Introducing "Proper" — (v1.10 released 10/28/17!)

[johnmyster]

10/28/2017: Proper v1.10b released.

v1.10 unintentionally left out the Skip Events ASM. 1.10b has it back in.
v1.10 links have been removed to help avoid confusion.

10/28/2017: Proper v1.10 released!
Patch a fresh FFT ISO.

Lots of changes here:

spoiler

The Ghoul in Outside Lionel Castle is now a weakish Knight to keep sprite limit from being exceeded.

Squire buffs!
All Squires except Algus can now learn Wish.
Heal now cancels Slow, Charm, and Sleep in addition to Darkness/Silence/Poison. MP Cost 0>>1
Ramza's Cheer Up now always inflicts Regen and Haste, instead of one or the other.

Draw Out:
No longer requires the Katana in inventory.
Draw Outs no longer follow target, but the caster themself.
Bug: Drawout animations have Katanas in weird position.

Masamune:
JP: 240>>220
AI Chance to Learn: 70%>>74%
CT 3>>4
MP Cost: 0>>24

Chrijiraden
JP: 180>>290
AI Chance to Learn: 56%>>71%

Agrias has always been a strong character in Proper, if a bit slow. These buffs give her a chance of maybe surviving a hit that would have barely killed her otherwise, as well as giving her those valuable speed points sooner to make her easier to use.
HP Multiplier: 140>>142
Speed Multiplier: 105>>106

Another strong character in Proper, Cloud is now a bit more rewarding to help with the end game:
Speed Multiplier: 102>>103
PA Multiplier: 124>>125

Blade Beam:
CT: 3>>2
MP Cost: 13>>11

Finishing Touch MP Cost 14>>13

Materia Blade now has a chance of inflicting Slow.

Rafa and Malak have received various buffs to make them more interesting, viable, and fun to play. All descriptions should be updated.
(1.03>>1.10 format)

spoiler

Rafa:
MA Multiplier: 125>>127

Heaven Thunder:
Range 4>>5

Space Storage:
No longer can inflict Faith, as you don't always really want Faith on your units.
CT 4>>2
MP Cost 15>>12

Malak:
MA Multiplier: 118>>123

Heaven Bolt Back:
Damage Multiplier 10>>11

Hydragon Pit Back:
Now has a chance of inflicting Don't Move.

Sky Demon Back:
Now has a chance of inflicting Death Sentence, just like Sky Demon.
Damage Multiplier 30>>31


Malak has lost of a tad of brave and levels in the two battles you fight him to compensate for his buffs.

In response to player feedback, many battles in Chapter 4 have been made ever-so-slightly easier. They should still be a strong challenge, but hopefully will be more fun and not seem quite as punishing.

spoiler

Germinas Peak:
All enemies -1 Level.
One of the Time Mages has 87 Faith, down from 97.

Balk 1:
Balk -2 Levels.

Bethla Sluice:
Knight that had Angel Ring and Crystal Mail now has Battle Boots and Platina Armor.
Wizard with Time Magic awards 25,500 gil after battle (up from 0).

Poeskas Lake:
Summoners -3 Faith.
Oracle -2 Levels.
Archer -1 Level.

Inside Limberry (Elmdor 2):
Elmdor has +2 Faith and -3 Brave to make him slightly easier to pin down.

Zalera:
Zalera is now level 62, down from 64.

Zalmo 2:
Zalmo has an Elf Mantle instead of a Feather Mantle.

UBS 4:
Now awards a Thief Hat, Flash Hat, Chirijiraden, Feather Mantle, and Carabini Mail. (used to award no items)

UBS 5th Floor (Rofel):
Level 80 Summoner is now level 75, and has 2 less Faith.

Lost Sacred Precincts (Balk 2):
Enemies have lost a few levels.

Murond Death City (Kletian):
All enemies except Kletian -2 levels.

Graveyard of Airships 1 and 2:
All enemies -1 Level.

ASMs:
Broken/stolen equipment sold in Fur Shop removed, due to foes' equipment showing up as well.
Katana break ASM removed. (no longer needed)
Title screen default from New Game to Continue ASM implemented.
Generic Skillset Fix ASM implemented to make Draw Out and Sword Spirit behave like normal skillsets.

Text Changes:
Sky Demon now properly says Death Sentence, not Dead.
Assassin Dagger, Wish, and Scream descriptions fixed.
All other changes from 1.10 should be reflected in game text.

9/25/2017: Proper v1.03 released!
Patch a fresh ISO as always.

Changes:

spoiler

Golem reworked. It now casts Protect on all allies.

Grog Hill made slightly easier:
The Squire with a shield now wears a Holy Miter and Elf Mantle.
The Squire that had two weapons equipped now has a Diamond Shield.
The Ninja now has Move +2 instead of Move +3, and a worse weapon in his left hand.

All Grog Hill enemies with "impossible" setups are now properly flagged as immortal.

Crystal Helmet description fixed.

8/31/2017: Proper v1.02 released!

Changes:

spoiler

Female Knight in Zaland Fort City is now male to avoid sprite limit bugs, and is now properly set to immortal due to "cheated" gun equipped.

All story battle enemies with primary skillsets that differ from what one would normally expect are now a different palette from their allies. Ex: Monk with primary skillset of Talk Skill is a different palette than the "normal" monk he's teamed up with. Hopefully this will reduce any confusion and frustration when facing such enemies.

Proposition base rewards for JP toned down slightly. Instead of +100% (double) that of vanilla, they are +80%.

Text Changes:
Move in Water, Gil Taking, Self Destruct, and Holy descriptions fixed.
Face Up renamed to Faith Up. Equip Knife renamed to Equip Katana.
Frog and Stop status descriptions fixed.

8/23/2017: Proper v1.01 released!
As always, remember to patch a fresh FFT ISO.

Changes:

spoiler

Gariland fight made slightly easier: Crossbow squire now has no clothes (xD) and some enemies should have less brave.

Meteor nerfed: MP Cost 56 >> 60
          CT 6 >> 7
          Damage F(MA*45) >> F(MA*40)

Rafa's Space Storage is now properly set to hit 100% of the time, regardless of Faith -- giving 25% chance per buff (like a reverse Grand Cross).

Text Changes:
MP Restore, Monster Talk, Maintenance, Equip Katana, all the Charge+x's, and Blade Grasp Descriptions Fixed
(note: Not all vanilla text is meant to be fixed in Proper, unless they give false information. Some text is fixed for consistency or easier reading.)

ASMs:
Katana break ASM implemented. Break chance is set to 0, but they will still break, though seemingly less often.
Katana prices raised a bit to reflect this.

Still not sure if it was in v1.00, but Historical Level Down Growth Rates is for sure not in v1.01. It's not the intended way to play Proper, but Level Up/Down if you wish.

8/21/2017: Images resized to 4:3 ratio!
Apologies to all who were triggered by the widescreen images.

-----------------------------------

(GameFAQS topic, including play-by-play from philsov.)

After years of work and dozens of hours of editing and playtesting, I am finally ready to introduce my Final Fantasy Tactics patch: Proper.

Download:

v1.10b
v1.03
v1.02
v1.01
v1.00

Mirrors:

DataFileHost.com (v1.10b)
DataFileHost.com (v1.03)
DataFileHost.com (v1.02)
DataFileHost.com (v1.01)
DataFileHost.com (v1.00)



Proper is a patch made with vanilla FFT as its base. When in doubt, the patch looks towards its vanilla origins for inspiration and guidance, like an apprentice to its master, as well as taking influences from other patches, performing the following:

Every job, ability, story battle, and item in the game has been looked at, and looked at again for purposes of balance, fun, and variety. Questions like,
"What is the purpose of this ability/job/item?"
"How does it compare to others in the same or different categories?"
"Does it work?"
"Is it fun?"
"How is its power for both early, mid, and end-game level?"

have all been asked all throughout Proper's development.



As a result, almost every job, ability, and item in the game has been modified in one way or another. Some, like the chain vest, simply gained a single health point. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Rafa and Malak's skillsets have been completely reworked. All item, job, and ability descriptions have been edited to reflect their changes.



When you start playing Proper, here are the main things you will notice:

1. Jp costs for abilities have been severely reduced, and Gained JP UP removed.

Many classes have free abilities that cost 0 JP to learn, often for abilities that are either core to the jobs playstyle (Haste, Cure, etc.) or not very useful to begin with (Any Weather, Gilgame heart, etc.). Strong R/S/M abilities (that haven't been removed completely), such as auto potion and two swords, remain at over 300 or 400 JP. If you end the game around like 75, you should have gotten most of the abilities you wanted but still occasionally finding yourself having wanted one that wasn't unlocked.

2. Monsters are much stronger, often sporting higher hp, movement, and range.

A few, like the trees and dragons, have gained some new innate statuses like fly and regen. Innately undead jobs and monsters have had their undead status removed but many of its perks and drawbacks retained, like immunity to poison. To follow along the spirit of vanilla, these units now have Initial: Reraise.



3. The game is now consistently challenging, but not overly oppressive.

At least, that's the humble design philosophy around Proper. Of course, your experience can and will vary as different jobs and combinations are tried out that I haven't anticipated. Some battles have been made a bit easier than surrounding battles to give the player a small break. 

To promote a sense of progress and player control over the game, I let most enemies in story battles remain at a fixed level. This level, however, is usually higher and the gap between vanilla and Proper enemy levels increases as the game goes on. Chapter 1 story battle generics top out at around level 10. Chapter 2, 23. Chapter 3, 44. Chapter 4, 88 (67 before the final Orbonne battles). For an optimum experience, I recommend playing through the story battles until you get a bit stuck before grinding for a couple levels / 250 JP or whatever and then trying again. Of course, you can play however you like.

4. The game looks exactly the same.

No fancy new sprites or palette swaps here, though I would like a proper title screen with at least the patch's name on it but I don't know how. 

Some animations have been replaced with faster ones (Ifrit>Fire), though Glain's skip event hack has also been implemented to skip past story events and animations alike.

5. Most previously unevadeable abilities (Holy Sword, Summons, Limit, etc.) can now miss,

but status affliction, stat changing abilties, etc., will usually miss less often than vanilla, except for invitation. Notable exceptions include Draw Out, Elemental, and the Ultima ability.



6. Many spells have massively reduced charge times, and are often cheaper.

This allows mages to be much more consistent until around the middle of chapter 4.

7. On the other hand, many previously instant no-MP abilities now have a charge time and/or an MP cost.

The MP cost is often small, but spamming many abilities, especially in the early game, won't be viable without some MP recovery.

8. On the other other hand, many abilities have slightly increased vertical tolerance. You'll still need flat land for Chakra and Elemental skills, but you can now get your precious Revive in at a 1 height difference, with a higher chance to hit -- with a small MP and CT "cost", and less HP recovered than vanilla.

The powerful Haste still requires flat land, but Protect and Regen are now a little more forgiving.



9. Enemies have better equipment and abilities. Mages have a fixed faith value, usually high.

10. Enemies are more diverse, and will often have skillsets that differ from their jobs due to sprite limits.

11. There are sometimes simply more enemies in a given battle.

12.  Characters that join you, especially later in the game, have much more unlocked.

Cloud joins at your party level. Meliadoul has both Innate Defense UPs, Crush Punch, and even innate maintenance. Orlandu is nerfed up the Yin-Yang. Cloud, Reis, and Worker 8 are tweaked. I especially like Agrias, she feels strong but never overpowered. Rafa and Malak reworked, with consistent faith-based spells. Rafa's spells are a bit weaker than Malak's, but more of them can inflict status effects. Malak has innate two-swords and has more negative status afflictions.

In addition, many random battles are edited a bit to gain some variety. Yuguo Woods, Grog Hill, Bed Desert, Zirekile Falls, Barius Hill, and Doguola Pass are less customized then the others.

Many Deep Dungeon battles were tweaked to add some variety, challenge, and less Goblins. 

These ASM hacks were used:
Broken / Stolen items buyable in fur shop
JP Scroll Glitch Fix
Special characters can do propositions
Secret Hunt not needed for Fur shop
Start button skips events (careful using during battles, particularly during character movements.)
Smart encounters - click on an area to activate the random battle, clicking on towns and such skips random battles. No need for resetting / world map savestates!
(v1.10)Main Menu cursor defaults to Continue instead of New Game.
(v1.01) Katana Break Chance ASM - Set to 0% break rate, but they will still break, though seemingly less often.
(v1.10)Generic Skillset Fix ASM implemented to make Draw Out and Sword Spirit behave like normal skillsets.

I can't remember if historical leveling down is in or not, as I tried to minimize the ASMs to reduce possible bugs. Either way, if the player really wants to abuse leveling down, though it's less effective than vanilla, more power to them I guess. (Historical Leveling down not present from v1.01 and above)

Some shops stock additional equipment types. A few shops that you're locked into for a time are given all equipment types of the appropriate level. Many items are cheaper, and some special items give more than 5 gil when sold.

Brave/Faith altering are still in the game, as I thought them core to the Mediator's skillset and I just don't like being stuck with randomized brave and faith. Br/Fa raising is faster, but many enemies have strong set Br/Fa values.



For those who would like to see more detail, keep on reading. Otherwise, feel free to click that download at the bottom and try for yourself! Thank you for your interest, and I'd love to hear any and all feedback, especially some battle logs! No doubt your experience will vary from my testing, and I'm curious to see what you think.

Please note that only epsxe has been tested.

Note for those unfamiliar with FFT's stat mechanics: Due to the way FFT's stats grow, a "higher" growth is a smaller number. For example, an HP Growth of 5 for a job is extremely high and far into the territory reserved only for monster and bosses. On the other hand, an HP Growth of 16 is abysmal. Vanilla bards actually had an HP Growth of 20. 

Overview of Generic Jobs

In short, the range of growth rates between jobs has been reduced. Leveling in certain jobs can still be beneficial, but is by no means required.

spoiler

The range of HP Growths is reduced from 6-20 in vanilla (Mime-Bard) to 9-12 (Knight-Summoner level) in proper.

Most HP Modifiers are the same or higher than vanilla. Summoner is now the lowest at 70 and Mime the highest at 169.

Summoner's MP Growth of 8 is the highest, while Squire's 15 is tied with a few others for the lowest MP Growth.

Chemist, Knight, Time Mage, Summoner, Bard, and Dancer all have a bit stronger MP Multipliers than in vanilla for various reasons. Many abilities in Proper, like Speed Break and Revive, have MP costs that were 0 in vanilla.

Speed Growth is the same for all classes, 100. In hindsight, a much higher number like "phil's 190" may have been optimal to keep longer charging abilities in the late-game viable, even with their often massively reduced charge times, but 100 is what the patch was built and tested on. So whether you level as a ninja or a calculator from 1 to 99, switching to a squire will give you the same speed.

Speed Multipliers are a bit higher for many classes. Some, like Ninja and Thief, were raised to keep the classes fast and have a distinct feel to them. Others, like Archer, have increased speed multipliers to make them more viable.

PA Growth has a floor of 60. Still not ideal for characters you want to use later in physical jobs, but they'll still get a bit of growth leveling as mages.

Squire, Chemist, Archer, Time Mage, Thief, Oracle, and Bard have higher PA Multipliers than vanilla. Only Monk and Ninja have slightly worse PA Multipliers than vanilla.

MA Growth is 50 for all classes, just like vanilla.

Knight, Thief, Mediator, Lancer, Samurai, and Calculator have better MA Multipliers than vanilla. Only the Wizard's has been reduced, from 150 to 144, but he still maintains the largest MA multiplier by a good margin.

Archer, Mediator, Oracle, Lancer, and Samurai have 4 Move instead of 3. Bards and Dancers have 5 Move to supplement their playstyle, and Mime 7 to compensate for lack of abilities.

Archer, Lancer, Samurai, Bard, Dancer, and Mime have increased Jump to let them move around easier and fulfill their rolls as partial or fully physical classes.

Squire, Archer, Time Mage, Mediator, Oracle, Dancer, and Mime have increased Character Evasion to dodge attacks from the front.

Monk and Ninja have 2% less Evasion than vanilla to help bring them more in line with other classes for balance.

Stat Growths for Generics and Special Characters: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VygESjT-V638wcLZ4MmqQQuA6mfpi2CDQtXTXxBUzEU/edit?usp=sharing

Class-by-class Changes Summary (not exhaustive)

spoiler

Squire

Has better stats, can equip crossbows and shields.

Ramza's Yell and Scream take some decent MP and CT, Cheer Up reworked into a single target Haste/Regen random buff.

Chemist

Has better stats, guns are a bit stronger late game. Ether now heals 30 MP, while X-Potion only heals 130 HP.

Knight

Better stats, armor is buffed, Defense UP innate. Skills hit more often, though stat breaks are a bit weaker and have a CT, especially Speed Break.

Archer

Better stats except 2% less Hp Modifier, Bows and Crossbows increased damage, late-game bows + 1 range. Charges are now shorter and give more power.

Monk

Slightly less PA and C-Ev. Spin Fist and Repeating Fist can't miss. Chakra nerfed and Earth Slash nerfed. Revive tweaked. Stigma Magic and Secret Fist buffed.

Priest

Stats identical to vanilla. Spells are buffed across the board, making them fast and often more powerful.

Wizard

A bit less MA. Spells are mostly buffed. Fire stronger but slower, Bolt weaker but faster, Ice normal.

Time Mage

Better stats. Time Magic is more consistent.

Summoner

Better stats. Summons can miss and hit allies, but are faster and some a bit cheaper.

Thief

Better stats, innate concentrate, ninja knife equippable. Steals are a bit easier to hit.

Mediator

Better stats. Brave/Faith increasing is actually buffed to make it less tedious. Wind Soul and Esuna gained for a bit of versatility.

Oracle

Better stats. Most abilities massively buffed, but you'll still need a bit of luck. Cure added to skillset. Innate Any Weather.

Geomancer

Very minor stat tweaks. Innate Magic Defense UP and Any Ground.

Lancer

Faster and more mobile to compensate for skillset's lack of versatility. Horizontal Jump + 8 removed, making 5 the longest Jump. Innate Ignore Height and Concentrate.

Samurai

Better stats, but skillset is mostly nerfed. Two Hands and Move in Water innate.

Ninja

Stats tweaked, overall slightly nerfed. Buffs to many other classes makes them weaker in comparison than vanilla.

Calculator

Stats buffed, but still poor. Math skill massively gutted, leaving only 4,5, Exp, and Level. Many mid-tier skills can no longer be calculated.

Bard

Stats buffed. Most songs a bit stronger and/or faster except for +speed. Can equip knives.

Dancer

Stats buffed. Most dances a bit stronger and/or faster except for -speed.

Some jobs have gained innate abilities for balance and/or flavor:

spoiler

Knight - Defense UP
Thief - Concentrate
Oracle - Any Weather
Geomancer - Magic Defense UP, Any Ground
Lancer - Ignore Height, Concentrate
Samurai - Two Hands, Move in Water

Also, Priest takes Half damage from Holy, as do many jobs with Holy in their name. Most bosses are immune to or absorb dark to prevent %hp attack cheese. Late-game bosses especially are immune to most/all statuses.


Additional Equips

spoiler

Squires can now equip Crossbow and Shield
Thieves can equip Ninja Blade
Bards can equip Knives

Removed Abilities (from Player)

Blade Grasp
Damage Split
Negotiate
Martial Arts
Hamedo


All Mythril equips except for the gun and knife give +1 MA. Many legendary items are nerfed, but still strong.

Note: Lists not exhaustive. Not all changes documented.

Weapons

spoiler

Knives all give +1 speed, and many are a bit stronger.
Ninja Knives unchanged.
Swords have more Evasion. Rune Blade -1 WP.
Great Swords all nerfed but still powerful. Excalibur has Initial:Haste. All have forced Two Hands (like a bow)
Katanas mostly unchanged, except they're all a bit cheaper.
Axes buffed, but still unreliable.
Rods mostly the same, poison rod +1 WP and dragon rod +2 MA
Many staves are a bit stronger and give some MA.
Flails buffed, but still unreliable.
Mythril Gun +1 WP, Stone Gun now a buyable 11 WP gun with no petrify. Blaze/Glacier guns swapped.
Crossbows are buffed, especially later ones. Gastrafitas now buyable.
Bows either buffed or left the same. Later bows gain +1 range.
Harps buffed.
Dictionaries buffed, can cast spells.
Oberisk spear given 13 WP to compete with other late-game weapons.
Sticks unchanged.
Bags + WP
Silks buffed.

Shields, Armors, Accessories

spoiler

A few more early shields give Magic evasion, but late game shields are nerfed.
Most helmets give a bit more HP, later helms give some MP. Crystal Helm +1 Speed, Circlet +1 MA
A couple hats give slightly more MP. Green Beret -4 HP. Black Hood's HP second only to Thief Hat. Thief Hat now gives +1 of SP, PA, and MA with no status immunities, and 20 more HP.
Armors buffed. Platina and Crystal give MP. Carabini +1 SP, Crystal +1 PA
Chain vest, adaman vest, and wizard outfit slightly buffed. Power Sleeve -15 HP to compensate for its power. Black costume +HP.
Early robes buffed, wizard robe gives 8 less HP. Black robe weaker, light robe gives initial:regen.

Many accessories now give a bit of evasion.
Feather boots +1 Move
Bracer down to +2 PA
Magic Ring has immune darkness and poison, as well as 20% magic ev.
Cursed Ring reworked to only emulate undeadness.
Defense Armlet has immune stop and slow
Wizard Mantles and above all give less evasion, Dracula specializes in Magic ev.

Chantage now Initial:Reraise
Cherche +1 MA
Siemson Initial:Haste, +1 Move and Speed
Salty Rage Initial: Protect/shell, +1 MA and Move

Job Level Requirements:

spoiler

Raised to give the AI some more JP to work with.

Job Requirements:

spoiler

The same or lower than vanilla's, especially mime and calc.

Poaches, Move-Find Item:
99% unchanged from vanilla. Some poaches are available earlier due to random battle changes.

Zodiac Signs:
Most enemies and allies now have random zodiacs.

Propositions:
Double 180%(v1.02) the base JP reward of vanilla, plus 5% increased extra day jp and +20 "bonus" jp. "Bonus" Gil for some job types are increased.

The price of many propositions is decreased, and most propositions are shorter in length as well.

[Raijinili]

Many classes have free abilities that cost 0 JP to learn, often for abilities that are either core to the jobs playstyle (Haste, Cure, etc.) or not very useful to begin with (Any Weather, Gilgame heart, etc.).

Did you also up the active ones to 100% Learn so that enemies will always have them? And put the useless R/S/M at 0% so enemies won't accidentally equip them.

I like the idea of 100% 0 JP for basic skills.

Cloud and especially Orlandu are nerfed up the Yin-Yang, along with Reis and Worker 8.

Nerfing Cloud, Reis, and Worker 8? What?

Rafa and Malak reworked, with consistent faith-based spells.

You made them slightly-stronger Black Mages??

If you want to rethink Rafalak, I have patches for:
- Un-Truth uses PA instead of MA. (Still magical.)
- Rando-spells always do max number of hits.
- Un-Truth Faith/Innocent bugfix.
- Truth uses Faith. (Still quadratic.) (Evil hack using nonlocal jump. I don't know why you'd want to use this anyway.)

Rafa's spells are a bit weaker than Malak's

Did you take Rafa's female +25% MA into account when judging which spells are stronger?

These ASM hacks were used:

Consider the "Sets the title screens default option from New Game to Continue" hack from Xif.

Summons can miss and hit allies, but are faster and some a bit cheaper.

How is Summon prevented from being a stronger, faster Black Magic? Its minor weakness was its MP cost.

Geomancer - Magic Defense UP, Any Ground

Why does it need MD Up? And what about Move on Lava?

Faster and more mobile to compensate for skillset's lack of versatility.

Lancer - Ignore Height, Concentrate

Both are strong abilities, and don't seem necessary. Concentrate only applies to their Attack, since Jump ignores evasion. Why were these abilities added? Lancer is a one-trick pony, but that one trick is very good, and "kill stuff" is central to the game.

All Mythril equips except for the gun give +1 MA.

Why not Gun? Talk Skill uses MA.

Blaze/Glacier guns swapped.

Blaze/Glacial Gun were not swapped in translation.

(You may also want to base text edits on that patch.)

[johnmyster]

Did you also up the active ones to 100% Learn so that enemies will always have them? And put the useless R/S/M at 0% so enemies won't accidentally equip them.

I like the idea of 100% 0 JP for basic skills.

Of course. 0 JP abilities are gained 100% of the time for the AI, unless they also fit into nearly useless category, then it is 0%. The AI has a good chance of learning stronger abilities, and has more JP to spend on even cheaper skills.

Sure, the AI will still set equip crossbow and use a sword, but this kind of thing's chance is either calculated into a battle's difficulty or overwritten altogether with manually set R/S/M's.

Nerfing Cloud, Reis, and Worker 8? What?

Mostly minor nerfs for Reis, though her Holy Bracelet now is like a fast, cheap summon. Many vanilla late-game builds involve a strong Reis, not sure why small stat nerfs are a surprise.

For Cloud, well, decreased charge times helps him a lot. I suppose he's more sidegraded in ways. He has 4 move instead of 3, and can use any type of Sword for Limit skills. Climhazzard is very strong against bosses.

Worker 8 is more mobile and has more HP, but he does less damage and has less range on the 8-range skill.

You made them slightly-stronger Black Mages??

If you want to rethink Rafalak, I have patches for:
- Un-Truth uses PA instead of MA. (Still magical.)
- Rando-spells always do max number of hits.
- Un-Truth Faith/Innocent bugfix.
- Truth uses Faith. (Still quadratic.) (Evil hack using nonlocal jump. I don't know why you'd want to use this anyway.)

They're more than slightly stronger Black Mages. Rafa has 19% chance of status effects on most attacks, and has a dedicated AoE buff. Malak has Two Swords, a 100% single target slow, and a dedicated de-buff. His attacks are mostly stronger than Rafa's before taking into account gender-skewed MA. Sure, they need more testing, but I wouldn't discount them.

Did you take Rafa's female +25% MA into account when judging which spells are stronger?

Yes.

Consider the "Sets the title screens default option from New Game to Continue" hack from Xif.

Ok.

How is Summon prevented from being a stronger, faster Black Magic? Its minor weakness was its MP cost.

It's not stronger or faster than Black Magic. They have more area of effect, but are generally slower than Black Magic, along with some healing, status, and % damage. Black Magic has 12 elemental spells, which now all have different speeds, MP costs, and power so you can cast a spell of your liking, where you want it, at the power you need it, without hitting your allies as often. Sure, you can equip absorption equipment, but you're also giving up some to wear those equips. Summon spells are strong but bulky, and the Summoner class itself has less HP and MA than Wizard. Only the higher level summons are a bit cheaper than vanilla, by about 10%. This also helps the AI slightly, as they have no qualms in using all of their MP in a couple turns, even if it doesn't swing the battle enough their way to justify using it all.

The Summon vs. Wizard discussion is a very good one to have, though, as they both have the ability to strongly swing battles, particularly in the early and mid game. The AI has more recovery than vanilla, making battles last a bit longer and summoners can run out of MP a bit more often.

Why does it need MD Up? And what about Move on Lava?

For the one map, Bervenia Volcano? Sure I suppose.
As for MD, Geomancers go from being a decent, average class to kinda meh with other classes buffs. MD Up gives them a strong potential role that they can fill that no other class can do the same way without using a support slot: Magic Resistance. Their range is only 4 now, with Elemental attacks being just slightly stronger.

You can nitpick all you want, but so many things have changed in the patch that you can't really always use vanilla as a form of reference as to what's strong and what isn't. Things aren't always the same as they look on paper. Still, you are right to be concerned about 1/3 less magic damage received for a class, but Geomancers still don't feel particularly strong in Proper.

Both are strong abilities, and don't seem necessary. Concentrate only applies to their Attack, since Jump ignores evasion. Why were these abilities added? Lancer is a one-trick pony, but that one trick is very good, and "kill stuff" is central to the game.

Fair points. Jump is strong but it can be bulky to hit, leaving them often with only their attack to use. Jump range is decreased to 5 horizontally as well. That is why Concentrate is innate, to make Lancer simply more consistent. He doesn't have the defenses of the Knight or Geomancer, the speed of a Ninja, or the AoE and Crowd Control of mages. The AI will also abuse evasion builds, and it doesn't calculate jumps properly. The AI is able to sustain and recover from a lancer rush far better than in vanilla.

Even so, a one-trick Jump pony isn't always going to help you win 5v8s very well, or against bosses who will take more than a turn to die.

I'd try it before you knock it. 

Why not Gun? Talk Skill uses MA.

We're talking about a 1% increase in hit chances if they had +1 MA. Sure, every bit helps, but it's not crucial one way or the other. They already have better hit chances on everything except invite.

Blaze/Glacial Gun were not swapped in translation.

(You may also want to base text edits on that patch.)

Fair enough, but it still makes more sense to me. Even if it is false that they were swapped in translation, many have been led to believe that for a reason. "Glacier" does not conjure an image of fire in English speaker's minds. They think ice.

[Raijinili]

Sure, the AI will still set equip crossbow and use a sword, but this kind of thing's chance is either calculated into a battle's difficulty or overwritten altogether with manually set R/S/M's.

Speaking of which, you can add Equip X skills as innates to prevent them from being equipped by random generation. Equip Sword and Equip Shield on Geomancer, for example. But don't actually do that for Geomancer, because other innates want those slots and there aren't many enemy Geomancers.

Many vanilla late-game builds involve a strong Reis, not sure why small stat nerfs are a surprise.

Only because her stat growths are a little more optimal than generics. Neither her skillset nor her job are useful enough to make it into her good builds, and that's an issue.

Black Magic has 12 elemental spells, which now all have different speeds, MP costs, and power so you can cast a spell of your liking, where you want it, at the power you need it, without hitting your allies as often.

The range of elemental spells you actually want to use are limited at any given time. You don't need to use high-end spells in the early game, and you can't use high-end spells in the late game due to charge time unless Short Charge is a staple.

We're talking about a 1% increase in hit chances if they had +1 MA. Sure, every bit helps, but it's not crucial one way or the other. They already have better hit chances on everything except invite.

I'm actually asking why Gun is the exception.

[johnmyster]

Speaking of which, you can add Equip X skills as innates to prevent them from being equipped by random generation. Equip Sword and Equip Shield on Geomancer, for example. But don't actually do that for Geomancer, because other innates want those slots and there aren't many enemy Geomancers.

Good to know, thanks!

Only because her stat growths are a little more optimal than generics. Neither her skillset nor her job are useful enough to make it into her good builds, and that's an issue.

True enough. I still found with equip armor her tankiness very nice in Proper.

The range of elemental spells you actually want to use are limited at any given time. You don't need to use high-end spells in the early game, and you can't use high-end spells in the late game due to charge time unless Short Charge is a staple.

Fair enough.

I'm actually asking why Gun is the exception.

Ehhh I guess I don't have a really good reason. It's not like it would make the Mythril Gun overpowered or anything.

Also through an oversight, Mythril Knife is missing the +1 MA, though it still gets the +1 Speed of Knives. Mythril Knife is so early in the game though compared to other Mythrils I might leave it that way, since magic is already really strong early game.

[Andre Pratama]

This amazing makes me back playing fft. His difficulty in my opinion is balanced unlike v 1.3.0.8 which is very difficult but there is a problem in the event zeklaus desert a knight wrong look at hokuten knight

[johnmyster]

This amazing makes me back playing fft. His difficulty in my opinion is balanced unlike v 1.3.0.8 which is very difficult but there is a problem in the event zeklaus desert a knight wrong look at hokuten knight

Ha, this funny encounter is actually unchanged from vanilla. You're referring to the battle where you have a single knight as a guest fighting a Minitaurus, correct?

I, too never noticed this encounter before playing Proper, or at least forgot about it if I did.

If you're referring to the Sand Ra-a-at Cellar story battle, I'm not sure how that is, as all palettes and team colors are unchanged for that battle.

Either way, I'm glad you're enjoying the patch so far!

Cheers,

johnmyster

[Bonesy]

idk calling your hack "the proper way to play fft" is pretty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man

why should i play your hack over the other vanilla hacks out there I haven't touched or played much of for one reason or another?

[Ansehelm]

Looks like something to keep an eye on.  I'd like to take some time to test it, although right now I'm scrambling to get a demo finished for my hack. 

I wouldn't have phrased my comment quite as bonesy did, but he has a point - as modders, we put a lot of work into making a hack and adding fresh changes, but what ultimately makes a mod successful is the community, so we have to work not only to advertise our projects, but to get a pulse on players' interests so that we can give them what they want.  In this day and age, it's hard for a vanilla mod - excellent and balanced as it may be, to really stand out from the crowd of existing mods that have already stood the test of time.  Not to say it can't be done of course - I am in process of making a vanilla mod (at least plot-wise) and think it can be fairly successful - but your mod should stand out in some significant way that will make players clearly choose it over the other options (FFT +, CCP, 1.3 Content, etc).  Thing is, I'm not quite seeing the niche here.

My honest impression of this is that I like a lot of the features, but there's not much about it that seems really unique or compelling.  Most of this has been done before. To use a relationship analogy, it has the appearances of the "nice girl/guy" - it seems like a good mod with cool features that I should want to play, but may not ultimately have that spice that actually compels me to action or excites my emotions much.

Anyway, take this not as an attempt to undermine the success of your patch, but as a statement of the some of the things you will run up against and as an invitation for you to sell us your mod more effectively.  In any case, I have to appreciate the work put in here and hope others give this a shot.  I intend to when I have more free time.

[Lionheart537]

Compromise answer: play all the mods. If you got the time at least.

[johnmyster]

idk calling your hack "the proper way to play fft" is pretty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man

why should i play your hack over the other vanilla hacks out there I haven't touched or played much of for one reason or another?

Haha about "The Proper Way to play FFT", it's meant to be taken tongue-in-cheek but your reaction is valid of course.

Why should you play my patch? Well, if my notes and screenshots haven't sold you, then I'd like to leave the rest of "selling" my patch to those with good stories of playing it, to be honest.

With that said, I have played through FFT literally dozens of times, and the patch was designed to breathe new life into the game for a player that has been there, done that, seen it all. (Though of course with FFT even with hundreds (thousands?) of hours over the last 15 years there's new ways to experience it)

The patch was designed to be challenging, yes, but more so it was designed to simply provide variety. Variety in the enemies you face and their custom skillsets and variety in the amount of viable options a player has.

Looks like something to keep an eye on.  I'd like to take some time to test it, although right now I'm scrambling to get a demo finished for my hack. 

I wouldn't have phrased my comment quite as bonesy did, but he has a point - as modders, we put a lot of work into making a hack and adding fresh changes, but what ultimately makes a mod successful is the community, so we have to work not only to advertise our projects, but to get a pulse on players' interests so that we can give them what they want.  In this day and age, it's hard for a vanilla mod - excellent and balanced as it may be, to really stand out from the crowd of existing mods that have already stood the test of time.  Not to say it can't be done of course - I am in process of making a vanilla mod (at least plot-wise) and think it can be fairly successful - but your mod should stand out in some significant way that will make players clearly choose it over the other options (FFT +, CCP, 1.3 Content, etc).  Thing is, I'm not quite seeing the niche here.

My honest impression of this is that I like a lot of the features, but there's not much about it that seems really unique or compelling.  Most of this has been done before. To use a relationship analogy, it has the appearances of the "nice girl/guy" - it seems like a good mod with cool features that I should want to play, but may not ultimately have that spice that actually compels me to action or excites my emotions much.

Anyway, take this not as an attempt to undermine the success of your patch, but as a statement of the some of the things you will run up against and as an invitation for you to sell us your mod more effectively.  In any case, I have to appreciate the work put in here and hope others give this a shot.  I intend to when I have more free time.

Thanks for your lengthy response. Your reaction is well justified -- a game of FFT can be a large time commitment, though with the story skipping asm and its low-jp requirements you should be able to jump right in. I would refer to my bonesy response higher in this same post, as much of it applies to your concern as well.

And, of course, sitting back and letting others try it out first is a perfectly valid response. How you spend your time is valuable and up to you. <3

Cheers,

- johnmyster

Compromise answer: play all the mods. If you got the time at least.

Haha fair enough.

[Bonesy]

I will give you this much: at least it isn't 1.3 or FFT+ and thusly I'll probably give it a shot at some point eventually.

[johnmyster]

I will give you this much: at least it isn't 1.3 or FFT+ and thusly I'll probably give it a shot at some point eventually.

It secretly is both 1.3 and FFT+. O.o o.O
*insert squirrel dun dun dunnn meme*

https://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/197339-final-fantasy-tactics/75672737

^ Topic on Gamefaqs. Philsov is doing a play-by-play as well.

[philsov]

I will give you this much: at least it isn't 1.3 or FFT+ and thusly I'll probably give it a shot at some point eventually.

Are my initial impressions so far, yeah.  It's novel and refreshing.  I don't recall FFT+ enough to know where it sits on the spectrum between vanilla and 1.3, but Proper is in a sweet spot between the two.  Upgrade in every capacity over Vanilla so far, and doesn't require the precision or overpowering brute force 1.3 calls for.  With Br/Fa modding and speed abuse still being possible, some restraint may be necessary but if that's inline with the design philosophy so be it. 

And it's not absurd like LFT (imo!  I tried it but couldn't muster.  Its design philosophy was to make an improved game but still be SCC viable which... I don't think was executed well)

~

Also -- hi all <3.  Long time no see.

[3lric]

Are my initial impressions so far, yeah.  It's novel and refreshing.  I don't recall FFT+ enough to know where it sits on the spectrum between vanilla and 1.3, but Proper is in a sweet spot between the two.  Upgrade in every capacity over Vanilla so far, and doesn't require the precision or overpowering brute force 1.3 calls for.  With Br/Fa modding and speed abuse still being possible, some restraint may be necessary but if that's inline with the design philosophy so be it. 

And it's not absurd like LFT (imo!  I tried it but couldn't muster.  Its design philosophy was to make an improved game but still be SCC viable which... I don't think was executed well)

~

Also -- hi all <3.  Long time no see.

I thought you died when Eternal became Admin
(he's not anymore, btw )

I'd try this patch, but i don't think I'm proper enough and the tag line urks me a bit
(And I don't like vanilla patches)

[Xifanie]

I'd just like to point out that both:
- That your mod is the "The Proper Way to play FFT"
- Your modifications follows the "spirit of vanilla"

Are both extremely arrogant claims that can only be applied to the raw, unmodified game. Your mod is a mod, it's not the original game; don't kid yourself. You'll never reach the audience that the original game had.

[Andrew]

Catchy title made me click on this thread!  Cool beans!  It looks like you've put a lot of time and effort into this patch.  I hope that it gets a good amount of attention.    Some changes that really stood-out for me:


1) Reduced JP costs.  If there's one thing I've always hated about starting a new game, it's having to grind for all of the skills that I want.  I'm the type of person that likes to have their "final" party assembled ASAP, so this is a big plus.

2) Monster rebalance.  Most of them stunk in vanilla, so it's nice to see that you could roll with a bunch of monsters (in an increased difficulty mod, at that) and stand a chance against what the game throws at you.  Good stuff.

3) Recruitables have more unlocked.  This ties into my first point.  No much more to say, honestly.

4) The patch maintains a lot of the vanilla flavour.  There's a lot of patch creators out there who change nearly every single aspect of the game (that they have access to), so it's refreshing to see a patch that emulates the best of what vanilla has to offer while staying true to the original game.

5) Start skips events.  When you've seen the game's cut scenes a billion times, this is a godsend.  Also, it's nice being able to choose whether or not you want to do a random battle.


Keep up the good work!

[johnmyster]

I thought you died when Eternal became Admin
(he's not anymore, btw )

I'd try this patch, but i don't think I'm proper enough and the tag line urks me a bit
(And I don't like vanilla patches)

Everyone is proper enough.

I'd just like to point out that both:
- That your mod is the "The Proper Way to play FFT"
- Your modifications follows the "spirit of vanilla"

Are both extremely arrogant claims that can only be applied to the raw, unmodified game. Your mod is a mod, it's not the original game; don't kid yourself. You'll never reach the audience that the original game had.

Haha oh my, chewed out by Xif.

I suppose tone is hard to convey over the internet and I may appear rather arrogant and trigger some people.

I'll take my responses piece by piece:

"The Proper Way to play FFT" is just that -- a tagline. Of course there's 1,000,000,000 ways to play FFT, this is simply one of them. I'm sorry if this somehow triggers people into thinking I'm some arrogant dude who thinks his patch is god, or that I stepped on the toes of hackers far more talented than me. 

"Your modifications follows the 'spirit of vanilla'"

This line simply is meant to reflect on my design philosophy. I wasn't out to change the game into something its not. I relied heavily on the original vanilla's concepts and formulas as a wall to lean for balance and compare to when I wasn't sure what would and wouldn't be balanced. I attempted to take what was good about the original game and highlight those aspects -- the strategy, and the tension possible before the player had figured out how to break the game's balance or starts attempting challenges such as SCC's.

Of course, I took plenty of liberties with enemies having all sorts of skillsets, redoing Rafalak, and putting in a few Zodiac bosses outside of their normal battles to spice things up a bit. Heck, I made some characters use generic sprites just to put an extra class in there to fight so one guy wasn't hogging 1/9 of the sprite space all the time.

Of course my mod is just a mod. It's my version of a product produced by Square that was only made possible using tools made by very talented and dedicated hackers, yourself included. It's meant to celebrate Final Fantasy Tactics, the game.

Reaching the audience that vanilla had is not even close to my goal. Even if five... no, even if one person besides me enjoys Proper for what it is, then the patch is a success in my eyes.

Catchy title made me click on this thread!  Cool beans!  It looks like you've put a lot of time and effort into this patch.  I hope that it gets a good amount of attention.    Some changes that really stood-out for me:


2) Monster rebalance.  Most of them stunk in vanilla, so it's nice to see that you could roll with a bunch of monsters (in an increased difficulty mod, at that) and stand a chance against what the game throws at you.  Good stuff.

3) Recruitables have more unlocked.  This ties into my first point.  No much more to say, honestly.

4) The patch maintains a lot of the vanilla flavour.  There's a lot of patch creators out there who change nearly every single aspect of the game (that they have access to), so it's refreshing to see a patch that emulates the best of what vanilla has to offer while staying true to the original game.

5) Start skips events.  When you've seen the game's cut scenes a billion times, this is a godsend.  Also, it's nice being able to choose whether or not you want to do a random battle.


Keep up the good work!

Thanks for your reply, and positive attitude so far. 

On Monsters: Honestly, I don't know how viable rolling with a bunch of monsters is. Monsters are certainly much stronger, but they don't have the versatility of humans. I am thinking about trying a Ramza+Monster playthrough for myself, but haven't got around to it yet. So a word of caution to those willing to try such a thing: it's not tested, but it certainly is doable without excessive leveling, in theory.

Heck, the only way you're going to get more than 550 HP by level 75 besides with Reis (Equip Armor) is with monsters, whose growths continue to make them stronger every level while humans are left with the same equipment they had at level 45 and weaker growth rates than monsters.

On the spirit of the original game: Indeed, different doesn't always mean better. Still, paradoxically or hypocritically even, I injected the spirit of variety into the spirit of vanilla and shook (not stirred) it to its current form. 

On skipping events: Yes, this feature is amazing, and I only put it in at the very end of Proper's development because I didn't know about it. This was not in any shape or form made by me, I simply put the ASM into my patch.

Cheers,

johnmyster

[Angel]

The title is a bit of a twitch, but I'm far more bothered by 16:9 screenshots of a 4:3 game. Well, and that you've made previously unavoidable attacks avoidable - I'm the queen of missing 90+% hits 12 consecutive times until game over, so those are my only crutch. :p

That said, you've put a lot of effort into your presentation, and I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate someone working off the PlayStation version. Thanks for posting your work here!

[johnmyster]

The title is a bit of a twitch, but I'm far more bothered by 16:9 screenshots of a 4:3 game. Well, and that you've made previously unavoidable attacks avoidable - I'm the queen of missing 90+% hits 12 consecutive times until game over, so those are my only crutch. :p

That said, you've put a lot of effort into your presentation, and I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate someone working off the PlayStation version. Thanks for posting your work here!

Thanks for your interest and reply. Sorry about the resolution, wasn't even something I considered that would bother people. :p

Geomancy and Draw Out are still unevadeable. Thief and Lancer have innate concentrate, and most chances to hit are actually very much improved. Late game shields and mantles are also weaker. :p

Anyways, if you end up giving it a go I'd love to hear what you think. Have a great day!

-johnmyster