Good stuff Dome!
Will you be posting a change list?
Will you be posting a change list?
Use of ePSXe before 2.0 is highly discouraged. Mednafen, RetroArch, and Duckstation are recommended for playing/testing, pSX is recommended for debugging.
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Quote from: Dome on March 20, 2012, 03:26:34 am
Because if we allow the AI to learn it, there is a chance enemies will equip it
And the AI cannot use it at all
Quote from: Neophyte Ronin on January 31, 2012, 07:35:47 am
Uselessness is one thing, but something that is too useful overrides everything else. During many hunting trips, I noticed one character was getting high levels due to constant use: the character with Yin Yang Magic. The complete set, save Condemn, seemed like a no-brainer to have. Now, creatures tend to have status immunities, but they are not abrasive or all-encompassing. Also, the Knight's Precision ability more than compensates for the inability to directly adjust Faith scores. Coupled with Pray Faith, my answer to practically every encounter ended up as two words: "Giant Frog."
Seriously. Sending the original Black Magics of Frog and Poison to the Oracle/Onmyoshi/Mystic and then making Poison a permanent affair made for a character who has the answer to practically every monster encounter. That's pretty much the story behind Beowulf's original Templar Class command and its success in hunting monsters: these spells are brilliant. Adding Frog and Poison, on the other hand, makes Yin Yang Magic the catch-all solution to practically any bad-ass. Even the Squids and Illithids can't match the party if they themselves have found the dark, terrible secret they have always sought after: "Giant Frog." Black Magic can't match that anymore, even though it used to be perfect alongside Yin Yang Magic for these reasons and more.
Given some thought, I'd say Summon Magic has some real issues, enough to take this crown of most useless special. It's worthless against the aforementioned Illithids, since their answer to everything is "Counter Flood" and their stats override the original limits of Geomancy. As for Summoning, all they do is deal thematic elemental damage and, if not, deal slightly better non-elemental damage or do so instantly. Big deal. So can the Attack Command, and it's cheaper. Regardless of cost, Elements are nowhere near as good as they used to be. Monsters who were originally weak to some kind of element are no longer weak to it, or had their affinities adjusted, or some creatures (goblins and squids) are impossible to face with magic. That's okay--they're all "puzzle encounters", where you gotta have the proper abilities to ensure a smooth fight. Which isn't Summon Magic.
Not to mention, Summons were dummied just because the Summoner used to do a good job protecting the party as well. Can't have the ability to heal and protect and still be considered fair and balanced, it seems. Mog, Fairy, Golem, and the seemingly redundant Salamander and Cyclops were dismissed from the roster. When the Summoner's supportive and healing abilities went by the wayside, my interest in the command was lost, chiefly because I never considered Summon Magic to be a mere replacement for the Black Magic command. It was never that. Golem seemed like too much of a cheat against human encounters, mostly because it was expensive but quick to cast and operated on the user's Maximum Health. It didn't cover all attacks and is nowhere near a perfect defense, yet it was dummied. Mog and Fairy used to heal, but they were ousted also. To be quite frank about the affair, once Summoners got pegged for doing nothing but wreaking havoc with the classic damage-based Summons, they simply became a homogenized Black Mage with a few extra elements tagged on. Longer casting ranges mean nothing if they don't deal enough damage to faze the enemy's tactics.
That's pretty sad, considering there could be other things that Summons can do from any distance that don't need to revolve around damage (barring the exceptions of Earth and Water, namely Titan and Leviathan, and even they could use some adjusting). All things considered, Lich is pretty much your go-to guy since he wasn't changed a whole lot. Even though you can cast from long distance, any distance really, the others aren't doing enough damage to warrant prolonged use of anything else but Lich and Precision. With the exception of risen bones, phantoms, or anybody claiming to be a master bonecraftsman, you can go no better than a couple Lich summons to ruin the battlefield. And any Class Specialty where only one ability is worth the time of the player is a Class Specialty that's better off reworked or abolished entirely.
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