Solo's FFTA2 Modding Shenanigans

[SoloCross]

Hello, this is my first public mod I guess. For now it's only a rework of Vaan's Job (mostly based on his Revenant Wings self) that sorta spiraled into also slightly reworking Thief and letting special recruits come with more abilities.

This mod also overhauls MP, you start at full and there is no MP regen unless you use MP Channeling. Right now this is very unbalanced but future additions to the mod should fix it somewhat.

In any case, here's the specifics of what I changed.

spoiler: Job Changes

spoiler: Thief

• Steal Gil: As vanilla. Cost lowered to 100 AP
• Steal Items: As vanilla. Cost lowered to 100 AP
• Loot Lv. 1: Steal Lv 1 and 2 loot. - Rondel 200 AP
• Loot Lv. 2: Steal Lv 3 and 4 loot. - Swordbreaker 300 AP
• Salvage: Disarm an adjacent trap, obtain loot. - Scramasax 100 AP
• Steal Armor: Steal target's armor. - Cinquedea 400 AP
• Steal Accessory: As vanilla. Cost lowered to 400 AP
• Steal Limelight: As vanilla.

spoiler: Sky Pirate

Can now equip greatswords and shields. Lost ability to equip swords.

• Pyroclasm: Heavy Fire damage in a small area, depletes MP. (4 range, 2 vertical. 32 MP) - Adamant Blade 400 AP
• White Whorl: Wind damage to a single target, may infict Defense Down. (4 range, 12 MP) - Harpe 300 AP
• Timeslip: Light Dark damage to a single target, may inflict Stop. (2 range) - Ebon Blade 300 AP
• Steal HP: Steal target's HP. - Mastered
• Steal Speed: Inflict Slow on target, Haste self if successful. - Mastered
• Steal Power: Inflict Attack Down on target, Attack Up self if successful. - Mastered
• Razor's Edge: As vanilla.
• Sprint: Renamed Flee. - Manganese Saber 300 AP

spoiler: Agent

Reckless Abandon moved to Giot Gun. Can now learn passives and reactions.

• Attack Up - Lost Gun 150 AP
• Defense Up - Black Gear 150 AP
• Concentration - Longbarrel 250 AP
• Critical: Haste - Ninja Gear 250 AP
• Blur - Fortune Ring 150 AP
• Evade Magick - Wygar 250 AP

spoiler: Special Recruit Changes

All still have their original abilities unless noted

• Adelle: Comes with 1 Soldier ability (First Aid)
• Hurdy: Comes with 2 Animist abilities (Sheep Count, Toadsong)
• Frimelda: Knows every Paladin ability except for Holy Blade and Saint Cross. Comes with 4 Soldier abilities (Rend Power, Rend Magick, Rend MP, Rend Speed) as well as Dragonheart.
• Vaan: See Job Changes for his new base abilities. Comes with 4 Thief abilities (Steal Gil, Steal Items, Loot Lv. 1 and Salvage).
• Penelo: Comes with 4 White Mage abilities (Cure, Cura, Esuna and Raise).
• Al Cid: Comes with Safeguard and Absorb Damage.
• Montblanc: Knows all -ra and -ga Black Magicks, but not the base levels. Comes with 4 Time Mage abilities (Haste, Hastega, Slow, Reflect) as well as Critical: Vanish and Halve MP

More to come later, currently thinking about either further differentiating Warrior and Soldier or swapping Illusionist and Arcanist, leaving Illusionist as a No Mou only job. Something that will come for sure is the removal of most Ultima skills, they are absurdly broken with the current MP setup. Anyway, that's it for now.

[matchet]

Vaan
- Are Pyroclasm, Timeslip & White Whorl considered spells and scales up with MAtk? Because if you are planning to make him viable as a caster if the player decides to, he need to have a proper Matk growth on his starting job (because so late recruit, half of the levels are forced to be done on Sky Pirate).
- Whats the reason behind the change in the weaponry? I usually remember my Vaan from FFXII as Sword and Shield wielder.

Agent

Can now learn passives and reactions

Thank you. Made me nervous to have a character that would never be able to fill his P or R slots.

Hurdy
- Nice with the joke of starting as bad musician, therefore he innately knows how to sleep and sing a song about frogs XD


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Looking forward to see in which will your patch end up becoming :]

[SoloCross]

- Are Pyroclasm, Timeslip & White Whorl considered spells and scales up with MAtk? Because if you are planning to make him viable as a caster if the player decides to, he need to have a proper Matk growth on his starting job (because so late recruit, half of the levels are forced to be done on Sky Pirate).

No, they are physical skills. I also forgot to mention, the minumum level of all recruits was changed to 1, so you can have more control over their stats if you keep a low average level. All of your starting units are also level 1 now.

- Whats the reason behind the change in the weaponry? I usually remember my Vaan from FFXII as Sword and Shield wielder.

Swords didn't really do much for him, what with most Sabers and Blades being outright better. Doesn't even learn any skills from em so I axed em. Greatswords do give him a choice between higher attack power or a shield (or just using Monkey Grip)

Thank you. Made me nervous to have a character that would never be able to fill his P or R slots.

Al-Cid can have a little customization, as a treat.

Nice with the joke of starting as bad musician, therefore he innately knows how to sleep and sing a song about frogs XD

Eh, that wasn't a joke, just picked those cause they seemed vaguely music related. The real joke was Frimelda having Dragonheart. She won't stay dead.

Looking forward to see in which will your patch end up becoming :]

In the immediate future, I actually came up with a solution to Ultima being even more broken than usual in a "start with full MP" enviroment, I'm just gonna make it deal 999 MP damage to the user after use, so you get to nuke something *once* and that's it. Also gonna raise its cost to 99 MP.

Also have reworks for Soldier, Warrior, Illusionist and Arcanist in the works.

spoiler: Soldier

New skill set, focused on lowering stats.

• First Aid: Recover a small amount of HP. Heal Poison, Blind and Immobilize.
• Powerbreak: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. May inflict Attack Down.
• Magicbreak: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. May inflict Magick Down.
• Guardbreak: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. May inflict Defense Down.
• Mindbreak: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. May inflict Resistance Down.
• Speedbreak: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. May inflict Slow.
• Soulbreak: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. Depletes MP.
• Delay Buster: Deal weapon damage to a target in weapon range. Delays target's turn.

spoiler: Warrior

New skill set, focused on destroying gear.

• First Aid: Recover a small amount of HP. Heal Poison, Blind and Immobilize.
• Body Slam: As vanilla, but you get it earlier now.
• Greased Lightning: As vanilla, but you get it earlier now.
• Rend Weapon: Destroy target's weapon. Deals weapon damage if successful.
• Rend Shield: Destroy target's shield. Deals weapon damage if successful.
• Rend Helm: Destroy target's helmet. Deals weapon damage if successful.
• Rend Armor: Destroy target's armor. Deals weapon damage if successful.
• Rend Accessory: Destroy target's accessory. Deals weapon damage if successful.

spoiler: Illusionist

Psyche! There's actually no Illusionist class anymore, it will just become Arcanist, with a few changes.

• Drain: Absorb target's HP
• Syphon: Absorb target's MP
• Death: Attempt to instantly KO target.
• Dispel: Remove target's buffs.
• Full Break: Attempt to inflict Attack Down, Magick Down, Defense Down and Resistance Down on a small area
• Dark: Light Dark damage on a small area.
• Darkra: Moderate Dark damage on a small area
• Darkga: Heavy Dark damage on a small area

spoiler: Arcanist

With Arcanist taking Illusionist's place, this class will instead become Rune Knight, which is basically my take on FFT Samurai. They will be able to equip axes, hammers, helms, heavy armor, robes and shields.

• Ignis: Fire damage on a large area around the user. May inflict Resistance Down.
• Gelus: Ice damage on a large area around the user. May inflict Confuse.
• Sulpor: Lightning damage on a large area around the user. May inflict Blind.
• Unda: Water damage in a line in front of the user.
• Tellus: Bestows Astra and Defend on a large area around the user.
• Flabra: Bestows Move Up and Evasion Up to user.
• Lux: Restores HP in a large area around the user. Heals some status.
• Tenebrae: Deplete MP in a large area around the user. May inflict Slow.

[matchet]

Rune Knight looks like the class I've ever dream of, but never got: tanky spellcaster with area damage around himself. Nice concept.