Explain FFT's battle system like someone has never played FFT before

[Dokurider]

Why? Because I'm coming with FFT's combat system for my Tabletop and I need to formalize it's rules of combat. Thing is, I don't really know where to start. I'm afraid I might miss something because I'm so familiar with FFT, I'd forget to write it down. And copy pasting the BMG is only useful for definitions actually.

So Topic Title. Don't worry about translating it to tabletop form or job-specific rules, that's my job.

[VampragonLord]

CT is the hardest concept to explain, just because even in FFT you generally ignore CT. Here is my best to explain the overall flow of combat. I am only explaining combat in particular, not job systems or equips or the like past that, as you only asked for the combat system.


You can "move" once per turn. Moving is limited by your move range, moving diagonally counts as 2 squares. You may "Act" once per turn, acting is one of any number of things, but most commonly it is: Attacking, Defending, Changing your equipment,(defend/equip change innate IMO) or using a skill from your skill list.  A units "direction" is important, as it effects evasion. Different items give evasion bonuses to different directions.

Clock-ticks pass when it is not a units turn. Every clock tick all units and non-instant abilities have their "speed" added to their CT bar. Once a CT bar is at or above 100, its that units turn. Units may conserve CT by not using all of their actions. Having one action left over nets you 40 CT back to your bar, having 2 actions left over nets you 60 CT.

Hp and Mp is how many hit points or magic points you have, respectively. Your current HP is reduced whenever you take damage, and can be restored by various abilities. If it hits zero, you fall unconscious and may permanently die. Your MP is used for many abilities, both passive and active. This can also be restored through many different abilities.

[formerdeathcorps]

Create a spreadsheet with everyone's SPD on it.  Add the SPD value to itself into a new variable called CT.  Each additive phase is called a clocktick.  When the sum of a unit's SPD > 100, unit will get a turn.  If during one clocktick, two units get a turn and have the same CT value. use the order in the roster to break ties.

During a turn, a unit may:
1) Act once using any of his commands (including Equip Change and Defend).  Some actions auto-induce charge/perform/jump status.  Note: counters and evades do not count as actions, simply as reactions to an enemy action.
2) Move once, using no more than his movement stat on the square grid (unless he has teleport)

Not doing either subtracts 60 CT, doing one subtracts 80 CT, and doing both subtracts 100 CT.



Personally, I prefer the below system:

1) CT per square = maxHP (Before Lucavi Calculation) / (LVL + 5)
2) CT per evade = max{Attacker - Defender SPD, 0} + K {8 if A/C-EV, 5 if W-EV, and 2 if S-EV}
3) CT per counter = (here, I assume you make abandon and weapon guard innates or supports) 30 unless you are also using MP costs on some of them
4) CT if action = 60 (even if 2 Swords, this is still 60 CT spent)

Of course, this is not fair unless you can also choose if your character counters/evades, but on a tabletop, I don't see why someone wouldn't decline doing either for CT reasons.  This would also mean 100% reactions rather than those referenced by brave.

[VampragonLord]

FDC i think you misread the topic title...
"Topic: Explain FFT's battle system like someone has never played FFT before "
not "Topic: Explain FFT's battle system like a computer would"

[Dokurider]

Both is okay I guess. After all, my goal is to convert FFT to a system. Supposed to be my job, but I can't really refuse help, can I?

[VampragonLord]

he did a great job sorting it out, i was just givin him a bit of a hassle.

[philsov]

hm.  I know you said you'd do the translation, but screw that.  Taking a few simplifying shortcuts with the CT system, feel free to adjust some of the numbers.

In the tick system, all units get a turn every X ticks, which is their Speed stat divided by 100 and then rounded.

8 speed unit gets a turn every 12 ticks
9 is 11
10 is 10
11 is 9
7 is 14
6 is 17

Once their turn it up, they are able to both move and act, in either order.  If they choose to not do either of these actions, their subsequent turn will occur 2 ticks faster than previous.  If a unit is hasted, that's 3 less ticks in between actions and slow is 3 more ticks inbetween actions.  Conversely, you can be a bit harder with the numbers and use the traditional 20% boon via not moving or action, and with haste/slow you can divide their current speed rate by 1.5 and round down for haste (a 12-tick unit now gets a turn every 8 ticks), with slow as the opposite; multiple their ticks per turn by 1.5 and round up; 12 becomes 18.  If you have a wide range of speeds the % thing is better, but if you hover around 8-10 speed it'd be much easier to keep the ticks while leaving the CT out imo.

Charge-time actions (Jump, spells) will always occur before units are able to act (ie, Fire resolves on tick 16, and Jill the squire also gets a turn on tick 16, Fire always happens first).  Quick is quirky in this manner.  Since it resolves before character action, a Quicked unit will act before the other charge-time reactions resolve.  Haste and slow are a bit tricky because of their mid-turn effects -- perhaps make it +/- 1 tick on effect and wearing off, and then with the +/- 3 modifier on their actions while hasted/slowed*?

Status effects always tick down and last until the end of a tick. A unit with protect will keep it through his action + getting countered.

Mimes will mimic actions after a unit is done with both moving and acting.

~

Should suffice?

*Jill is an 8 speed unit, so for the battle she gets a turn every 12 ticks.  On her first turn she doesn't act but does move, so her next turn is on tick 20.  She gets slow cast on her at tick 14, so she gets immediately pushed back to tick 21.  On tick 21 she acts and moves again, and now her next action will occur on tick 36.  Tick 36 is similar; she fights and moves, slated to act again on tick 51.  However, slow wears off on tick 40, so she immediately gains a tick and will act again on tick 50.  

~

Barring that:

Start new tick.
At the start of every tick, all charge-time actions resolve
Then all units gain CT equal to their speed, potentially modifed by haste/slow/quick (yes, even when haste/slow/quick JUST occurred)
If a unit's CT is 100 or greater, they can act and move, in either order.  Opting out of one or both is a boon of 20 CT (40 CT for both).  Afterwards, they lose 100 CT.  CT does rollover, so a 105 CT who doesn't move will have 25 CT prior to the next tick
At the end of the tick, status effects countdown and expire
Start new tick.

Acting, moving, and buffs/debuffs should be rather self-explanatory.

Edit: Introducing counters/evasion choices is a good idea, too.  Countering = 2 additional ticks before your next turn, for example, while an evade attempt (successful or not) = 1 additional tick.  For even more realism you can give a unit a 2 tick penalty whenever it gets damaged, but that might be going too far and abuseable (stunlocking via lots of mass light AoE)