Final Fantasy Hacktics

possibly?  I know I read that over before asking, but I was sure it was a more conclusive list...

I saw a list a while back on here about status effects, and how they affect the tempo of combat.

Things like "Death Sentence" and "Haste" being inherently "better" than, say, "Blind" or "Slow", and affecting time taken to resolve battles, etc.

I can't find it anywhere, but does anyone know what this list is offhand?  I recall it separating things into 3 tiers of effectiveness, and that's about it.  I want my patch to basically have lesser statuses easier to access, and to balance out greater statuses.

ex: Stasis Sword is good because of the status, but bad because of range.  I want to nerf the status to a "lesser" one, and increase range - basically, rebalancing all Agrias' abilities with each other.  Basically, giving lesser statuses to damaging attacks, and saving better statuses for non-damaging things.

actually, bad HP growths/equips sounds good t'me - I've always been a low-numbers kinda guy anyways, so hitting for 50 damage against a foe with 200 HP definitely sounds better than hitting for 200 damage against a foe with 800 HP.  I can reign in MP growths as well and keep everything nice and tightly knit...4 MP cost, but you'll be capping out at, like, 100MP...

...muahaha...I love this idea - many thanks!

actually, I like the idea of having Acrobat high on the job tree, just because of Throw, and how useful it would be early-game.  It's also a readily available money sink.  It always bothered me that by the time I got Ninja, all the junk I was saving (Mythril knifes, etc.) wasn't worth throwing.

OK, Shock is officially being removed, I'm deeming it the problem  Rest too, since I don't want to ASM hack any more than I have to.  Perhaps a few PA-oriented skills are in order instead...

I'm working with what basics I'm given.  Far as my research has told me, I can't remove Innate 2 hands or innate Martial Arts without losing the ability to equip them later (with a Monk/Ninja base).  Hence Gypsy's and Acrobat's innates.  I may well change Gypsy's curses, though.

also: Musty has Don't Move/Act, and Archer in FFTA has Cupid.  As for debuffs, does anyone use Archer right now with any support skill other than Break Arts?  Anything else seems...not as good.

Thaumaturge: gained Hammers, which are going to be, strengthwise, as strong as swords.  Add in a bit more HP growth, and you've got something a little more DnD cleric like - a midlines healer, instead of a backlines healer.  Basically, addition of a good weapon will allow his MP to be more focused on healing, and his hammers focused on damage dealing.  I did this in vanilla to great extent with a doublehand oracle.  Did better damage than my PA users, and made a great support unit as well.

YinYang
Time
Counter
Doublehand
Move+3

Halberdier lacks armour, actually - has clothes instead, so no tanking.  My plan is to make Jump a little more...reliable, by making the speed necessary for it to be that reliable more attainable.  Again: I'd LOVE to scrap jump, but...my learnings tell me that the AI doesn't like that.

Barrister: didn't have Don't Act in vanilla, and I've never seen CT00 in any strategy I've come across.  I'll likely re-add it, though.  And I didn't say "more focused" or "better".  I compared it more to Oracle than the original mediator.  Essentially, all I did was add Haste to Insult, scrap negotiate for Anullment, and Death Sentence for Confuse, which just changes pacing.

Vanguard lacks robes, so he's gonna have a low base MP - something all those mentioned skills are going to have.  If that tactic is attempted, it's not going to be too too effective without MP support.  Of course, you cound move the moveset over to a mage and attempt this, but you'll have lower base HP, which means a weaker Shock, but you'll be able to do it longer...Not sure if Aura or Shock is the problem...

Geomancer...ok, I fully admit I'm not sure anymore as to what I was thinking...I just fell in love with the idea of ranged elementalist attacks - I'll be setting this one back to normal.  I'm gonna buff the damage a bit and remove the elements instead - it was always a pain to move into water to deal extra damage to bombs, or out of it to avoid healing Squidlarkins anyways.  Not like Earth and Water damage are in short supply anymore anyways...

Mundus - was going to be heavy damage, yes - not quite Flare tier, though.  This one may well be back to the drawing board, it seems.

ok, so here's my plan, and project - to take the Final Fantasy out of Final Fantasy tactics.  Leave it as simple "War of the Lions, the Zodiac Brave story"

Why? because there's nothing relating to FF anyways except a few passing refrences...well, there's only a few passing refrences anyways to bind any given FF game to any other, but...whatever...

I also intend to redo faces so people look more...unique... (I'm sorry, but there are way too many noseless fair-skinned blondes in Ivalice, and it's hard for my wife to keep up).  This may get kicked to the curb, though.

I'm also planning on changing the jobs...mostly to amuse myself.  As a secondary, though, it always bothered me how little elements play into things.  Seriously - when did you ever consider a Coral Sword over an Ancient Sword if you weren't planning on kicking some Squidlarkin ass?

Damage is taking a serious overhaul.  Weapons and spells are going through rigorous reworking to each be within a certain specified damage output.  Average hit is aimed to be ~100 before modifiers late-game.  HP is scaling back to match - don't expect to see anyone with 999HP (except maybe Worker 8 - still working on this)

Extra base classes may be recruitable!  We all know people come form all sorts of walks of life...as such, (room allowing), I may be creating extra, Invite-only PCs to be recruited at various points in the game.  Since, y'know, not everyone started out as a squire.

Monsters being reworked to be more in-balance with humans.  Each monster will have all 3 abilities, plus a Beastmaster ability.  Monsters will also have more innate abilities, including taming, poaching, teleporting, and various skills to make them more adept at their skills than other monsters with the same skills.

(for example, Mindflayers will have innate Tame, as they have a habit of keeping slaves.  Beholders, however, have innate Concentrate, making their Mind Blast more accurate than a Mindflayer's)












To be filled out more as I have the time to do so, and learn more about hacking and such.  Yes, I fully admit that some of these are technically notes, but I haven't had the chance to find the right formulas yet.  Any critiques would be appreciated, and may help me finish this project faster.

...and that's ASM hacking, isn't it?

...crap...my simple mod keeps getting more and more complex...

also - I assume you mean the newly-sticked post in Help!?  I skimmed through it and bookmarked it, and I'm planning on giving it another reread at a later time.

I've been trying to design a game for a long time (RM2K, I admit...), and I'm constantly trying to find a way to balance my characters...it always bugged me about games how you get a skill at one point, then immediately discard it 8-10 levels later.  It's...wasteful.

I'm trying to remedy that in my patch...assuming I can find a way to make it without too too much difficulty.

For example: I'm condensing WM's skillset in healing -

Cure Light Wounds
Range 3, effect 2, Power low

Cure Medium wounds
Range 3, effect 1, Power medium

Cure Serious Wounds
Range 3, effect 0, Power high

This seems to be to be a more effective use of 3 skill slots, rather than Cure 1/2/3/4.  By having the power scale with level, I give the player to have a cure spell for any situation, AND eliminate the need for this CT5 BS by keeping everything with reasonable casting times.

looking through formulas, found this:

5E Dmg_((MA+Y)/2*MA) #Hit_(X+1) 6.25% Status
[Triple Thunder, Triple Flame, Dark Whisper]
(This is the only multi-hit formula in the game that ALWAYS occurs X+1 number of times.)

could be useful for doublecast.

As for MP costs for doublecasting, why not just have it as 2/2.5x the base cost for the spell?  You're likely not going about Fire/Ice/Bolt2 anyways, right?

Is there a way to make a MA stat growth scale with level, to make, say, a single fire spell be worthwhile the entire game?

for example, having MA rise every few levels at a seemingly ridiculous rate, so it can keep up effectively with weapons?

also, is it possible to make it doable in such a way that an oak staff with doesn't outpower Excalibur incredibly quickly.

would high base damage be better, as it means spells would be ridiculous earlygame, then balance out lategame?

ok, I THINK I have a concise list of replacables.

11: Gaffgarion - 27: Dark Sword
12: Dead Malak - Duplicate skillset
13: Simon - 00: no skillset
14: Alma - Battle w/Ajora - 4C: Holy Magic
21: Balmafula 00: no skillset
3B: (nameless) - duplicate skillset
3D: Knight (Undead) - 9B: Sword Skill
3F: Archer (Undead) - 9C: Charge
42: Wizard (Undead) - 9D: Black Magic
44: Time Mage (Undead) - 9E: Time Magic
46: Oracle (Undead) - 9F: Yin-Yang Magic
47: Summoner (Undead) - A0: Summon

Anyone looking to use the Undead classes could very easily just make an accessory for the enemies (Phylactry?) that gives Undead, Float, and makes them immune to Invite...and just give them maintenence as their continuous ability.

Myself? I see those units at the bottom of the list as ripe for the picking for Rad, Alicia, Lavian, Boco and Byblos replacements - with no need to tinker around with Lede/Celia's unused spots.

Unless, of course, someone who actually knows what's going on can tell me different.

Also: what's preventing us form using, say, 9F as a job?  it's completely blank...we can use blank skill spots, right? why not blank classes?

Truth's formula has hit 1-X times in it on FFTP.  Best I'd be able to suggest is set it as effect 1, and 1-3 times (should average out as 2)

I just checked the sprite sheets on-site.  there's a Male Wizard on 37, a second at 42, and another down with the generic classes at 6C

This tells me that 37/42 is likely Undead Wizard and, therefore, replacable. (this is all without cross-refrencing what those sprites are attached to in FFTP, of course)

personally, I wouldn't mind losing the Undead Time Mages on the way to Velius if it means adding in something neat to have in lieu of Boco instead...

correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that Undead Classes (Oracle, Knight, Summoner, Wizard, Time Mage, etc.) can also be revamped to become new characters.

Someone in the know, please correct me if I'm wrong.

right, I'm just thinking cutscenes again...

...there's scripts on Gamefaqs, if that helps.  I gained a more in-depth understanding of Ivalice after reading this:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/197339-final-fantasy-tactics/faqs/48627
like...a great deal more than my playthroughs of PSX and WotL...

WotL allows you to rewatch everything as well, including cutscenes, new content, and (if memory serves), the ending in a postgame file.

Lolo1 (which uses the floor system) is an amalgamation of Eggerland 1&2 (which uses the labyrinth system).  same puzzles.

also, I'm attaching the PC one I have - I don't see it breaking any rules, since the licensing on it has been over for a good long while now...

more relevant questions:

Is the base range for weapons hard-coded?

can I change a Sword into a Book for the sake of keeping everything nice and organized in my list, or should I be changing Instruments out since their base range is 3 as well?

Also, is it's not hard coded, how would I go about changing the Crossbow's range from 3-4 to 3-5, like how FFT Rebirth has it done?  Would that be ASM hacking, then?

not the room, the playstyle.

the original Eggerland games has it so that when you went through the door into the next room, you could backtrack to the previous room, so in addition to the standard Eggerland "beat a puzzle, go to next puzzle", it was also a labyrinth that you had to maneuver.

It had things like "boat to the next level", and such as well.

I actually HAVE the one for '95, but it's on my hard drive at home, I'll make sure to send it to you at some point.  It included Mirrors (so you could egg Don/Medusae) and the labyrinthian nature that was promonent in Eggerland (but lost in Lolo)

you are my hero, good sir.

Will this project include PROA-D?

Also, will it be played Eggerland style (roaming room-by-room through a castle), or Lolo style (each level is its own room/floor)?

there's also Boss Gaffy and Balmafuma.  I'm trying to get a solid list on this myself in another thread...