Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hey, still here, and I wasn't saying the difficulty was a bad thing, just illustrating a point, and having tried to play fft Twotl again, I REALLY see how the difficulty and balancing needs work, but keep in mind, I was posting this shortly after getting smeared across the landscape by the Beastmaster story encounter a couple of times.

Alright I see your point about Snake.

As for the "special character trap," I've had very little chance to fall into it.  I came into this from WotL and that first battle against the skeletons kicked my ass first time around.  It got to the point where it was down to one on one and I realized that I couldn't kill the skeleton faster than it could heal, so I exited out and started over, using the Disgaea strategy(see DOGPILE!) and I was BARELY able to squeak past.  It really hammered the point in that I needed to make sure and make sure that each of my guys could use items, and not to go to my preferred strategy of splitting up the party to take out multiple enemies at once.  Add in the fact that I could only use base job and chemist for the Barious Hill fight and I was MORE than happy to branch out a bit.

On a related note, was the arithmetician's JP movement skill from WotL or the original?  Because if it was original, then why did you guys decide to go with a different formula?  [It's entirely possible you didn't and I either don't remember right, or the original is different.]  Keep in mind I'm not being sarcastic, I am genuinely curious.

Finally, I have mixed feelings about the fact that just about every ability has an MP cost.  Don't get me wrong, some skills are kinda broken if you can just spam them forever,(see Holy Knight and vanilla Ramza's Mettle abilities) but at the same time that leaves me worried about if I can-for instance- make Ramza a black mage without completely forsaking his ability to do anything else in the battle.  I understand that you ARE going for a game that relies more on actual strategy rather than making every character a force of nature, but at the same time making sure that that MP doesn't go to waste, or that my more magically inclined characters weren't totally useless once they were out of MP was one of the things that really helped make my ability choices feel great, as if I'd helped to train a truly well-rounded and flexible company of heretics.  I guess my issue is that it makes sense for some abilities to have an MP cost, but it seems like some of the others are either 'overpriced' or situational enough/ weak enough not to need an MP cost at all.

Of course both of these points can be counter-acted by the fact that I've yet to get very far in the mod, and I'm just not seeing this stuff when you've got a couple more levels under your belt and have a bit more flexibility in both equipment and unlocked jobs.

I freakin' love this mod, but dammit, I've gotten farther, faster in X-COM.  Not that I won't keep at it, but I can only take so much abject failure before I have to put the game up for a while.

Ah, sorry about that.  Didn't know about the edit function.  And I guess I just kinda forgot that it was a mod with the thrill of just getting some ideas out there.  But as for how it could work, I don't know, maybe send Snake sneaking through a group of enemies to interact with something in the environment to help the others while they're holding off a strong foe?  It was just an idle thought of how to use Snake's skills.

I guess I just got lucky with the hammer then, which is odd because usually whenever I ask RNG-sus for a favor he responds by stabbing me in the face.

I really do have trouble remembering this is a mod sometimes.  I've tried one other mod for FFT.  It did not impress.  Nothing like trying to give a character regen and ending up tackling the poor bastard.

Oh, just thought of something else, based on how I TRIED to use Snake in the very first battle.  Would it break balance to add a bonus to his assassination skill based on what weapon he's using?  So that knives would be better than guns for assassinations, but you don't have the safety that being at range would give you.  Or perhaps a bonus for trying to assassinate from hiding?  Idunno, I just barely beat barious, so I'm just throwing out ideas that I find interesting.

Hey, just started playing JOT5 today, and needed to take a break from getting my ass kicked at Barious.  So, please forgive me if something I suggest is already being planned or already in the mod.
Will there be any missions with a more stealth-based focus?  I ask because out of the 5, Snake's kinda the odd man out, because he's the only one of them that stars in a game that actively punishes the standard KILL EVERYTHING game mentality.  I've read some of these posts and I think I've got a better idea of how to utilize him, but I just thought that it might be something a bit interesting to help tie Snake's particular set of skills to the party better.  Possibly even just a stealth route that Snake can take for a tactical advantage in a regular battle?
Will any of the five have their class upgraded over the different chapters, like Ramza in vanilla FFT?
I read one of the earlier suggestions, and why not just make the boomerang basically a crossbow that only Link can use?
I could probably think of more if I really pushed myself, but I'll leave it at that for now.

Loving the mod so far, even if I HAVE almost snapped my controller in half from frustration.
P.S.  Why is ALMA the best physical attacker I've seen so far?  Is it just because the hammer is that bloody powerful?  She's dealing more than TWICE the damage Ramza is with his sword strikes, and I'm pretty sure this is without Zodiac compatibility messing things up.