Final Fantasy Hacktics

Reading through the changelist, you've made quite a bit of changes to the point that I would not consider it a "rebalancing mod" at this point, rather it feels something akin to Celdia's Class Patch where the old concepts are redefined into a new form.

Still, that's just semantics. I will try to find time to explore this patch, since it seems to be a bit more creative utilizing only the basic PSP version tools.

Ok, thanks for the help.

Btw, for that particular hack, what is the YY "Status Bit Offset" supposed to do in relation to the XX value?

Thank you for that.

Is Sunken state + Dragon Spirit + Caution + Regenerator the only ones that are easily changed in this way? Any way to change Gilgame Heart to work in a similar way?

May I request a simple ASM hack where the ability triggered by Caution is changed from Defending to Haste?

And a (not sure if impossible) ASM hack for Gilgame heart which triggers a single random status infliction on the reactor from a set of (Defending/Reraise/Regen/Protect/Shell/Haste/Death Sentence)?

And is there an easier way to do the 1st request much more easily with an FFTOrgasm patch so I can change any reaction's triggering status condition into what I want instead of requesting?

I know about this page but I don't understand how to actually use the information in it (what does "Load Attack's Status Inflict" connect to?)
http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Sunken_State,_Caution,_Dragon_Spirit,_etc._usability

Up to Barias Hill now. Random thoughts as usual.

I like that you reduced JP costs for quite a lot of the early classes, but I think the early class tree progression is problematic.

Warrior: Rather problematic early game with revival being hard to get. The very first Garland City battle where most of the enemy units are Warriors and the low JP cost for Charges means a lot of OHKOs with you being unable to interrupt (due to how charge abilities and Speed works).

Of course the later you go, the worse Charge as a skillset becomes, so I dunno. I guess you could re-up the JP costs so that the CPU can't buy it that early but then we're back to the original problem of the CCP1 where Charge REALLY isn't worth that much JP. I really don't think Charge works as a tier 1 class skillset.

Alchemist: Usable, I guess? The Phoenix Down cost really hurts them early game though.

Also I hate it when the CPU uses X-Potions and Phoenix Downs way before I can.

Bandit: Tranq Dart and Gunk Bomb are actually pretty handy. I never actually spent time long enough in Bandit to use the steals though, maybe because Chapter 1 has a lot of Assassination missions. I slightly regret it because enemies have a lot of good stuff to steal in story missions.

Demagogue: I used to love this guys because they're a tanky class with non-fail MA and ignore their class skillset completely, but you actually added some pretty useful linear skills now (Shout especially, is one of the best early game buys).

Rally is broken good due to using the Bard song coding though. It levels and gains you JP REALLY fast and pays off it's 200 JP costs REALLY quick. I imagine it gets worse later but it's pretty much the first skill I would buy. Works great for "beat on each other" JP grinding sessions too.

The Bard song coding is problematic for other skills like Power Word: Stun though. I find it rather hard to control and I rather not have to set-up my entire team just to get use out of it.

Can deal solid damage with spears.

Green Mage: Not a fan of this class, though mostly in design rather than power level. Seems way too overloaded, and Oracles were cool because they had sticks to beat on the enemy when Statuses weren't useful while Green mages has the standard terrible mage type weapons. If they had equip options like Reds I might like them better, I dunno.

Also another class that I think is problematic early game due to speed. Since status duration lasts by clockticks, unless you use "permanent" status effects like Silence, that kind of means you're getting a lot less bang for your buck early game.

Chef: Urgh. This class is really hard to grind due to using the Draw Out coding making it really prohibitive. You get only 2 items for a really long time too.

Red Mage: Well, they're a source of resurrection so that kind of makes them good by default. Not that much of a slouch for attack magic either.

The fact that RM is the first MA-attack class makes it really tough to be a woman in CCP though. You got to go through Chef (hard to grind, as I said), then Green Mage which is not that easy to grind (you only get JP if you successfully land a status) and doesn't care about MA before you reach this one.

Sorcerer: Nuke is such a great spell for Assassination mission and I used it to one-hit Miluda, Wiegraf and Algus. Otherwise I'm not really fond of this installment of the class. I really preferred the old one where it didn't cost any JP at all and there was a "solid" base skillset which you could add to with certain books.

Also, Parrying Sticks are bugged. You can attack with them at all. Don't know if it applies to the entire Pole class of weapons.

Gunslinger: You unlock them way before you get guns, which kind of bothers me in a design sense. I know technically Chemist in vanilla could use Guns too but they aren't sold on the whole gun image.

Breaks are kind of buggy. If you drop their MaxHP by breaking equipment, their HP actually stays the same for some reason whereas in Vanilla it would drop to their new MaxHP.

Also I'm not really sure if I buy that the Death Sentence skill should cost 50 more JP then Stop.

I feel like this class lost a lot of its flavour without Gun-Kata as a built-in ability.

Champion: I like that they can actually use their abilities now in their own class. Healing Touch is nice now that it doesn't heal for neglible amounts and that MP heal means they can babysit your casters!

Hawknight: Technically better than Nomads power-wise. I don't particularly feel their "flavour" though.

I'm missing some classes, but that's because I haven't unlocked/really tested them yet

Goblins: I would basically suggest any player to recruit a Red Goblin ASAP because holy crap, free resurrection.

As you proceed through the game, their 3 movement/3 jump kind of phrases them out though.

Black Goblins seems really luck based. Low Brave and low PA spawn? Not a threat! Opposite happens? Ow.

Agrias: Is it just me or does Holy Knight have terrible PA (outside of the fact that Agrias is a woman)? Stasis Sword range is kinda low too... She seems okay otherwise.

Mustadio: I like how this guy constantly gets revamped over and over. I might use him seeing as how I never did train my 4th generic. Or maybe I'll go for Agrias this time. Incidentally he comes with a really good coat which makes him super tanky for the time, which I feel is kind of weird.

A bunch of reaction abilities that counter with abilties suck up your mana like crazy. "Bane" sucks up like 20 MP every time it triggers, which I think makes it unusable. I don't think I've ever seen the Updraft reaction ability trigger although that could be because I was spending MP quickly.

Randoms: Goblins, Goblins, and more goblins in Chapter 1. Randoms feel extra boring, really. Maybe add some gimpy humans to mix things up or something

I wonder if you could add some cooking or alchemical items as War Trophies to randoms just to spice up those two classes a little early game.

Overall, I think the early game plays a little better but I felt a couple of classes lost their flavour from the original. Nomads were kind of terrible for player use back then but they were really cool conceptually and I don't feel that "Hawk Knights" really captured me the same way. Same with Gunslingers without Gun Kata.

Red Goblin spells are all free and insta-cast apparently which is probably my main source of resurrection now considering it's kind of lacking in most early jobs.

I would probably make my army out of Red Goblins now if it wasn't for the JP system in FFT. Man this game really doesn't support monster gameplay.

Also, what's up with Evasion? The numbers don't seem to add up from the back/sides. Is this a mod change?

Quote from: RavenOfRazgriz on December 27, 2012, 07:07:43 pm
Charge is far from worthless, it's essentially 0-Area Swordskills on your Generics.

0-Area Swordskills, really?

Swordskills add range to a rangeless weapon (Charge only have range if you use them with certain weapons) and has status effects... Charge doesn't.

Orbonne: I kind of wish that every mod of FFT just made this battle against 1 naked Squire because nothing carries over from this battle. That's just me though so moving on.

Gariland: I had some pretty bad luck where Ramza started with nothing learned and I keep whiffing 5% miss rates on the enemy. I actually had one of my units crystallize in this battle. I don't think even FFT 1.3 did that to me.

Charge seems SUPER powerful on this mission which kind of makes Delita and Ramza look like chumps.

Mandalia Plains: I actually lost by Ramza crystallization on this map. Ow.

"Random" weapons are kind of annoying early game because Phoenix Downs now cost 4000 (!). One shotting units seem rather common with Charge now that it's so cheap that most units get Charge +3/4 autolearnt and combined with the lack of revival, makes the early game kind of swingy.

Darn, I should have waited. Now I got to start over again. Maybe I'll FFTastic my save file but I guess it wouldn't be accurate feedback then.

Yeah, I just got access to Fresh Herbs and the only thing my Tacticians do now is lie down on the floor and then shred the map.

I feel kind of disappointed, because

1) it reminds me of old Loremaster (Actually, I think they were called Warlocks or something) which overfocused the battles on themselves... well, except the AI was better at using those guys because they're braindead simple and not that good at using Tacs and Warlock battles were at least challenging in a sense that you're going to have to fight a way to kill those guys fast.

2) Tacts have one of the bigger skillset in the patch and you basically just use 2 of them over and over.

Zalmo is slightly hard than I thought due to the fact that enemies get first strike because of level scaling and starting position is really terrible and his unique spells hit pretty hard.

I regret not stealing stuff from Wiegraf 2. His armor is pretty strong for where it is.

The deserters battle are somehow still using old sprites (Monk/Chemist/etc)... funny, I thought those sprites were replaced in the game but I'm not sure about the technical details of FFT hacking. Good stuff to steal here.

What's up with random battles and monsters? A lot of monsters seem to be missing attacks, such as the Squid family where only 1 of them have Mind Blast. For some reason I can't seem to breed the 3rd tier of certain monster classes (Sirens and Bombs, I managed to get a 3rd tier Skeleton) and also it seems like I never seen a single human unit appear in a random battle anymore (which is bad because I would like to save some money by stealing stuff off them. Equipment is expensive in this patch.)

Got walled a bit by Execution Site which I kind of expected. Loremaster doesn't work because it's too squishy and enemies are too spread out/too many for a decisive Fireball victory.

Decided to use a tanky Demagogue/Engrave setup. Didn't even use any of the Demagogue skillset actually, just needed access to Heavy Armor + not terrible MA.

Adrenaline serves a hilarious double purpose against Chocobo Codex wielders. Not only do you stop them from using skills, they also helpfully provide you with free healing and reraise. Just awesome.

Tactician hasn't been that useful for me other than providing haste to 4 other people but that's about it.

Hey people, I have a bit of free time and I decided to start another playthrough of CCP. Last time I've played, the Loremaster was instead a cheesy class whose name I can't remember that could OHKO everyone on the map and I feel that I might not have a proper view of the end-game because of it.

But now the class has changed and a bunch of other stuff as well, so let's begin.

Disclaimer: I'm not a very good FFT player, I suspect people might be a lot smarter and found more use for certain abilities compared to me.

Unfortunately, I have less free time in my life compared to the past, so while I was fond of doing things like draw out battles to eat crystals and get treasure chests, I will probably not do said strategies nowadays. Also I probably won't quite go into too much detail. Anyway let's begin/.

Chapter 1 always kind of felt like pulling teeth to me and in this current patch... it's better than the really old versions where enemy's equipment scaled to your level, but worse than the one after said patch.

I think one of the problems is that a lot of the early game classes have abilities that are really nice as supplementary options, but aren't exactly "workhorse" abilities to build a core strategy on. Also, a lot of classes don't have an easy way to build up JP the way Throw Stone did in Vanilla FFT. The Butler is one of the classes most hit by this IMO because he's too squishy to auto-attack but his abilities (that you can afford at chapter 1 anyway) are too niche to give him any useful actions to build JP. Homemaker gets off because Sugary Candy is like a reverse healing Throw Stone. I think some of their starting abilities really needs to be cheaper (and yes, I know 150 JP is pretty cheap in the grand scheme of things but with early level characters it feels like it takes forever only to receive a niche ability)

Also, randoms are a pain in this version. A battle with a Siren can basically wipe out your party in one action if you get unlucky and get 3 people frogged or something and stuff like Bombs seem to deal ridiculous damage with their new moveset to early game player characters. Ironically they aren't that great if you actually recruit them because in story battles the enemy always kind of seems to have a positioning advantage over you where monsters terrible average 3 move really hurts.

Now that being said, the change of being able to control guest AI now means that it's MUCH easier to just play through story missions without stopping to grind. Having control of Algus and Delita makes Dorter significantly easier and I love that because I hate having that stupid level wall me.

Once you get to Chapter 2, I find that propositions and the more interesting jobs opening up means the patch is a lot more fun to play.

Assorted early game stuff:
Charge is a pretty lame skillset in Vanilla and it's not particularly groundbreaking here... HOWEVER, most other early game abilities are so niche that Charge +4 actually ends up being quite exciting in comparison and quite possibly one of the few things that I would consider a "workhorse" ability for consistent damage (if you want to burst early, you'll have to go with Red Mage)

The skillset could honestly use some JP reductions though. Charge +4 or perhaps +5 is basically the only cost-efficient skill on the list. By the time you get something like Charge + 20 it doesn't work anymore.

Early Homemaker: Sugary Candy good for grinding, Boil is actually surprisingly good as a secondary skillset on the magic using classes early for picking off key targets (assassination missions, mostly).

Butler: Yucks. Silverware as a starting ability really doesn't work due to how the charge system in FFT works. Blackmail is solid though you can only really use it like 2 or 3 times before your MP runs out. I would basically just buy +1 Move and then not use this class until you can get over the hump using propositions.

Champion: The early game abilities aren't great. Healing Touch can't really heal very well but it's there to grind JP. Rejuv Touch is terrible until Heavy Armor actually becomes strong enough to provide enough HP to regenerate off.

Really in early game, this class basically just exists for 2-H sword beatdown, which has been nerfed compared to the past now that those swords don't provide their own element. Still, put Charge on this guy and you'll have a solid consistent attacking unit.

Red Mages: Workhorse for early game. It has a big list of abilities and if you don't want to grind, you really got to know which ones to pick.

With the free JP, definitely buy Jolt and Freeze. Jolt will always be useful because it has no charge time and Freeze is a solid ability and especially useful for killing goblins. Aura is optional but helpful if you need healing although I find Ramza and Delita bandages work fine.

After that, upgrade to Thunder by around the time of Sand Rat Cellar because the entrances are PERFECT for lining up enemies.

Then get Simoon at around Thieves fort. It's significantly better than Scorch which I never found any use for. The battlefields are set in such a way that the next few battles up to Fort Zeakdan has the enemy bunched up in such a way that Simoon deals a huge blow to them.

Wall is a nice splash for Red Mages who AREN'T you main for battles where you can afford to wait a little instead of having to rush strategic positions ASAP. I had Algus take up this duty for me.

Nomad: A niche unit overall that you really only pull out when you can gain access to a height advantage which... isn't often. Dorter and Zaland fort city comes to mind.

Niche niche abilities as usual. Updraft is probably the best one early and even then it's niche. Put Charge as a secondary and just use his access to bows as your advantage.

That 2 movement and inability to wear boots, I find to be kind of unbearable. Seeing as how Nomad gates Bandit, you almost have to make these guys male until you get propositions.

Loremaster: This really isn't an "early" game class IMO but somehow I managed to stick Ramza in Red long enough to access this.

I like the concept and it's definitely less overpowered compared to the previous incarnation. Fireball is hilariously good for all the early assassination missions and can one-shot (or close anyway) most of them but if you don't end the battle immediately then its MP cost makes it unfeasible so I won't consider it overpowered.

I was expecting the final Chapter 1 Algus fight to be a long slog but Algus just rolled over dead instantly when a fireball was dropped on him. Maybe I had good compatibility or something.

Tactician: Kind of want to make this class work for me, I remember the last time I played it, it was super buggy. Well they're fixed now but I think they're hard to use when guests are still being forced into your party all the time limiting your deploys to 4. We'll see I guess.

Question: How does dual elemental abilities work? If I cast boil on a Fire Bomb, what sort of damage would I do?

ALMA is an ASM hack that allows you to make equipment grant skills like Defense Up (as opposed to base FFT equipment bonus like PA/MA only)

I did a write up of Mustadio in an earlier version in the Battle Logs topic, I don't know if it still holds up though, it was quite an old version.

Flame Kick is a strange PA based move which I almost never use because it generally doesn't out-damage a gun, Engineer doesn't have great stats, and you generally try not to let enemies near unless it's a compact map.

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=7363.msg149771#msg149771

It's at the end of this message (I hope the link works)

Edit: Oops, found another one of my old post that's more detailed I think.

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=7360.msg150482#msg150482

Quote from: Celdia on October 04, 2011, 04:30:04 pm
I think that's the first time anyone has said their Brawler was OP. Usually I get complaints that player Brawlers are weak and AI Brawlers are OP which never made a lot of sense to me.

Pummel's still luck-based formula skill, isn't it?

As far as personal experiences go, people always seem to remember when random-damage skills fail for them while simultaneously remembering how many times the AI lucks out and slaughters them in 1 hit.

I think that's the best explanation for it, really.

Enhance raises hit rates by 25% or something. It's like the version of Concentrate from FFTA. It's a very good piece of equipment when you first get it if you rely on % based moves.

The last time I played, Mustadio's Arm/Leg Aim did proc their status effects BUT they are VERY rare. I'm not sure if it means the proc rates are just screwed up or whatever. Maybe a patch broke it so that it doesn't proc now, but just mentioning.

Are a bunch of War Trophies new to this version? I definitely didn't get Ironheart Armour, Angelic Plate, Etherium armor etc for winning those battles. Also the last Colliery gave me... a "Doubler" or something in the previous version.

Out of curiousity, does Cloud have the limitations on his Limit skillset removed, or is it completely untouched meaning he has to equip whatever replaced the Materia Blade in the original game code (Well, Executioner Axe is the item you find in the volcano but...)

Huh, I was just about to post the Alchemy bug. Oh well, looks like I don't have to now.

I might be going into the colliery with the the unique characters maybe, although I'll have to savefile edit JP for them since I don't want to grind them up.

Anyway, my Mustadio analysis from a bit of testing and theory.

Mustadio: Well, first off, the new skill formulas means if you want to use Holy/Dark/Flame Kick you can't quite use the Alchemist as main class effectively, since it has gimpy stats. You can't use it on Gunslinger since it also has gimpy stats but then again, if you do try Gunslinging/Engineers you'll have a bit of redundant moves. Let's see... Enchanters... well, they have gimpy stats too.

This is a bit of a problem. Mustadio REALLY wants Two Guns in his Support ability slots. If you put Item secondary with Engineer main there's no space to slap on Throw Item unless you want to gimp your HP with Heavy Coat and not be able to use Rogue Camoflauge.

With the old formula, you could just go Alchemist to get Innate Throw Item and then slap on Two Guns on the class but yeah, can't do that anymore.

As a level 42 Engineer, Mustadio has 9 PA and 7 MA (assume equipment is twinking for speed). Holy/Dark seems to be using the Elemental formula which uses both PA and MA and deals like 70 damage.

The best storebought gun is 7 WP, meaning 49 damage. Balk battle gives you Inferno for 9 WP and a generic Gunslinger has a Stone Flintlock for 8 WP respectively, meaning 81 and 64 damage respectively.

So while it does deal more damage than Rifles, once you get Inferno/S Flintlock, unless you have someone throwing Ambrosias at Mustadio, using Holy and Dark Shot will... more of less give you the same damage, since Holy weakness is hard to take advantage of and is there any monsters even weak to Dark? You'll really only use Dark Shot if you're fighting the rare enemy immune or resistant to Holy (which means... Ultima Demons I guess) and it's not much of a difference from just shooting them.

Of course this is from my Chapter 4 save game. I have no idea how it is for Chapter 2 when Mustadio first joins you. Thinking about it, the Speed twinks equipment come pretty late (and Balk is the only guy who has the best Speed hat in the game... twice), and Mustadio can't Equip Armor in Engineer, which means your "best" option for early game is to twink for Magic with Bishop Miter and Dried Herbs. Necklace of J would probably be nice but I never did get it (is it even possible?)

As mentioned above, Engineering doesn't quite work as a secondary because a lot of classes either has gimpy stats or can't use guns so no Two Guns. The fact that Two Guns basically doubles the damage just about every skill that isn't called Flame Kick means you pretty much want it in your support slot.

On the rare class with both decent/good PA/MA multipliers who can't use Guns such as Vanquisher, well... I don't think they'll outdamage two guns. Eh.

So what secondary to give Musty as Engineer? If you use Item you're going to have to accept having only a 1 panel throw range. Blitz probably isn't worth carrying with 110 PA multiplier without Attack Up. If you're going speed twinking I guess he could be your Bandit but without propositions it pretty annoying to train said class. Engrave could be fine if you go twink for MA... maybe.

My verdict is that Holy/Dark/Flame Kick is... still rather niche and asks a lot of hard questions to answer and I still don't know what the optimal setup is.