A patch for my own purposes...

[Fuzzypickles]

Yes, it's just another person's attempt at a patch. I like many parts of 1.3, but there are a few things in there I'd prefer not to have. You'll see many of the things in this patch are lovingly borrowed from it. I don't have a public release available yet as I'm changing it too much still for it really to be practical. Besides, I've only intended this to be used for me, and unless other people express interest in it it'll remain just that. I'd just like to get other people's feedback and it's also nice for me to have a list of everything I've changed so far.

Goal of the patch:
- Balance a few major flaws in the game while keeping the core the same as much as possible.
- Make the enemies more capable and more entertaining to fight.

There have been JP cuts across the board. I'm not going to mention the specifics as that'd take up far too much space. This is to give the enemies more abilities. The job level requirement for all jobs has been increased by 1 for this purpose as well. Enemy learn percentages have been tinkered with as well. Gained JP UP has been removed to slow player growth.

HP has been increased for all classes/monsters. Equipment gives more HP. This is to make fights take longer and attempts to remove being able to brute force the majority of the game. C. Ev is also increased for all classes to make attacking from the front less desirable.

Changes in brackets are being considered and not currently implemented. Feedback on these would be especially appreciated.


CLASSES:

Squire:
Weapon Guard added
All stats except Speed increased slightly.
Dash and Throw Stone slightly stronger.

Chemist:
Can equip Robes. MP/MA increased slightly.
[Give status curing items except Remedy slight restorative powers to HP and/or MP to give them a purpose rather than just using Remedies]

Knight:
MP/MA increased so carrying a magic secondary is somewhat viable.
Stat breaks are made more accurate.
Weapon Guard is lost, Counter is gained.

Archer:
PA/Speed increased.
Charge is modified. Charge +X takes (X+1) clockticks to resolve.

Monk:
Spin Fist has vertical tolerance of 1.
Repeating Fist more powerful.
Secret Fist is more accurate.

Priest:
PA slightly increased.
Cure 1 slightly weakened.
Raise 2 is more accurate and costs more MP.
Reraise is more accurate.
Regen is more accurate.
Protect/Shell 2 are both much more accurate and now are similar to Haste 2.
Wall costs less MP and is more accurate.
Holy is weaker and is slower.

Wizard:
Tier 1 and 2 spells weakened.
Tier 4 spells made slightly faster.
Poison/Frog/Death are more accurate.
Flare is more powerful and costs less MP.

Time Mage:
Slow 2's MP cost reduced.
Stop's MP cost increased; more accurate.
Float/Reflect more accurate.
Quick cannot be counter magicked and is flagged for proper AI use.
Demi is faster and costs less MP; dark elemental.
Demi 2 is dark elemental and more accurate.

Summoner:
Ramuh/Shiva/Ifrit weaker and slower.
Titan/Bahamut/Odin/Clops costs more MP and is weaker.
Golem/Fairy is slower and costs more MP.
Carbuncle costs less MP and is more accurate.
Salamander upgraded to Leviathan's range; both cost less MP but are weaker.
Silf costs less MP.

Thief:
Base 5 move; PA/Speed increased.
Can equip Xbows.
Innate Secret Hunt.

Mediator:
Persuade, Death Sentence, Insult, Mimic Daravon made more accurate.
[Praise +1 PA to target/area?]
[Preach +1 MA to target/area?]

Oracle:
Almost all skills made faster; efficient counter-caster units.
MP costs reduced in general; save for the Faith altering spells, Petrify, and Paralyze which have been increased.
Zombie/Blind Rage/Confusion Song/Paralyze/Petrify are more accurate.

Geomancer:
Untouched.

Lancer:
Untouched.

Samurai:
PA/MA increased.
All Draw Outs reduced in power, save for Bizen Boat which is now more powerful.
Kiyomori only grants Protect but heals. Murasame grants Shell in addition to healing.

Ninja:
PA dropped.
Shuriken/Yagyu Darkness improved.
Lost ability to throw Axes/Flails.

Calculator:
Currently untouched. Looking to greatly reduce the spell arsenal. Is it possible to make Math Skill impossible to use as a secondary, similar to Mimic?

Bard:
All songs CT reduced by 1, save Last Song which is reduced by 5.
Angel Song weakened.
All Songs’ accuracy increased by 10%

Dancer:
All Dances’ accuracy increased by 10%, save Last Dance which is increased to 50%

Mime:
PA/MA/HP increased.

Sword Skills:
Stasis Sword is Ice, Lightning Stab is Lightning, Holy Explosion is Holy.
All skills have an MP cost except Dark Sword.

Agrias:
PA/MA increased.

Mustadio:
Speed increased. Leg Aim’s accuracy increased.

Rafa:
0 vertical tolerance.
Possible 7 strikes on all Truth skills.
Space Storage checks for status’ individually rather than picking one.

Malak:
All of Rafa plus:
PA/MA increased; can equip swords.
Power increased on all skills.
Skills cannot hit allies.

Meliadoul:
[Give Ruin skills?]

Orlandu:
HP/PA/MP decreased.
MP Growth greatly lowered.
Can no longer equip clothes/hats/robes.
[This is intended to give him MP issues so he cannot spam skills. Its effectiveness is unknown to me yet as I haven’t gotten him yet]

Beowulf:
Lowered accuracy on Break/Don’t Act.
MP Costs altered.

Reis:
Breaths made more powerful.
Holy Breath can hit up to 6 times; vertical tolerance reduced to 1.

Cloud:
No longer needs Materia Blade for limits, just a sword.
Braver stronger.
Cross-slash weaker.
Climhazzard/Meteorain are faster.
Finish Touch is slower.
Omnislash/Cherry Blossom faster but much weaker.

Worker 8:
More HP/PA.
Crush made more powerful.

Byblos:
No changes.


MONSTERS:

In general HP/PA/MA have been increased.

[Any method of giving them access to Monster Skill without messing up their AI? I remember innate Monster Skill was a no-no for that reason]

Chocobo:
Ball made more powerful/larger range; Esuna is 100% accurate and removes more statuses
Meteor’s range dropped by 1.
Tier 1: Attack / Cure / Esuna / Ball
Tier 2: Attack / Ball / Esuna / Meteor
Tier 3: Attack / Ball / Meteor / Cure

Goblin:
Eye Gouge/Mutilate/Goblin Punch more accurate. Mutilate drains 60% HP rather than 75%.
Tier 1: Tackle / Gouge / Turn Punch / Goblin Punch
Tier 2: Tackle / Turn Punch / Goblin Punch / Mutilate
Tier 3: Tackle / Goblin Punch / Mutilate / Gouge

Bombs:
Small Bomb/Self Destruct made Fire Elemental.
Small Bomb/Spark’s vert tolerance increased; these and Flame Attack made more powerful.
Tier 1: Bite / SD / Small Bomb / Flame Attack
Tier 2: Bite / SD / Flame Attack / Spark
Tier 3: Bite / SD / Spark / Flame Attack

Panthers:
Poison Nail made more accurate.
Tier 1: Scratch / Poison Nail / --- / Cat Kick
Tier 2: Scratch / Cat Kick / Poison Nail / Blaster
Tier 3: Scratch / Cat Kick / Blaster / Blood Suck

Pisco Demons:
Black Ink’s AoE increased by 1.
Odd Soundwave now cancels Charging.
Tier 1: Tentacle / Black Ink / --- / Odd Soundwave
Tier 2: Tentacle / Black Ink / Odd Soundwave / Mind Blast
Tier 3: Tentacle / Odd Soundwave / Mind Blast / Level Blast

Skeletons:
All Souls made more powerful. 4 Move
Tier 1: Knife Hand / Thunder Soul / --- / Wind Soul
Tier 2: Knife Hand / Aqua Soul / --- / Wind Soul
Tier 3: Knife Hand / Ice Soul / --- / Wind Soul

Ghosts:
Touches made more accurate.
Tier 1: Throw Spirit / Sleep / Grease / Drain
Tier 2: Throw Spirit / Drain / Grease / Zombie
Tier 3: Throw Spirit / Drain / Sleep / Zombie

Flotiballs:
Circle more accurate; lowers MA by 3.
Look of Devil checks statuses individually.
Death Sentence more accurate.
Tier 1: Wing Attack / Circle / --- / Look of Fright
Tier 2: Wing Attack / Look of Devil / Look of Fright / Death Sentence
Tier 3: Wing Attack / Look of Devil / Death Sentence / Circle

Birds:
Beaking more accurate; reduces PA by 3.
Tier 1: Scratch Up / Beaking / --- / Feather Bomb
Tier 2: Scratch Up / Shine Lover / Beaking / Beak
Tier 3: Scratch Up / Beak / Feather Bomb / Beaking

Treants:
All have Draw Out style targeting / more powerful
Protect Spirit - Protect/Shell; Calm Spirit - Regen/Reflect
Tier 1: Leaf Dance / Magic Spirit / Calm Spirit / Protect Spirit
Tier 2: Leaf Dance / Life Spirit / Calm Spirit / Protect Spirit
Tier 3: Leaf Dance / Protect Spirit / Calm Spirit / Life Spirit

Marlboro:
Bad Breath/Goo flagged properly, Bad Breath has 1 vertical tolerance
Tier 1: Tentacle / Lick / Goo / Bad Breath
Tier 2: Tentacle / Goo / Bad Breath / Lick
Tier 3: Tentacle / Bad Breath / Lick / Virus


ITEMS:

Most weapons have an increased W. Ev. Also, several Rare items are no longer Rare and thus random enemies will equip them. Their level has been reduced accordingly.

Knives Platina Dagger and beyond give +1 Speed.

Excalibur/Ragnarok/Chaos Blade weakened.

Materia Blade gives +2 PA/MA.

Katanas/Axes/Flails are made more powerful.

Poison Rod made Rare to prevent AI from equipping it.

Healing Staff more powerful.

Xbows are made more powerful. Gastrafitis has +1 Range.

Bows are made more powerful. Windslash Bow/Perseus Bow have +1 Range.

Harps are more powerful.

Dictionaries are more powerful and can add Sleep.

Javelin II weakened.

Bags are more powerful.

Shields are improved significantly, except Es II which is weakened.
Kaiser Plate is half Fire/Lit/Ice in addition to strengthening them.

Armor/Helmets have a HP boost. Clothes/Hats do as well, but to a lesser extent.

Spike/Feather/Battle Boots grant physical evasion.
Defense Ring/Magic Ring grant 15% Physical Evade/15% Magical Evade respectively.
Chantage is initial: Reraise, not always: Reraise.


STATUSES:

Poison has an infinite duration.

Oil cancels all beneficial statuses.

Haste’s duration decreased to 24 clock ticks.

[Archael]

My feedback:

1.3 isn't even finished yet...

Wait till final before trying at a patched based off it!

Also a lot  of these changes you're listing are just straight up 1.3 changes and are nothing new.

EDIT: Correction, I read more into it, and A GREAT DEAL of these changes are EXACT V1.3 changes.

EDIT2: I finished reading all of it, and now I'm starting to believe this is a joke topic lol. The 3+1 skills on some monsters and distribution of skills on monsters gave it away...

If you're going to list changes based on V1.3, atleast list the ones that are DIFFERENT FROM V1.3.

Lovingly borrowed =/= Blatant ripoff.

5/10

[Fuzzypickles]

I said in the beginning. I like most of the changes 1.3 makes. I don't like the extent to which the game is changed, and looking at your suggestion threads you guys are going to continue in a direction that I'm not interested in. This patch is primarily for my purposes, but I figure I mind as well post it in case anyone else is in a similar position as me and would like the patch as well.

[Archael]

I have no problem with people copying / modifying V1.3 in any way they want,

But listing a patch list with 95% 1.3 changes then calling it a new patch is just a 1.3 clone, not a new project IMO

You should list the NEW changes which make this a different patch

[VincentCraven]

I can't speak for everyone, but I do believe that a standard "correction" patch at this point won't get much attention at this point. But you've done a fine job of balancing from vanilla.  I will, however, help you in your indecision.

1) If you REALLY want a reason to use Eye Drops, etc. you had best make Remedies rare/expensive. I don't believe you can mix and match formulas like that on one item.

2) If you are against Br/Fa increasing, you may want to give that as an alternative. Note, however, that stat increasing is very good and should have some cost/drawback or inaccuracy.  IIRC, there is no formula that increases only MA.

3) Equip Break, Stat Break, w/e.  They are both really good so Mel can't go wrong with either.  But if this is about correcting, I don't see why she should be changed at all.

4) As long as Orlandu has Dark Sword he can spam swordskills. Watch out on stat decreases though, as he can easily change into a Knight if his stats REALLY suck.  The best thing to do would be to make his growths suck as a Holy Swordsman: since he comes late game he'll have already received permanent damage to his stats.

5) A monster can use its monster skill if you change its skillset from "monster" to "default" in the action menu (FFTpatcher). The skill will still be hidden from its stat menu (and formation screen), however.


Some things that bother me:

-You gave Thief 5 Move.  That's not an issue until you factor in all the Move bonus equipment.  You basically made thief have the potential to have more range with Throw than a gun.  You had better remove Move+3 at the least.

-Samurai w/ PA increase?  Two Hands is a much better solution, and since it is innate I could still use Attack Up as my support.

-Calculator... untouched? Shouldn't this have been the first thing you fixed? Get on it!

-Sword skills cannot be elemental unless you change their formula.  Test it and you will see. You may have checked that little box, but...

-Couldn't you just have skills that cancel beneficial states rather than use oil for that purpose?  Unless it prevents beneficial states, it really isn't necessary.

-Why did you make Demi/Demi2 dark elemental? If you are trying to prevent Zodiac abuse then you'll have to make all the changes that Voldemort7 did, like change Life Drain to use the Demi formula, etc.

[Archael]

You'll need to change Triple Bracelet, Mutilate, and all Drainer-types as well.

But if you're starting off a recent V1.3 that's already been done.

Also, Cat Kick is too strong for the Red Panther, early on, the randomness of Cat Kick can 1 shot low lvl humans

[Fuzzypickles]

I can't speak for everyone, but I do believe that a standard "correction" patch at this point won't get much attention at this point. But you've done a fine job of balancing from vanilla.  I will, however, help you in your indecision.

Yeah, I'm fairly sure that's the case. Is the 1.2 patch floating around anywhere still? This is really meant to be in the spirit of that and to add onto it a bit.

3) Equip Break, Stat Break, w/e.  They are both really good so Mel can't go wrong with either.  But if this is about correcting, I don't see why she should be changed at all.

It's intended to give her something to do against monsters besides Equip Change to a spear. The Ruins would have to take a considerable nerf though...

4) As long as Orlandu has Dark Sword he can spam swordskills. Watch out on stat decreases though, as he can easily change into a Knight if his stats REALLY suck.  The best thing to do would be to make his growths suck as a Holy Swordsman: since he comes late game he'll have already received permanent damage to his stats.

Yeah, his growths are what are taking the beating. And I realize that lowering the MP isn't going to fix things at all since he can just take a Robe on a class like Geomancer/Knight and get around that problem. Killing the growths will have to be all he gets.

5) A monster can use its monster skill if you change its skillset from "monster" to "default" in the action menu (FFTpatcher). The skill will still be hidden from its stat menu (and formation screen), however.

Excellent; thank you.

-You gave Thief 5 Move.  That's not an issue until you factor in all the Move bonus equipment.  You basically made thief have the potential to have more range with Throw than a gun.  You had better remove Move+3 at the least.

I remember there was a debate about Thieves getting 5 move or not but I couldn't quite remember all of the details. I want the Thief to have some purpose because Steal isn't a remarkably good skillset outside of one or two fights. Buffing the PA/Speed to the point where he's stronger than a Ninja just seems silly, but Range 9 throw is equally bizarre.

-Samurai w/ PA increase?  Two Hands is a much better solution, and since it is innate I could still use Attack Up as my support.

Is there anything really wrong with increasing the PA? Right now he's at 130 which is just above Monk, and he still can't equip hats/clothes so he can't really boost it to the point where he's going to be carrying a skillset to brutal efficiency.

-Calculator... untouched? Shouldn't this have been the first thing you fixed? Get on it!

Yeah, it's laziness on my part. I never touch Math Skill and figured I'd delay it until I know if I can make it Primary Only or not. It's going to change how I approach it.

-Sword skills cannot be elemental unless you change their formula.  Test it and you will see. You may have checked that little box, but...

Oh, thanks. It was really just for novelty purposes and not really needed so I'll just ignore that now.

-Couldn't you just have skills that cancel beneficial states rather than use oil for that purpose?  Unless it prevents beneficial states, it really isn't necessary.

Yes, it prevents beneficial status until it is removed. Well, at least it should. I haven't tested it yet.

-Why did you make Demi/Demi2 dark elemental? If you are trying to prevent Zodiac abuse then you'll have to make all the changes that Voldemort7 did, like change Life Drain to use the Demi formula, etc.

They just seemed like spells that are Dark elemental? No real reason behind this one either.

Also, Cat Kick is too strong for the Red Panther, early on, the randomness of Cat Kick can 1 shot low lvl humans

Right, that was Monster Skill locked since I didn't realize I could open that up. I'll have to change a few things now.

[Archael]

wait wait hold up

I completely misunderstood your original post.

I was under the impression that you used V1.3 as the base PATCH FILE for all these changes.

THAT's why I thought your patchlist looked like a straight copy

My sincere apologies for snapping at you like that.

I now realize you started this on your own blank patch file and the things similar to 1.3 ARE just borrow from 1.3 instead of simply left unchanged.  



Anyway, if you are looking for things to do with Preach / Praise / Threaten / Solution, take a look at this you might like it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP7ZpU2YIT8

It's what we did with those skills in 1.3

[Fuzzypickles]

Well, I did use quite a few ideas from it. I wasn't looking at 1.3 while I was making it, but since I worked on 1.1 and 1.2 I had things in mind from the start that I wanted to change.

But yeah, I can understand you being annoyed if I just took 1.3's patchlist and copy/pasted it here. <_<;;

And I'm not sure if I need to remove Br/Fa editing or not. This patch was originally intended for only my use and I never go overboard with things like that so I don't need to get rid of it. But at the same time, I think they could use a change if I'm not going to use them period. I'm not really sure. This is also why I don't have to tinker around with things like % damage on Zodiacs since I simply don't use those skills on Zodiacs.

I really just posted this here for advice. I never had the intention of making the patch file available to the public; there were just a few things I was curious about and I already got some helpful feedback. But now I'm kinda torn on if I want to polish it up or not so it could be made public if I wanted it to... Either way, glad the confusion is cleared up. =]

Edit: Changed the title and first paragraph to try to make things a bit clearer.

[Archael]

You are very welcome to use any 1.3 ideas you like for your patch.

The br/fa altering is really only useful in the player's hands... in an actual battle (apart from lowering Elmdor's brave), the br/fa altering skills are pretty gimp, as most fights are over before their effects would stack up to have any true effect.

[Fuzzypickles]

I know I would use Threaten-spam in my Mediator SCC, but it's rarely useful unless the enemy has a really annoying reaction which doesn't happen much in vanilla. I'll probably tweak them.

Right now the enemy AI skill selection seems rather erratic. In one fight there are enemies with a full set of RSM and a nice selection of abilities. Then there's an enemy with just their primary and Equip Change. Maybe this will balance out as I get further than Dorter 2. I know I was thrilled when I saw Priests casting Raise at Miluda 1.

Did you do pretty much all the fights manually to get the enemies with decent setups? I've heard someone going up against Time Mages with Short Charge in Chapter 1. I'm trying to avoid editing the ENTD files just for simplicity, but would still like to buff the enemies a little bit more.

Either way, this is the most fun I've had playing FFT in quite some time and am very grateful for all the people who worked on these patching tools and the guides here that let even a dumbass like me figure it out. =P

[Archael]

Yes but there's a catch.

If you don't want manual setups, which can take a very long time to edit all of them in ENTD, you can just give the generics strong unlocks.

Up to lvl 1 mime which will give it every open job open with some modest amount of JP, but unless you increase the mime level reqs, it won't be much.

There's two issues with this method:
1) AI STILL won't get much choice of skills and when it does the chances of them being smart ones are slim
2) When they crystalize they have a chance to drop all those spells for the player to learn freely, which isn't really that bad but something you should know

in 1.3 most storyline generics have forced r/s/m and 2ndaries as well as unlocks

I assume you've played 1.3 so you know how that works