If effect 1 hits add x status problem

[ArcticPrism]

I noticed a problem with these effects. If effect 1 hits, which is usually dealing damage, it attempts to apply the specified status. Fire Whip for example, it deals damage and attempts to apply disable if the attack successfully hits. However, the problem is that even if a unit is immune to fire and takes 0 damage, it can still be disabled. Is there a way to fix this?

[bcrobert]

If you want to change it you'd have to directly modify the code and add a damage check. The routine for those effects checks "did effect 1 hit or miss?" Otherwise the game doesn't care whether the intended target took 0 damage or 999.

So it's the generic hacking answer: Anything can be fixed...but :effort:

[ArcticPrism]

Oh, I see. I wonder if it works even if it is an absorbed hit and causes healing. That'll be something to test!

It's too bad FFTA modding isn't nearly as popular as FFT but I suppose that's because FFT is a way better game.

[bcrobert]

Iirc the secondary effect will still activate. So healing yourself with Fire Whip would not be wise unless you're immune to disable. 'Course since Elementalist already has healing and Ninja wouldn't heal enough to justify the prep, it's a moot point.

I actually really love the feel of FFTA, but there are certain things (childish plot, law system, etc) that most hackers just don't like about it.

[ArcticPrism]

It was more a concern for the AI as I've seen them heal themselves or friends that absorb elements with damaging spells. Thinking about it now, I've never seen them do this with any Elementalist or Ninja spells.

I wouldn't call FFTA a bad game, but I didn't really care much for the plot(which is ok since the story of a game isn't a main draw for me). The way the law system was added made it fairly useless. I'd just walk around on the overworld a little until none of the laws made a difference. It's almost like it wasn't even there. The game difficulty however is what really bothered me the most. It's natural difficulty is laughable for a number of reasons. One thing that stands out is how much dumber the AI is. I don't even know what the gameover screen looks like in this. My thoughts about FFTA2 are mostly the same, though some are magnified in ways. It was still fun to play(until I noticed way too high level), though overall I'd say I enjoyed it less than FFTA.

[bcrobert]

Fun fact: Much of the AI derp was done on purpose to make the game easier for kids, the target audience that the devs poorly assessed as "wanting pathetically easy games."

As an example, there's a byte that decides how likely an ability is to be used. If you study this byte, you'll find that the AI is significantly more likely to use the worst abilities than they are the best ones. The kicker is that this was done on purpose. Most people assume that the AI for FFTA was half-assed but it looks like SE actually put in extra work to make the AI weaker and more exploitable instead of harder.

The more you know...

[ArcticPrism]

That bothers me especially considering the FFTA2 AI is even dumber! I honestly feel like they just randomly pick abilities to use like casting confusion on a 1 HP target. At least in FFTA if you are low hp they will try to kill you.

I did in the ai priority section (AIO) any strong status move or buff was pretty low priority and they'd do things like use % hp damage moves on low hp targets that they could otherwise kill. Probably one of the most extreme examples is that the AI will often try to hit you with things you are immune to. Standard attacks on reflex, 0% chance to land petrify but try it anyways.

Did they honestly have to do that to the AI? Even if they had made the AI behavior good, they are still pretty weak in a lot of other areas. Poor equipment, no level scaling, often outnumbered by the player, few ability choices, laws/law cards, poor monster stats, the way status ailments work. As far as I know you can inflict just about any status on bosses.

[bcrobert]

FFTA was uniquely situated after the 90s, the time of long and/or hard games that killed long periods of time, and before the 21st century was in full swing. Some people still had attention spans; others were already fading out. This was an unsung transition period for gaming. In the early 2000s the best way to design a game was to make it long enough to satisfy time-kill gamers and easy enough to satisfy casual/ADHD gamers.

At least, that's my theory. It's all about the $$$.

[ArcticPrism]

FFTA2 had difficulty levels, which was a step in the right direction but as far as I know from what I've read it's mostly artificial difficulty (enemies do 50% more damage) and really only makes a difference early game when you lack equipment/abilities.