Final Fantasy Hacktics

Again, the fuck is this?

THERE ISN'T EVEN A POLL!

And not to bust your balloon, but the butt-pants thing and the whole bondage-medieval schtick was the lead artist's motif, not an indication of mass sexual impurity.  Also, Ramza is fucking Aerith and all of you know it!

To which I say, "So's atheism."  Just because there isn't one there doesn't mean you're immune to the spirit of this query.

People have every right to decide for themselves.  You can't have it any other way and claim to be pure.

On the other hand, if religion is a penis, then what is science?

There was also a study done linking man's intelligence and their preference towards breast sizes.  That has made me not only skeptical in the existence of a loving God guiding mankind, but in SCIENCE TOO.

I recall a Flash at Newgrounds that involved one of those things.  It was based on FFVI, well before the GBA version, and the whole scope of the series puts a smile on my face:  http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/24961.  Look up "Razoric" and check his back-catalog.

Initial Contact with Lucavi could work if it was reserved to Elidibus alone, as he is not necessarily connected to the regular Lucavi working to revive Ultima.  To be more precise, he may be what Delita was: with his own ideas about things.  The plot does not have to use the other Lucavi, and that works well for those who think it shouldn't, period.  Don't get careless and say that only Vormav and the Cardinal were the only guys in the know.  We have no clue what Elidibus is after, or what his connections are, because he was added to the zodiac devils but not explicitly with them with them.  So, an Initial Contact of Lucavi predating Vormav and Delacroix most likely involves him, but it could encompass some other issue.

They're only suggestions.  They're also meant to offer perspective, or recommend something you can shoot for.

If you ask me, keep the numbers simple, like dirt simple, dice-rolling simple.  Weapons and equipment may be customized with a set of (logical) features such as bypassing an enemy's resistances to attack categories....

...Okay, you're right Xif.  Sorry.  I'll be frank.  I was hoping your declaration could pool the folk around here, who enjoy modifying Tactics for fun, into a game where our ideas could congeal into a profitable venture, with you as one with the final say.  It's not that you cannot finish it on your own, you cannot finish it in the timeline you described--the two months of which you have any money left--so this put me in a quandary to recommend something feasible without stepping on your toes.

With that said, I'm still for assisting you in any way I can, if you'll let me.  The concepts at first glance look interesting, the basis of a roguelike as you say, but it may be too much for one to work on.  So let me propose this: set down everything you wish to accomplish, summarize it in organized manner, and let us see what the summary is like.  You can choose to go indie, but what I'm saying is that we'll support your endeavor, no matter how involved you wish us to be!

About time someone propped this.

Xif, you need to think here.  Your mind is a very complicated weapon of mass destruction.  The first thing I got was a roguelike Vagrant Story weapon customization.  If things get too complicated, try to simplify things.

I recommend Tri-Stat as a first avenue.  There are three base stats, they govern all the skills, and the skills are customizeable by points.  In fact, the free guide is so stripped-down that it could satisfy practically any setting and character.

Ren'Py is a Visual Novel engine.  Like it or not, I have played a role-playing game demo from a company that uses Ren'Py.  It wasn't Hentai, if that's what you're thinking.  The amount of storytelling one can insert into the system, combined with the ability of python to create a simple game, should be worth looking into.

Monsters' Den is a series of roguelikes with an emphasis on equipment and tactical combat.  The latest edition, Chronicles, is free-to-play at Armor Games.  Even if you don't go the Flash route, Newgrounds has a bottomless pit of an Audio Archive that is beginning to match its Flash Portal.

Want to know my idea:

A game where you're a mercenary dispatcher and personally oversee the missions you send your subordinates to.  Note that this merges FFT's proposition system into the actual meat of the game, where you decide on things in a visual novel menu progression but then perform encounters (not limited to just killing shit either) in a battlefield setting.  It's meant to be open-ended.  You can find people out in the field or look over randomly-generated applications of characters, each with their own traits--advantages and disadvantages that affect competence and inclination.

It's about as big on the character management as yours was on equipment.  The idea to keep things trimmed to barebones, of course, should be a relatively constant theme.  Are you about to be thrown out of your apartment or something if you cannot make ends meet?

That stupid example almost sounds doable.







If it was confined to a patch that did Plus and just this, that would be cool.

Actually, there are several:

First, enemies seem to advance upon you whether they disregard your presence as open for an attack or not.

Second, when you hack it so that doesn't happen, you wind up getting nailed by people before you can execute your infallible weapon strike, forcing you to redo the whole Sunken State thing.  If your Brave ain't 100, there's a chance that you lose the opportunity.

Third: both the hacked and original versions don't really do the concept justice.

On one side, Dome thought of creating a version where you are invulnerable until you strike, and that Sunken State was the only way to cast the effect.  This way, if someone does attack you, you are hit for zero damage and it goes away (State might proc); it only goes away for real if you act.  Not bad, but I don't quite see it happening quite like that.

In my vision (close to FFVI), it shrouds you in a blurring effect.  Enemies have a general impression of where you are, but their attacks are less than accurate.  Kind of like the Blur Artifact from Doom giving you an easier time dodging enemy fire when you put distance between the two of you.  It would double your evasion rating, in other words.

Before you cry foul, devise a caveat to negate magic repulsion to 0%, making for a reasonable drawback we're comfortably familiar with (if you played FFVI and toyed with the Vanish/Doom trick, for instance), maybe even double the success of magic-based skills (but not amp up the outcomes of something like fire magic).  This makes Transparent into Ethereal, a glass cannon defense, even without the doubled success effect.

Seeing that Confusion negates Evasion in much the same way as Sleep and countless others, I don't see why you couldn't negate magic repulsion exclusively in the same vein of adjustments or negation of evasion working in the case of Darkness, Concentrate, Defend, and Abandon.  But I also haven't heard anyone who's tried anything but downsize Transparent to cut back on the unfairness toward the CPU.

You mean retool the Plus release to accommodate a soiree that takes place between Chapters 1 and 2?  I'm game.  I'm guessing you'll either have Ramza and Rad, led by a playable Gafgarion, or Delita first associating with both Zeltennia's leaders and the Church's?

Bingo!  And it parallels the intrigues described in Germonik's Tome as well.  Thanks, FDC.  That representation of what could go on has my vote.

Regarding female thieves: they should dress in black with bandanas on their faces.

Regarding Time Mages: they resemble Mickey Mouse from his appearance in Fantasia, when he was the youth apprenticed under the magician Yen Sid.  Iconic as that appearance was, its use is still an anachronistic pop culture reference that cheapens the flavor and undermines the value of the character class.  However, if we wish to give them a full makeover, it better not involve giving them black faces with gold eyes.  That's just layering the pop culture references together.

Regarding Calculators: I thought the hairstyles were so mid-90s myself.

A water spell.  Essentially the Water Elemental Spell that a Black Mage would use.

Dome is also from Italy, so he likely refers to the sub-alpine lake in the provinces of Brescia and Trento, Lake Idro.  Being sub-alpine, I think it has to be a blast of alpine water, subzero temperatures perhaps.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Yeah, I am not as sure about Option Three as I was before.  Then again, it's the one winning, so I'm not so sure.

Is it true that Vormav became possessed after his wife died of plague?  Where was that written?

Your amended version looks even better.  When will the voting end?

Edit: judging by current standing of the polls, sometime after a week.  The selections are really neck-to-neck, aren't they?

I have been retooling the entire text file via TactText.  I'm not sure if every change will fly, but I've taken the liberty of renaming the Hokuten and Nanten the Aquilor and Austeron respectively, after a translation by sugnuf, which is found here.
The two terms are based on the north and south skies, of which Hokuten and Nanten essentially emulate.  In addition, the Latin term for "East Sky" is Vulturus, and is considered a wind of misfortune.  It so happens that the word Touten stands for east sky, and that is the unit that Gafgarion hails from.

Furthermore, while searching for the term "Sietch", in regards to the Cellar of Sand Rats in Zeklaus Desert, I discovered that it is the term for a cavern and hiding place, used in the Dune novels by Frank Herbert.  In other words, Sietch is from the science fiction lexicon and is out of place in a Medieval lingo, until I spot an alternate meaning behind the term.

I'm not against analyzing the texts of the official games as well as the Japanese-to-English translation that sugnuf has provided.  Eternal248 has also adopted its use; he was the one who referred me.  Most of the text is a matter of spelling and grammar, though it is also prudent to reformat virtually everything; this will take a while, but I'll tell you when I'm done.

You may want to forward this to Dome's attention.  He is remaking FFT+ from the ground up with new ASMs and such.  Rad is a Red Mage in this game, but he resembles a Squire without a hood.  Not terribly flashy.  This sprite looks awesome and, thanks to your EVTCHR setup, there won't be any glitches.  It's almost heroic what you did.

Quote from: formerdeathcorps on July 10, 2012, 10:43:30 pm
If we can expand on Plot I, I'd definitely consider it.

I don't understand Plot II.  What are the "both sides" you are referring to?  What exactly are the petitions to the Queen for?  Are the Death Corps suppressing the revolt or helping further it?  Why exactly are the official troops unable/unwilling to do anything?

Either administration = North Sky or South Sky.  Both agencies, toward the war's end, suffered the need to quell revolts within the kingdom.

The use of dirty tactics to put down a revolt (or have it succeed) employs monsters specifically to feature them during story fights and, if they're redone like how Dome did Plus, they can be actual threats that you'd want on your side.  It also stains the moral candor of the protagonist, who is forced to go along with these tricks.  It necessitates monster recruitment.

Petitions to the Queen are meant to illustrate the ambivalence between her and the Board of Chamberlains and of the peasants' outrage.  The perception of her as a tyrant was glazed over in favor of focusing on the Zodiac Brave Story.  Since we don't wish to repeat the themes of the original game, a different lens upon the setting is in order.

The Knights of Death were volunteers, though their exact service to the army was unclear.  Since they were formed due to diminishing strength of the army, they might have been doing the things that the regular army didn't want to bother with, including the quelling of peasant revolts.  These revolts would then inspire the Knights of Death later, but for now, they had a war to fight.

In short, the good cops became vigilantes later.  I figured the Knights of Death were cool enough to feature; Option Two takes place just before the war's end, right before they turn sour.  It lets us make them into Guest Characters if we wanted.

Did that clear things up?  My second option was hastily written, but this is what I thought of when I wrote it.

Keep the name, but I was thinking of doing that myself, giving Agrias healing arts (not necessary White Magic; the Squire techniques are still viable) and making Lightning Stab exclusive to the one called Thundergod Cid.  I mean, why not?