An idea for my hack...

[Vanya]

I was studying the Scions of Darkness (aka Espers/Lukavi) and I had an idea that I'd like opinions on.

I was thinking that since I'm going to be adding powerful rare monsters, the player may also get lucky and have help fighting them.

I was thinking of adding a guest unit in each of the rare monster battles that represents one of the scions of light. They'd be generic sprites with a special palette and a special secondary skill. They'd also be immune to invite and would be immortal of course. ^_^

What do you guys think?

[LastingDawn]

Ah! The scions of Light! They were pretty interesting in the four words about them in FF12, but it sounds like a great idea!

[The Damned]

What do you guys think?

First thought I had is "what hack is Vanya talking about?"

You have a couple, including that Mega Man hack (though obviously it's not that one), in the works already, don't you? Or is the one you're on with SentinalBlade the (only) one you're talking about?

As for the Scions of Light, I've yet to play FFXII, but a couple of weeks ago, I read through the 13 Esper/Zodiac descriptions at work, and like LastingDawn said, there seems to be very little description of their pair opposites--I'm trying to remember if Ultima even had an opposite; I'm pretty sure that Zodiark didn't.

On top of that, you would have to do several things for it to be worth it IMO:

• You would have to make a sprite for the other 7 Zodiacs that aren't already in the game, though you already know that I'm sure, just as I'm sure that you are relatively capable of creating said sprites on your own.
• You would either have to buff the Zodiacs (greatly), which is somewhat negated by the fact that your guests would likely be similarly as buff (especially considering the Scions of Light won) or you have to give all Zodiacs some type of minions, i.e. Dragons for Adrammalech [like FFTA] or Marlboros for Cuchulain or whatever.
• However, doing this for all of them would likely get somewhat repetitive which is also not what you're striving for. I'm unsure since I still haven't really messed around with anything outside of FFTPatcher yet, but are we able to affect the conditions of battle, like whether it's always raining or at night or whether people are inflicted with status? For instance, I think it would rather interesting for the fight against Cuchulain, this time around, the player's side minus the Scion of Light started out like in Balk I battle being Poisoned by Cuchulain's mere presence since he's so damned toxic.

Otherwise, it sounds like it could be great fun, though a lot of (more) work on top of what is already a massive amount of work.

[Vanya]

Let me respond to each of your points in turn, The Damned. ^_^

0) This is for my personal hack; "FFT: Classic Edition". Of course anyone is free to implement any of my ideas if they choose.
As far as the Scions go the game states specfically that there are 24 Scions between the Scions of Light and Dark. It is never implicitly stated that Zodiark is light or dark. Also, Ultima's description gives no mention of an opposing Scion of Light. This lead me to conclude that Zodiark might be Ultima's opposing Scion. Being an infant would qualify Zodiark for a virgin which is a feature associated with Virgo. If you count the 13 Espers and the 11 mentioned Scions of light you get 24 Scions. So my argument of Zodiarks opposition to Ultima is possible and reasonable, I think.

1) In deed, I've already laid down the prep-work for the missing Lucavi. There's actually only 6 of them. Chaos, Mateus, Famfrit, Zeromus, Exodus, & Shemhazai. I only have to figure out how to get their respective zodiac stones into enemy hands so that Ramza has to fight them. I'm counting Elidibus as a 'Dark Scion' since Zodiark has never been involved with the plans of the other banished Scions. All the others are labeled as Lucavi.

2) I am indeed buffing the Zodiacs. While the Scions of Light will be buff too, I wouldn't worry about them interfering with the Lucavi. The Scions of Light will appear only as human avatars and only in random battles that feature my new rare monsters. Let me explain about them in more detail. For each location that has random battles I'm going to pick out one of the possible battle configurations and edit in a special monster that is almost as powerful as a Lucavi. There's one for each type of monster. In tandem with these rare monsters I'll also add a special guest that only appears randomly within each rare monster battle. That way there's an even smaller chance to get help from an 'Avatar of Light' than there is to fight the rare monster.

Let me explain how I'm setting up the Avatars. Each one will have a special job as their main called, strangely enough, 'Avatar of Light'. However, they'll have a generic job's sprite set with a special palette. The primary skill set will be overridden to match their sprite and they will have a special secondary skill set to match their Scion titles. Additionally, they'll have powerful equipment and innate maintenance. They will always appear at party level +3.

3)That's a great idea. I haven't looked into event editing either, but I would like to find out if this is possible as well.

OK Here's a list of the rare monsters and one of the Avatars of Light...

Monsters - Rare Monster
Piscodaemon, Squidraken, Mindflayer -> Soulflayer
Cactite, Cactaur, Kataur -> Qactaur (replacing Uribos)
Mandrake, Barometz, Treant -> Mammon (replacing Dryads)
Bovian, Minotaur, Apis -> Humbaba
Molbor, Great Molbor, Molbor King -> Worst Molbor
Behemoth, Great Behemoth, King Behemoth -> Dark Behemoth
Dragon, Grand Dragon, Shield Dragon -> Dragon Zombie
Hydra, Fire Hydra, Dark Hydra -> Orochi
Goblin, Goblin Guard, Goblin Mage -> Baknamy (an explanation why they don't need masks will be in their description)
Balloon, Bomb, Grenade -> Pyrobolos
Skeleton, Bloody Bones, Skuldier -> Dead Reborn
Ghost, Spectre, Wraith -> Shadow
Float Eye, Bloody Eye, Ahriman -> Plague
Helldiver, Cockatrice, Pyrolisk -> Blackwind
Chocobo, White Chocobo, Black Chocobo -> Red Chocobo
Coeurl Cat, Coeurl, Master Coeurl -> Grimalkin
Guardian, Death Machine -> Ultima Weapon & Omega
(Replaces Steel Giant. Also Worker 8 = Guardian & Evil Workers = Death Machines)
Tonberry, Tonberries, Tonberry King (Replaces Apandas,but special plans for Byblos)

Avatars of Light
name - special skillset
Loghrif, the Transcendent - Excellence
Mitron, the Chastiser - Discipline
Emet-Selch, the Angel of Truth - Vercity
Pashtarot, the Knight-Star - Gallantry
Fandaniel, the Protector - Security
Stranger, the Opponent - Mystery (this is Ultima's opponent)
Halmarut, the Arbiter - Judgement
Nabriales, the Majestic - Splendor
Igeyorhm, the Martyr - Sacrifice
Deudalaphon, the Benevolent - Compassion
Emmerololth, the Holy Queen - Benediction
Lahabrea, the Abyssal Celebrant - Ceremony

[The Damned]

I read the entirety of the above, but I'd be lying if I said understood all of that completely.

My main source of confusion right now is this: Do you plan on adding the other six or seven Zodiacs in addition to these monster battles? Or are you just doing these monsters?

I'm primarily confused because the Scions of Light list that you have at the end is made for opposition to all the Scions of Darkness, but then you also say that said Scions of Light are going to appear against your uber monsters as well; I'm also confused because there are 18 uber-monsters that you listed, so...?

0) This is for my personal hack; "FFT: Classic Edition". Of course anyone is free to implement any of my ideas if they choose.

Ah, right. I had forgotten entirely about that one.

As far as the Scions go the game states specfically that there are 24 Scions between the Scions of Light and Dark. It is never implicitly stated that Zodiark is light or dark. Also, Ultima's description gives no mention of an opposing Scion of Light. This lead me to conclude that Zodiark might be Ultima's opposing Scion.

That sounds reasonable enough.

Too bad the description seems to say that Zodiark basically became insane/unstable. So, while he/she/it isn't exactly Dark, he/she/it isn't exactly Light either.

1) In deed, I've already laid down the prep-work for the missing Lucavi. There's actually only 6 of them. Chaos, Mateus, Famfrit, Zeromus, Exodus, & Shemhazai. I only have to figure out how to get their respective zodiac stones into enemy hands so that Ramza has to fight them.

This is the paragraph that's primarly confusing me.

So, basically, you DO want to include the six other (I was counting Zodiark as well) Scions of Dark in the game, but you want to do so as Story Battles? Is this correct? If so, then you want the Scions of Light to appear in both types of battles or just the random rare battles?

I'm counting Elidibus as a 'Dark Scion' since Zodiark has never been involved with the plans of the other banished Scions.

I'm assuming there's supposed to be a "not" between "I'm" and "counting".

2) I am indeed buffing the Zodiacs. While the Scions of Light will be buff too, I wouldn't worry about them interfering with the Lucavi. The Scions of Light will appear only as human avatars and only in random battles that feature my new rare monsters.

Okay, so this is what's confusing me, though looking at again makes me thinking that perhaps I was right with the first assumption: You want the Scions of Light to NOT appear against their opposing Lucavi, but rather against just in the new rare monster battles with the 18 pseudo-Lucavi?

3)That's a great idea. I haven't looked into event editing either, but I would like to find out if this is possible as well.

Good to know that I'm not the only one in dark around here.

OK Here's a list of the rare monsters and one of the Avatars of Light...

Monsters - Rare Monster
*snip*

These are nice, though I must admit that I snickered at "Worst Molbor".

This is semi-related, but if you can make good looking Cactuar and Tonberry sprites, which I'm sure you can, then I'm going to have to enslave you later on.

Just a heads up.

Avatars of Light
*snap*

These are great.

Although, I'm confused with some here as well: So you AREN'T going to use Zodiark as Ultima's/Altima's opposite even though you think that's how it should be?


I pretty much got everything else.

[Vanya]

1) In deed, I've already laid down the prep-work for the missing Lucavi. There's actually only 6 of them. Chaos, Mateus, Famfrit, Zeromus, Exodus, & Shemhazai. I only have to figure out how to get their respective zodiac stones into enemy hands so that Ramza has to fight them.

This is the paragraph that's primarly confusing me.

So, basically, you DO want to include the six other (I was counting Zodiark as well) Scions of Dark in the game, but you want to do so as Story Battles? Is this correct? If so, then you want the Scions of Light to appear in both types of battles or just the random rare battles?

Yes, I want the missing 6 Lucavi to be story battles.
No, I wasn't intending the Avatars of Light to be in the the Lucavi battles; only in the Rare Monster battles.

I'm counting Elidibus as a 'Dark Scion' since Zodiark has never been involved with the plans of the other banished Scions.

I'm assuming there's supposed to be a "not" between "I'm" and "counting".

What I mean is that Zodiark won't be counted as a Lucavi. I should have been more clear. I think what I'll do is label him as "Lost Scion". Do you think that would make sense?

Monsters - Rare Monster
*snip*

These are nice, though I must admit that I snickered at "Worst Molbor".

This is semi-related, but if you can make good looking Cactuar and Tonberry sprites, which I'm sure you can, then I'm going to have to enslave you later on.

Just a heads up.

In the us Worst Molbor was called Molbor Menace.
I'm going to be working on sprites again soon. ^_^

Avatars of Light
*snap*

These are great.

Although, I'm confused with some here as well: So you AREN'T going to use Zodiark as Ultima's/Altima's opposite even though you think that's how it should be?

I'm not going to say whether Stranger is or isn't actually Zodiark or not.
I'll leave that up to the player's imagination.

^_^