would just let you spam it every turn, which would maybe be ok since the 1-range puts the user at risk, but I could see it getting out of hand.  Giving it range like Charisma would be fine, but then I think the abilities would overlap too much.

Yeah, Tail Wag is a tough one to balance for all the reasons you mentioned. My half-solution was just to put Tail Wag on really early gear, so it gets a brief chance to be somewhat useful before you get cards. I could also put some extra thing on it, but it's hard to find an effect that both fits the move's flavor and synergizes with Charm. I'll probably just leave it as-is unless some inspiration hits.

Hey, I made an account just to comment on this! I'm approaching 50 hrs in, it's really been adding a different flavor to the game, but I think I discovered a class-breaking issue.

In the write up, you said that nu mou can't use edged weapons without breaking the game, so you gave Scholars cards as their secondary. I'm trying out a Scholar now, and he can't equip cards, even though I've already purchased one that has a Scholar ability. Meanwhile he can equip knives.

You also mentioned that you bumped up Cannonneer's Potion Shell to 70, but it's still doing 30 for me.

I'm pretty sure I'm using the 1.1 version, not any of the older versions, and most of your other tweaks mentioned seem to be in line with the 1.1 changes. Would it be possible to re-patch the game in progress?

Quote from: Hyatt on July 09, 2023, 12:56:19 amHey, I made an account just to comment on this! I'm approaching 50 hrs in, it's really been adding a different flavor to the game, but I think I discovered a class-breaking issue.

In the write up, you said that nu mou can't use edged weapons without breaking the game, so you gave Scholars cards as their secondary. I'm trying out a Scholar now, and he can't equip cards, even though I've already purchased one that has a Scholar ability. Meanwhile he can equip knives.

You also mentioned that you bumped up Cannonneer's Potion Shell to 70, but it's still doing 30 for me.

I'm pretty sure I'm using the 1.1 version, not any of the older versions, and most of your other tweaks mentioned seem to be in line with the 1.1 changes. Would it be possible to re-patch the game in progress?

Oh shit, I must have missed those. Yeah, I'll push out an update maybe later today that fixes those. Scholars with knives is a real problem.

Glad you're playing it, though! Thanks for letting me know!

Alright, pushed out the 1.1.1 update real quick. All of the notes included in the post and in the patch folder should be fully up to date with all changes included.

Added the patch to the fresh version of the rom, was able to continue where I left off, Scholars can indeed equip cards now!

I'm around halfway through now, just after getting to Fluorgis.  Still really enjoying it overall, though I'm getting close to the point in the game where my interested starts falling off, so we'll see how much longer I go.  However, below are just a few more minor issues I've some across.

• This is just a suggestion, but I think you should maybe restore the text of your main post to how it was in version 1 and put the updates below that in a changelog or something.  Or at least I think you should include some sort of a general summary of what your rom hack is in your main post, like you did for version 1.  That way new people who discover it will know what it is and general idea of what kind of changes you've made.
• The Moogle Knight's Blade of Peace doesn't deal any damage, even against enemies weak to holy damage.  It's also locked to 1 range instead of weapon range, but maybe that's intended.
• This might be a limitation with how the abilities are coded, but it seems like any ability that debuffs stats also bypasses reaction abilities.  I think that is fine for the Rend abilities since those don't do that much damage, but it makes abilities like Moogle Knight's Blade of War and Sniper's Ebon Arrow very powerful.  I don't think it's insanely overpowered, but it can make some boss fights pretty trivial.  Essentially a guaranteed debuff with no counter that also does decent damage.
• Fencer's Checkmate doesn't seem to be doing dark damage.  If I use it on an enemy that absorbs dark damage, it still damages them.  If I use Nighthawk on the same enemy, it heals them as expected.
• I know I'm probably in the minority on this, but I actually liked the abilities being spread out across the weapons more.  It made it always feel like there was something to work towards.  Also, since you almost always want to be learning an ability at this point of the game, it means I almost never use the weapons with no abilities, which seems like around 1/4 of them.  I just find myself disappointed when I can unlock something new in the bazaar and it doesn't have an ability.  Not a big deal, just personal preference I guess.

I think there are some missing abilities. I haven't done a thorough review, but using a cheat to get all equips, I couldn't find any weapons that teach Shadowstick for Fencers or Angelsong for Bard. Those abilities are also missing in the readme files, but I wasn't sure if that was a typo and they were still available but unlisted.

For suggestions, I kinda agree with the above commenter about feeling let down by the higher level weapons without abilities. What I'd suggest, though, rather than spread abilities back out, you could buff the ability-less weapons. Maybe give them immunities or something.

I also think stealing needs some more tweaks. Strongarm's damage is probably too high, it should probably be something more like half damage. I also think Thieves should get a steal that's more akin to Bishop's Collect Tithe, that doesn't damage but can be used at range. The Thief class should be the best at stealing all around and IMO stealing at range is better than stealing plus damage, if you're looking just to farm. It'd also be nice to have an ability that lets you target higher level loot.

For later added features, I would definitely vote for reducing or removing restrictions on recruiting units of advanced classes. I like unlocking classes in general, but not being able to recruit them right away is super frustrating. The quests for Geomancer, Ravager, and Lanista come way too late; the second page is already over half full by the time you can do them in the unmodded game.

ETA: Vaan's Crime Spree doesn't seem to work. It gives the question marks for hit chance and damage and doesn't steal anything. Jackpot is the same.

ETA: A running list of missing abilities:
Shadowstick for Fencer
Angelsong for Bard
Rush for Gladiator
Rest for Defender
Summoner is not missing any abilities, but even with all 8 mastered, the job isn't marked as mastered
Vitals Shot for Hunter
Iai Blow for Parivir
Quicken for Time Mage
Smite of Rage for Berserker
Blind for Green Mage
Syphon for Arcanist
Deathscythe for Beastmaster (readme says Black Quena teaches it, but in game it teaches Zombie instead)

even use xdeltaUI I still cant patch it T^T

Thank you guys so much for the detailed feedback and testing! Also, oh shit, those missing abilities are an extremely large problem. That's going to take a little fixing. Unfortunately I'm swamped at work right now; summer is an extremely busy season for me. I'll try to hammer out a fix as quickly as possible.

Thanks for looking into fixing it! I've put my playthrough on hold until the abilities are added, but I have mastered most of the jobs and listed every absence I found. I think Geomancer is the only one I haven't mastered. I also wasn't checking the reaction or support abilities to see if there were any missing, since there wasn't a nice visual note in-game if they'd all been mastered.

Commenting to say I love this mod. 130ish quests done right now, 2/3rds of the way through the story. Your hack has become my main "before bed" game, and my favorite way to play FFTA2! I do have some thoughts on it though, if you don't mind me sharing:

There's too many weapons with nothing to learn on them. The changes you made to the loot system are phenomenal, completing the bazaar and farming for loot is incredibly fun with how much you get from stealing, and all the different classes that can do it add the right amount of spice. Unfortunately, now that I'm getting into the A tier of weapons there's just nothing on these really cool looking weapons, and the stats on them rarely wow me for how coveted they are. I don't really like the idea of spreading learnsets out more, so maybe you could have them learn some reaction/passive abilities races don't normally get, like dual wield on Vierra or something. Or you could just straight buff the stats if that's not possible.

Next, I feel like Moogles are in a pretty terrible spot. The characteristics you gave the races are really cool and help diversify shared jobs in a fun way, but Moogles, main those bonuses really suck. You don't really run into a lot of magick users in the game, so the +15 Base res and +2 growth doesn't really come in handy as often as you think, especially when you consider the fact they also have -10 base HP and -1 HP growth. Sure they're great evasion tanks with the buffs to that, but my Hume Thief can reach 89% evasion with flee, and that's plenty for me considering they don't have to deal with the -5 Base attack and -1 growth the moogles have. That attack nerf really hurts when all but 2 of your jobs do physical damage. Speaking of jobs, idk what's up with the moogle knight but blade of peace is dealing no damage, and everything else besides Ultima on that job deals pitiful damage. Jugglers don't really have much to do besides run around dodge tanking, loosing quicken really hurt this job and it doesn't have much else to make up for it. With how you reworked thief, I'm sure you could figure out something really cool for this job to do instead of being a smile bot. Finally the 2 Gunner jobs aren't really worth the investment. Fusilier is like a bad black/green mage. The debuffs rarely hit, and the elemental bullets cost too much MP considering they're single target. The increased damage is nice, but it's not really enough to make it worth 16 MP. Flintlock takes a lot of setting up for not much reward. Outside of Ether Boost and Ether Cannon, the rest of the abilities aren't great. Shell and Protect cannon should be merged into barrier or maybe scrubbed entirely, considering the green mage can drop Barrier on 5 of your units on turn 1. Moogles are my favorite race, so I just wish they were as good as the rest of them here.

Finally, I do hope some of the bugs brought up earlier in the thread get patched at some point, it really sucks that there's missing abilities. Overall amazing hack though, I love it and hope to see an update come out soon before my playthrough is over!

Quote from: anniejazz on November 08, 2023, 12:14:30 pmCommenting to say I love this mod. 130ish quests done right now, 2/3rds of the way through the story. Your hack has become my main "before bed" game, and my favorite way to play FFTA2! I do have some thoughts on it though, if you don't mind me sharing:

I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I'm also super excited for more feedback. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 08, 2023, 12:14:30 pmThere's too many weapons with nothing to learn on them. The changes you made to the loot system are phenomenal, completing the bazaar and farming for loot is incredibly fun with how much you get from stealing, and all the different classes that can do it add the right amount of spice. Unfortunately, now that I'm getting into the A tier of weapons there's just nothing on these really cool looking weapons, and the stats on them rarely wow me for how coveted they are. I don't really like the idea of spreading learnsets out more, so maybe you could have them learn some reaction/passive abilities races don't normally get, like dual wield on Vierra or something. Or you could just straight buff the stats if that's not possible.

I've gotten this feedback from a couple of people and I think the way I'm going to go with it is to just buff the stats of any weapons that don't have abilities on them. It would be cool to spread stuff like Dual Wield around, but unfortunately it's hard coded to only work with Humes. I really wish there was an easier way to do more stuff with passive abilities in general, because I'm not happy with how most of them are, but it's a bit beyond me right now. I'll just hand out some stat boosts to make the rarer weapons that don't have abilities on them more exciting to get.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 08, 2023, 12:14:30 pmNext, I feel like Moogles are in a pretty terrible spot. The characteristics you gave the races are really cool and help diversify shared jobs in a fun way, but Moogles, main those bonuses really suck. You don't really run into a lot of magick users in the game, so the +15 Base res and +2 growth doesn't really come in handy as often as you think, especially when you consider the fact they also have -10 base HP and -1 HP growth. Sure they're great evasion tanks with the buffs to that, but my Hume Thief can reach 89% evasion with flee, and that's plenty for me considering they don't have to deal with the -5 Base attack and -1 growth the moogles have. That attack nerf really hurts when all but 2 of your jobs do physical damage. Speaking of jobs, idk what's up with the moogle knight but blade of peace is dealing no damage, and everything else besides Ultima on that job deals pitiful damage. Jugglers don't really have much to do besides run around dodge tanking, loosing quicken really hurt this job and it doesn't have much else to make up for it. With how you reworked thief, I'm sure you could figure out something really cool for this job to do instead of being a smile bot. Finally the 2 Gunner jobs aren't really worth the investment. Fusilier is like a bad black/green mage. The debuffs rarely hit, and the elemental bullets cost too much MP considering they're single target. The increased damage is nice, but it's not really enough to make it worth 16 MP. Flintlock takes a lot of setting up for not much reward. Outside of Ether Boost and Ether Cannon, the rest of the abilities aren't great. Shell and Protect cannon should be merged into barrier or maybe scrubbed entirely, considering the green mage can drop Barrier on 5 of your units on turn 1. Moogles are my favorite race, so I just wish they were as good as the rest of them here.

I find your argument compelling. Looking over things, it looks like I gave Moogles the short end of the stick (pun very much intended) which is unconscionable. The struggle I have with them is that I want to make them useful without just jacking up their damage numbers to Bangaa or Nu Mou territory, so I'm trying to keep them good in a support role.

Right now I'm working on getting the missing abilities added and fixing Blade of Peace, so that'll be the next patch. But in the next real content patch I'll take a pass at all of the Moogle stuff and see what I can do. I'm very open to suggestions, and I'll keep in mind the ones you've already made. Right now I'm planning to change their shared attribute modifiers and buff Jugglers, Fusiliers, and Flintlocks. I might buff the base stat numbers on Moogle Knights, too.

Also, I'm curious as to whether or not you've tried Tinkers and if you have any feedback on them in particular. I think they're the one Moogle job that's actually in a pretty good spot, but I'd love to know what the players think about it.

Thanks again for the feedback! I hope to have that patch for the missing abilities out soon! I haven't been able to work on this project for months but I'm finally messing around with it again, so hopefully more updates coming in the near future.

Dual Wield can actually work with Viera as well, but that's about it. (This does mean that Viera can use the animations for the Paravir's elemental sword skills too)

Quote from: SoloCross on November 17, 2023, 07:59:27 pmDual Wield can actually work with Viera as well, but that's about it. (This does mean that Viera can use the animations for the Paravir's elemental sword skills too)

Wow! I was unaware of this, and I kind of want to play around with it now. Dual Wield makes a lot of thematic sense for Viera. Do you know how it interacts with Doubleshot? Do you get four attacks or just two?

The 1.1.2 update is out! Just fixed Blade of Peace and Checkmate, and added in all of the abilities that were missing. I've got some more stuff in the works, too, but I wanted to get this fix out as quickly as possible since those missing abilities were kind of a bummer.

Hi, Im new here. Downloaded your rom like a week ago and I am totally hooked now (first romhack I ever played and like 5y since vanilla run). I am around lvl 22 hard run and just beat the sand ant boss. Here are my thoughts so far:

1. You made Thief amazing, maybe too good. I loved him in ffta1 but in 2 he was just useless. I always hated using the attack command but now half my team uses strongarm instead. I also love that no class has to default attack unless silenced now.

2. Thanks to the Thief, rushing the weapon tree feels very very good. It made me focus more on early classes (that are now way way more interesting) intead of hopping all the time. I wish I had another moguri and another viera, but I am getting only nu mous...

3. I think that the skill that steals money is sometimes busted. You can steal ~500x3 from wild beasts but I just beat Red who was giving me ~7000x3. I am not sure if this was abusable in the original game tho, never used thief at this point.

4. I like how you changed combat but I feel like White mage got nerfed because of this. It does not have time to do anything early game and heal at 12 seems impossible to fit. I just unlocked holy but it costs too much mana for now to be relevant. I wish there was a smaller holy spell to fit in this class.

5. I never liked bangaa but now the one I have is very good. Slow as expected but when he gets to mele the job gets done. I just got a second one and wanna try the ranged classes. I never recruited a second bangaa in the original game.

6. Got tinkerer and illusionist super early but the skills I have cost too much mana for now. Fights are not finished but decided after 3-4 rounds. They will probably start to be relevant after I find any mana related support.

I also have some noob questions. I am sorry if this is common knowledge:

1. I see some texts changed ingame but others seem unchanged. Also job requirements displayed with (y) seem to not be updated. Did I mess up with the patch or is this normal?

2. How do I update the patch from .1 to .2? Directly to the original Rom? Or should I use the one with .1?

3. Will the save be compatible if I update the version?

Thats all for now. Thank you very much for your efforts. I will post again if I see anything else interesting in the midgame.

Edit: I was thinking that my problems with white mage, illusionist and tinkerer could be solved with mana potions. I will check it when I have some spare time. I do not even remember if I have mana potions, never bothered using items before in this game except for first quests and endgame. If they are available I will be able to buy lots of them thanks to the Thief :D

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pmHi, Im new here. Downloaded your rom like a week ago and I am totally hooked now (first romhack I ever played and like 5y since vanilla run). I am around lvl 22 hard run and just beat the sand ant boss. Here are my thoughts so far:

Hi! I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pm1. You made Thief amazing, maybe too good. I loved him in ffta1 but in 2 he was just useless. I always hated using the attack command but now half my team uses strongarm instead. I also love that no class has to default attack unless silenced now.

2. Thanks to the Thief, rushing the weapon tree feels very very good. It made me focus more on early classes (that are now way way more interesting) intead of hopping all the time. I wish I had another moguri and another viera, but I am getting only nu mous...

It pleases me to know that the thief is doing its job. Just a note, which kind of units you can recruit depends on location and time of year. There's a Rumor in the pub called New Recruits that gives you hints, otherwise you can just look it up. (If you're already read the Rumor it will appear in the Clan Notes section of the Clan Info menu.) Recruiting more Viera in the early game requires you to have completed the quest called The Moon Seal. Otherwise it's just a matter of passing time at Lezaford's cottage until the time of year when Moogles and Viera are available.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pm3. I think that the skill that steals money is sometimes busted. You can steal ~500x3 from wild beasts but I just beat Red who was giving me ~7000x3. I am not sure if this was abusable in the original game tho, never used thief at this point.

This is a weird interaction with those particular fights. The amount of gil you steal is based on the enemy's level, so it scales throughout the game. The various color king fights are against one really high level enemy, so they give a ton of gil. It's pretty exploitable, but since those fights can't be repeated I'm not too worried about it.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pm4. I like how you changed combat but I feel like White mage got nerfed because of this. It does not have time to do anything early game and heal at 12 seems impossible to fit. I just unlocked holy but it costs too much mana for now to be relevant. I wish there was a smaller holy spell to fit in this class.

Yeah, the increased cost of healing spells did hit the White Mage particularly hard since that's half of their ability list. I kind like the idea of cutting Holy's MP cost and power so that it's more of a mid-range spell than a top-range one, but I'm not sure it'll work out; it's tricky to balance around the late game passive ability that cuts MP costs in half.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pm5. I never liked bangaa but now the one I have is very good. Slow as expected but when he gets to mele the job gets done. I just got a second one and wanna try the ranged classes. I never recruited a second bangaa in the original game.

6. Got tinkerer and illusionist super early but the skills I have cost too much mana for now. Fights are not finished but decided after 3-4 rounds. They will probably start to be relevant after I find any mana related support.

Yeah, those are definitely high MP cost job classes. The Tinker is a bit like a Summoner, except instead of doing tons of damage they inflict status conditions. They're actually really powerful; they only get to use their abilities once or twice a fight but hitting half the enemy team with Blind or the entire friendly team with Haste is so back breaking that they really only need to do it once.

Illusionist is a victim of its infinite range. The fact that you can park one in a distant corner the enemies can't reach and just spam your illusion spells means that they need to be pretty expensive. They're also heavily balanced around stuff like the Half MP passive and the Seer's Recharge. This is definitely a job that gets way stronger in the late game.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pmI also have some noob questions. I am sorry if this is common knowledge:

1. I see some texts changed ingame but others seem unchanged. Also job requirements displayed with (y) seem to not be updated. Did I mess up with the patch or is this normal?

The deal here is that the text editor program I'm using doesn't give me access to all of the text in the game. So I updated all of the job descriptions with the new job requirements, but unfortunately the game is drawing on some other text that I can't edit when you check job requirements in the job change menu. It's something I could probably fix if I knew more about hex editing, and it's something I definitely want to do because it's extremely frustrating. For now, you'll have to rely on the included Job Requirements text file.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pm2. How do I update the patch from .1 to .2? Directly to the original Rom? Or should I use the one with .1?

My recommendation is to always patch from a fresh ROM. Sometimes weird errors can accrue if you repeatedly patch the same ROM.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pm3. Will the save be compatible if I update the version?

Yes, it should be.

Quote from: Disith29 on November 19, 2023, 11:25:34 pmThats all for now. Thank you very much for your efforts. I will post again if I see anything else interesting in the midgame.

Edit: I was thinking that my problems with white mage, illusionist and tinkerer could be solved with mana potions. I will check it when I have some spare time. I do not even remember if I have mana potions, never bothered using items before in this game except for first quests and endgame. If they are available I will be able to buy lots of them thanks to the Thief :D

Ethers are intentionally pretty rare. Also, unfortunately, they don't restore much MP on their own; this is because there is a passive ability that doubles the amount restored by healing items, so I have to balance around that. If you can get an Alchemist or Ranger with Item Lore, though, Ethers might help solve your mana problems. There's also some later-game stuff like Half MP, Recharge, Syphon, etc. that will help make MP costs easier to reach as the game goes on.

Thanks so much for all of your feedback! Please do let me know if you think of anything else or come across anything that's troubling you!

Thanks for your answers! It was very helpful, I'll try to get a magick viera soon.

I am a bit confused with the patch tho. I have applied the 1.1.2 to the same vanilla rom I did with the 1.1.1 (I am a bit paranoid while storing stuff) but does not look like anything changed.
First thing I did was look for Djinn Flyssa but it still has no skills. Black Quena also teaches Zombie, Ghost and Mist's Embrace.
Maybe it does not work if I already had the item?

Quote from: Disith29 on November 20, 2023, 03:39:59 pmThanks for your answers! It was very helpful, I'll try to get a magick viera soon.

I am a bit confused with the patch tho. I have applied the 1.1.2 to the same vanilla rom I did with the 1.1.1 (I am a bit paranoid while storing stuff) but does not look like anything changed.
First thing I did was look for Djinn Flyssa but it still has no skills. Black Quena also teaches Zombie, Ghost and Mist's Embrace.
Maybe it does not work if I already had the item?

Actually it looks like there was a problem with the patch. I must have accidentally uploaded the wrong file. It should be fixed now if you redownload the patch and apply the new one.

Have not played yet but I applied the new patch and checked Djinn Flyssa and it now teaches Shadowstick correctly so I confirm it is the correct version now. Thank you very much :D.

Does this run off the European or USA version of the game? I'm pulling a XD3 invalid file error with the version of the patch posted here on the USA version.

EDIT: I forced it to patch with another patcher and the starting White Mage had no equipment on.

Quote from: Shrikesnest on November 16, 2023, 01:38:34 pmAlso, I'm curious as to whether or not you've tried Tinkers and if you have any feedback on them in particular. I think they're the one Moogle job that's actually in a pretty good spot, but I'd love to know what the players think about it.

I love the tinker! my early game strat was to protect my tinker/fusilier mix until he could get a red spring off for the whole team. It does kinda feel like the job is carried by red spring and moogletron though, as gigantic debuff spells with no smart targeting tend to be a lot harder to use than a smaller spell from a green mage. Overall still one of my favorite classes from the hack. I think Thief and Flintlock are also in pretty good spots.

As I've been experimenting with late game builds I've started to realize the Nu mou jobs are very samey. I think this is more of a problem with the base game, but I haven't played vanilla in ages so I can't say for sure.

Scholar feels like a terrible illusionist, spending an absurd amount of mana to damage every unit, even your own, isn't great. Maybe there's some way to revamp this class? My pie in the sky idea is to make it like a nu mou version of the summoner with large area spells with smart targeting. I don't know how feasible it is to change a class that drastically though. Also study just has to go. IDC what it gets replaced by, it's just not very useful with how thieves have been changed.

Sage and Alchemist kinda blend together for me, especially since you swapped their spells around. I also am not a big fan of the transmute change. If I'm gonna go for gold drops I'm gonna grab my sniper or my fusilier/thief and get gold from long range. Maybe make it so transmute turns enemies into ethers and rarely elixers or the crystals? That'd give us a good way to farm them. And maybe sage could learn some sort of earth spell like sandstorm instead of blind, would make more sense than a random debuff spell.

I feel like Arcanist needs jesus or something. Those level whatever spells are so cheeks. I feel like this Job should be the undisputed king of giant explosive magick. Would it be possible to give it access to nightshade abilities like dimensional rift and turn this thing into the final unlock for nu mou? Also maybe it could learn blood price, I know it works with nu mou since Twiegel has it in one of the house bowen quests early on.

Also a little thought on the white mage, I do think the increase in MP costs really makes it unviable till late game. I just had my thief dodge tanking and running potions to people for healing. Honestly I'm not sure what I'd do with this one, maybe cure could be 10 MP instead, that way they can get heals off every turn, but in exchange they won't be able to save any MP up.

BTW I could have sworn blue magick was able to be magick frenzied in vanilla, but it won't let me. Is that some kind of bug? also no matter what I try, Hurdy's Hide doesn't work. Crime spree is broken as well, which is an absolute shame considering how bangin it would be. 3 loot, 3 items, and 3 gil drops? YES PLEASE.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 22, 2023, 10:53:12 amAs I've been experimenting with late game builds I've started to realize the Nu mou jobs are very samey. I think this is more of a problem with the base game, but I haven't played vanilla in ages so I can't say for sure.

Nu Mou are really frustratingly constrained by some things that are hard-coded into the game. They have a very limited pool of weapons available, and giving them anything else crashes the game. This combined with the fact that all of their stuff is magic-focused except for Beastmasters puts them in a really tight box. They pretty much all just cast big spells and/or bonk with sticks when they're out of MP. I really wish I could do more with them. I wanted to give Beastmasters bows soooo badly.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 22, 2023, 10:53:12 amScholar feels like a terrible illusionist, spending an absurd amount of mana to damage every unit, even your own, isn't great. Maybe there's some way to revamp this class? My pie in the sky idea is to make it like a nu mou version of the summoner with large area spells with smart targeting. I don't know how feasible it is to change a class that drastically though. Also study just has to go. IDC what it gets replaced by, it's just not very useful with how thieves have been changed.

I like the idea of giving the Scholar the Tinker treatment, cuz like, yeah, Scholars are a pretty dead class. And Nu Mou can only really do the huge AOE thing with Meteor currently, so they'd have at least a little bit of a niche. I'll look into if it's possible. I also like the idea of replacing or reworking Study. I'll give it some thought.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 22, 2023, 10:53:12 amSage and Alchemist kinda blend together for me, especially since you swapped their spells around. I also am not a big fan of the transmute change. If I'm gonna go for gold drops I'm gonna grab my sniper or my fusilier/thief and get gold from long range. Maybe make it so transmute turns enemies into ethers and rarely elixers or the crystals? That'd give us a good way to farm them. And maybe sage could learn some sort of earth spell like sandstorm instead of blind, would make more sense than a random debuff spell.

I really wish I had that fine-tuned a control over what Transmute gives you. That would be sweet. Unfortunately it's a hard-coded table. Its utility is mostly in being an instant remove effect that just gives you a little bonus on top. I agree it's one of their more niche spells.

I'm not against replacing Blind, since it is a bit of a weird outlier on the Sage's spell list. It's just hard to find a spell that the Nu Mou don't already learn to replace it with. I wish I could just put Quake or Sandstorm on a weapon (I really, really want to put Blue Magic on weapons) but they're not indexed for it. I don't really have an Earth spell to teach them besides Poison or Bio, and those are the Alchemist's thing.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 22, 2023, 10:53:12 amI feel like Arcanist needs jesus or something. Those level whatever spells are so cheeks. I feel like this Job should be the undisputed king of giant explosive magick. Would it be possible to give it access to nightshade abilities like dimensional rift and turn this thing into the final unlock for nu mou? Also maybe it could learn blood price, I know it works with nu mou since Twiegel has it in one of the house bowen quests early on.

Unfortunately I can't put Nightshade stuff on weapons to learn, because that is an incredibly sweet idea. I really wish I could do that now. I agree that their level-based spells are kinda junk even with buffs, but their gravity-based spells, Drain, and Syphon are all really good. This is another case where I really wish I could just make entirely custom spells or change the animations on skills. What I might be able to do is just turn them into normal spells e.g. Dark, some kind of Haste, and Shadowflare. And that I could work with. I have to check to see if those weird targeting modes are hard-coded into the abilities or something I can switch off.

Giving them Blood Price is kind of terrifying. I mean, I kinda wanna do it, because that sounds rad. But Blood Price is extremely broken, and I have to be really careful about what spells the Viera can learn because they have access to it. I feel like giving it to the Nu Mou, who have access to stuff like Meteor, Gigaflare, and Drain, would be utterly insane.

...but I'm still going to try it out and test. I could put it on some late-game enemies to make it sorta fair. And it would retroactively make Tweigel make sense.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 22, 2023, 10:53:12 amAlso a little thought on the white mage, I do think the increase in MP costs really makes it unviable till late game. I just had my thief dodge tanking and running potions to people for healing. Honestly I'm not sure what I'd do with this one, maybe cure could be 10 MP instead, that way they can get heals off every turn, but in exchange they won't be able to save any MP up.

My current attitude on this is that anything that heals has to cost more than 10 MP, so that it can't just be spammed every turn. I really want to give healing abilities to the enemies, but if healing is cheap enough to spam it makes fights extremely frustrating and boring, and kinda breaks the enemy AI besides.

I agree this kinda wrecks the White Mage but I'm not really sure what to do about it. I'm not super happy with the Arise spell being in the game at all, so maybe I could swap it out with a different spell? I'm just not sure what thematically fits the White Mage, would plug the hole in their early-game usability, and wouldn't just make them a better Black Mage. The other thing I could do is, say, drop Holy to 18 MP and reduce its power commensurately, so that you'd have a decent attack to use every other turn. I'm worried about this, though, because I'd either have to substantially weaken Holy or deal with the fact that you could cast it every turn after learning Half MP. I also feel like making the White Mage an attack bot works against what they're supposed to be about. I suppose I could maybe teach them Aurablast instead? But that would be redundant with the Fighter; I try not to double up like that.

But I probably have to do something about them, because they're pretty clunky right now.

Quote from: anniejazz on November 22, 2023, 10:53:12 amBTW I could have sworn blue magick was able to be magick frenzied in vanilla, but it won't let me. Is that some kind of bug? also no matter what I try, Hurdy's Hide doesn't work. Crime spree is broken as well, which is an absolute shame considering how bangin it would be. 3 loot, 3 items, and 3 gil drops? YES PLEASE.

I think the only Blue Magick that works with Magick Frenzy is Quake. And I honestly have no idea what's going on with Hide, Crime Spree, and Jackpot. I'm trying to fix them but they're just not working and I have no idea what I broke.

(Also, Crime Spree is just one piece of loot, one item, and one double gil drop. I can't actually cram any more loot into the ability than that in the editor.)

Dang it really sucks to hear the editors are so limited. I wouldn't have guessed considering how much you've been able to squeeze out of it with the tinker and thief reworks.

Yeah. I'm intensely grateful to have the editing tools available; as I hope is apparent, I was able to make some pretty dramatic changes to the game with them. They're labors of love that people spent zillions of hours on just to help out the community, and I'd never speak ill of them at all. I'm so grateful for those applications because this project definitely would never have happened without them. But they do have their limitations.

There's a lot more I could do with the game if I were a better programmer and could do the legwork myself. Unfortunately I've got sharply limited free time and energy for my creative projects. I've got a bunch more I'd like to figure out eventually, if my schedule opens up. But for now I'm just doing as much as I can within the constraints of the editors. It's been a fun challenge to see how good I can make the game without being able to do every single thing I imagine. I find that sometimes the second solution I come up with is better than the first, but I never would have gotten there if I had just been able to do what I wanted from the start.

After months of work, version 1.2 is released! I'm happy with where the patch is at right now, and am probably going to focus on other projects for awhile, so the next update is probably a long ways away. Just fair warning. If there's something you'd like to see in the next update or you run into a problem feel free to let me know!

Excited to play this, but is the patch working properly? When I try to apply it using the Delta patcher I get the following errors. Didn't have this issue with the previous patch.

That's really odd. I can't replicate the error you're getting. It works fine when I try it using the xdeltaUI program. Maybe there was an error with file corruption during download or decompression? Is anybody else encountering this error?

Thank you! I was using a different delta patcher program. xdeltaUI patched it successfully. I haven't fully tested the patched game but it loaded just fine.

Awesome, I'm glad you got it working!