FFT: ASM'D main info/discussion

[philsov]

Speaking of Squires, is it possible to insert an ability into their skillset that replicates the 'old' version of Cheer Up (Br boost), while allowing us to keep the Regen-adding one from 1.3?

Not that I'm aware of.  What little free ability slots remained prior to this were consumed prior, largely for talk skill.  Personally I find Dash to be a competely craptastic skill, and was planning on making Secret Fist (the old Dash :p) a PA*WP attack with a 100% chance to add:blind.  For a very brief period I thought to give a Work ability to basic skill, but those are WAY too strong in chapter 1 and that was quickly dismissed.  Maybe Shock?  Nah.

Ooooh.  Wait a sec, there is a spare ability slot:

- Self-only Br boost of 10, 100% success?
- Weapon strike with 25% chance for ability effect (elemental, stat break, swordskill, status, something?)

Really I'd like something that's moderately spammable like the short lived Wild Blow or Bulls Eye abilities, if you all recall those.

Edit:  No, knockback and cancel:status are mutually exclusive.

[Skip Sandwich]

what if instead of dash being a weak attack with 100% knockback, it were a normal weapon strike with a higher then normal chance of causing knockback? (i.e. normal attack plus dash/throw stone proc). It'd be kind of weird to be doing 'super dashes' off of arrow shots or guns, so It might have to be limited to a range of one.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Speaking of Squires, is it possible to insert an ability into their skillset that replicates the 'old' version of Cheer Up (Br boost), while allowing us to keep the Regen-adding one from 1.3?

Not that I'm aware of.  What little free ability slots remained prior to this were consumed prior, largely for talk skill.  Personally I find Dash to be a competely craptastic skill, and was planning on making Secret Fist (the old Dash :p) a PA*WP attack with a 100% chance to add:blind.  For a very brief period I thought to give a Work ability to basic skill, but those are WAY too strong in chapter 1 and that was quickly dismissed.  Maybe Shock?  Nah.

Ooooh.  Wait a sec, there is a spare ability slot:

- Self-only Br boost of 10, 100% success?
- Weapon strike with 25% chance for ability effect (elemental, stat break, swordskill, status, something?)

Really I'd like something that's moderately spammable like the short lived Wild Blow or Bulls Eye abilities, if you all recall those.

Edit:  No, knockback and cancel:status are mutually exclusive.

Damn at the edit.

Swordskill / Shock! / Work, no.  Basic Skill should be basic, and I'd call none of those basic.

100% +10 Br to self could be nice.

I've an idea.

Shattering Lunge (Rending Lunge in the PSP version, lol).

Dash-like with 25% Weapon Break proc.  Could even be a direct replacement for the current Dash, and as a result, Counter Tackle.  The Knight's Weapon Break isn't completely retconned because of the other abilities that Battle Skill comes with, use with ranged Weapons / Two Swords, % increasing via more powerful Weapons / more PA, etc, whereas this one will be 1 panel only, lower percent but with decent damage and some supportive abilities around it in its skillset.

If you choose to use such an ability and have Counter Tackle reference it instead, you could simply call the Reaction ability Counter Shatter.

Sounds interesting, thoughts?

Also, random side note that typing this vs Battle Skill reminded me of that I forget if I made or not.  I think PA Save and MA Save should be available to both genders, but for some reason can't recall if I brought that up or not.

[philsov]

break/steal skills are hardcoded to their ability slots.  this is why counter steal weapon got rejected in the first place.  Weapon break was the first thing I tried when steal weapon failed.

[RavenOfRazgriz]

break/steal skills are hardcoded to their ability slots.  this is why counter steal weapon got rejected in the first place.  Weapon break was the first thing I tried when steal weapon failed.

That's preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetty gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

How the hell did Voldemort have Daggers with 25% Steal procs before, then?

[SilvasRuin]

There's a formula that has a 25% chance of casting another ability, or something of that nature.  I imagine he used that formula and directed it to the steal abilities that were in their correct clots and so would work.

[FFMaster]

Yeah, Attack + 25% to cast a spell. Normally its directed to Ice 2 or something like that. Removed due to the duplication glitch though.

[iopyud]

Alright, how about:

Dash - CT00 with... 40~60% Chance? You don't even need to give it damage.
Throw Stone - This one will get blind, higher damage but charge time equivalent to charge + 1. You need a few seconds to find a rock.
Or leave it that way but give it WP*AP but have charge time.

I didn't understand what you meant about "status mutually exclusive"......

Anyway-

Are monks really strong? I mean, sure, they hit hard but most of the time I don't use them due to their squishiness.
A Two Sword monk really doesn't last as long as a 2 Hand Lancer.......

Enlighten me.

[Aquilae]

A Two Swords Monk does about the same damage as a Two Hands Lancer with Dragon Whisker at level 50, and then does about twice as much at level 99. The Monk has Martial Arts and Two Swords (a total of 3x normal damage spread out over 2 hits) and the damage scales exponentially. PA^2 * Br / 100 can reach really scary numbers at high PA levels, around 25 for level 99.

Besides, Punch Art is a great skillset and Monks are about the only class which can really use it well. Other PA classes need Martial Arts on support to match up to the Monk's performance with Punch Art. Monks also have decent enough HP to avoid getting one-shotted by most stuff while Lancer gets two / three -shotted. The minor durability lead isn't that great of an asset, Monks can use Equip Armor if you want a tank.

[iopyud]

Oh yeah. it's (Martial Arts) based on PA. I'm an idiot.

[philsov]

How the hell did Voldemort have Daggers with 25% Steal procs before, then?

As already answered.  But a Br% chance to activate with a 25% chance for proc with a ~50% chance to break the weapon?  Very lame reaction imo.

Dash - CT00 with... 40~60% Chance? You don't even need to give it damage.

Way too good versus bosses.  CT00 isn't something I can set immunity to.  Just have two Dash pumpers and lay into the guy with the rest of your squad.  

I didn't understand what you meant about "status mutually exclusive"......

Knockback isn't a status -- it's more of an effect.  The formula that grants knockback (read:  original Dash and Throw Stone) doesn't have any status properties, least, I'm pretty sure.  It's like asking for something to grant quick, deal damage to the target, inflict slow, and open a wine bottle all at the same time.  There just isn't a formula for it.

I'd like to keep Throw Stone as Throw Stone.  I can see the knockback being vital in this scheme.  Dash is already getting changed to PA*WP with a 100% chance to blind the target.  We still have one ability slot (old foxbird, I want the only way to reduce Br to be Talk Skill so I can give Zodiacs innate finger guard) to give to squires.  We can call it anything and it can do anything, so long as it kind of fits the squire/basic skill scheme -- if it's even warranted.  Sages/Oracles can get a new spell, monks/knight can get a new skills, etc.

edit: or monster skill chocos for the Br reduction thing.

[LastingDawn]

Actually Philsov... the formula that uses that is MA + X% and is a Talk Skill, you can give the boss innate Finger Guard to stop that.

[philsov]

ah, wonderful.

Still, it'd basically be persuade 2.  I'd prefer a unique ability if possible.

[Sephirot24]

% to add [(PA*WP)/2] damage?
% for an extra attack?
% to add a couple of basic bad statuses.. any combination of 2 (poison/blind, blind/silence, poison/silence)

Hey is it possible to turn defend into something like "Sentinel" or the like? As long as you're defending, your reaction ability becomes Counter (maybe both Counter and Counter Magic), and it has Br% chance (or maybe a fixed % chance) of triggering. It'd be nice, but I have absolutely no idea if it can be done, so I'm just asking. Trying to be creative... maybe someone will like the idea for another project.

[Zaen]

That'd need ASM for sure.

[iopyud]

Wait- Let's talk about Basic Skill some more.

First, I don't really want 'new' skills, I prefer either just boosting or nerfing old ones.

Anyway-
If Dash is changed to PA*WP with 100% Blind: What's the point of using normal attacks then?
If you're going with that (You really like t3h blind don't you? lol), I'd like it to at least have charge time or MP cost.

Or you could give the Br reduction thing to Dash and Blind effect to Throw Stone. (No KB)
OR the 100% Knockback to Dash and Blind effect to Throw Stone which would be make more sense.

Just my 2 cents.

Oh and one more thing:

Scream : AoE effect with the range of Draw Out, it reduces Br of units around the user. UBERGUTS exclusive skill.
THIS'LL make UB3RGUTS special.

Bitch, if Ramza screamed, you'd be shitless. He's a mild mannered man of justice but he fucking annihilated the shrine knights in orbonne which sent little Izlude retreating scared shitless, then he proceeded to hunt down demons from hell and killed them one by one. You can only imagine what horrors the 'next' demon experienced while waiting for Ramza. Chaotic.Fucking.Good.

[philsov]

I was planning on having Blind Strike with an MP cost of 8 or so.  I'd like the knockback to be on Throw Stone due to its range.  

Hm.  Maybe a -1 MA and -1 PA Battle Skill?

Also, new idea to the table:  Diversified elemental!

Have some panels with:

PA * [PA+X/2]
MA * [MA+X/2]
[(PA + X) / 2] * MA

damage?  Makes terrain choice a matter of both damage and status, and boosts it by proxy for late-game damage dealing since you only need to stack one stat and becomes more friendly for the non-hybrid types.

Also for the purpose of playtesting both draw out and summon magic will lose their smart target feature.  I can see a lot more bunching up occuring -- which means that smart-targetting aoe is going to be SICK.  But on the other hand if I disable smart targetting those skillsets may not see much use.  Summon magic at least has range on its side to avoid friendly fire, but draw out will necessitate fly to break past the enemy and avoiding the pain to your own people.  But I think it's the best possible solution.  Again, this is up in the air, I'll see how both scenarios play out.

[Sephirot24]

Then at least leave Draw out with smart targeting.
For summons, reduce those which had HUGE AOE (Leviathan, Bahamut) to normal AOE (Ifrit, Shiva) and give' em smart targeting.

[degrofm]

Then at least leave Draw out with smart targeting.
For summons, reduce those which had HUGE AOE (Leviathan, Bahamut) to normal AOE (Ifrit, Shiva) and give' em smart targeting.

I thought that summons already had smart targeting, if by smart targeting you mean "only targets enemies."

[Sephirot24]

Yeah. Smart targeting targets enemies only when the spell causes damage / bad status, and only targets allies when the spell heals HP or grants positive status. Phil wants to remove smart targeting because with reduced Move, the units are cramping up, and smart targeting may be too much of an advantage in many cases.

That's why I'm suggesting that.