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FFT: A Class Apart

Started by Pylgrim, October 31, 2011, 10:49:51 pm

Pylgrim

October 31, 2011, 10:49:51 pm Last Edit: November 11, 2011, 11:59:55 pm by Pylgrim
Hi all. As many of you surely have noticed, I've been lurking the forums and IRC, while gathering info for my dream mod. I believe I now have a very good idea of what I'm doing and I have grounded several of the impossible fantasies I had to start working on something that may be viable after all. (DISCLAIMER: Very likely, there are still several ridiculous flights of fancy, fruit of my general ignorance about FFT hacking. Please do not be afraid of pointing them to me.)

I want to start by thanking Eternal, Raven, fdc (did I get it right?), Celdia and everyone else who have helped me so far, either by example, encouragement or direct advice. It was thanks to you guys that a vague, dreamlike idea took form into something I can work with today.

Final Fantasy Tactics: A Class Apart has two main objectives and two secondary objectives:

1. To make each Job (Class, get it, get it?) more distinct and unique. Eliminate redundancies, compile boring/repetitive abilities/skillsets into single classes while opening room for more specialized and interesting ones. Give each class enough unique and self-sufficient attributes and flavor that allow each class to be equally playable and fun, and more importantly, feel different from each other. This includes among others, a higher variance in the multipliers and growth of the different stats, innate abilities, elemental affinities and status immunities and more variance in the ability to equip items. 
2. To make Gil a much more vital aspect of the game, a true commodity, which careful management is necessary to success and a player in several of the mechanics of the game. Remember how cool was to find a pair of Battle Boots in a chest in the first fights of Chapter 1, because they were so expensive? Remember how much tension placed in your gameplay to use your last Phoenix Down knowing that you could only afford one after the battle? We're having that through the full game. Don't expect anything like the rewards in dozens of thousand of Gil at the end of Chapter 3's battles and onward, placing your total Gil in the Millions even after bingeing at shops. Don't expect even 10% of that. Getting an item broken by the enemy is going to hurt like hell and you're going to like it.
3. To support the previous two objectives, the item system is getting a total revamp which includes more common items being made rare, gaps in the power escalation of equipment (i.e. you wont get a power 9 sword just a few fights after you bought the power 8 one. You'll be stuck with a few choices of power 8 swords for a long time before you get the next, a power 10, and so on.)
4. Also as support of the previous objectives, the Status Effects are being revamped to make them more relevant. (With this I don't necessarily mean "more  powerful.")


The two most important ASMs I'll be employing are the Brave to Fury (in which physical attacks are calculated like magical attacks, using Fury) and the ability to equip two Support Abilities, using the slot of Movement Abilities.

Without further ado, I present you the table of Generic Jobs:



UPDATE: Here's the table of generic skillsets for the first 8 jobs. More coming soon:



Some notes:

General: You'll notice that most classes have innate movement skills. Movement skills, with the exception of a few ones that raise Move and/or Jump are no longer learnable and are endemic to classes. You want a spellcaster that can safely blast away from his secluded pool of lava where no enemy can possibly reach? Well, you'll have to make him a Monk for that. Similarly, you'll notice that most tier 3 and up classes have certain status inmunities. Status immunities will now be much more rarely acquirable via equipment, encouraging you to use certain classes at certain battles regardless of power because the edge they provide against statuses. Same for elemental affinity (in this case, "affinity" has the effect of "strengthening" actions of the user that involve that element and "halving" enemy actions employing that element. Each job will also have an "ultimate" skill that only unlocks at job level 8.
Cadet: The most basic of classes. Comprises the old Squire and Chemist and represents the bar against which stats are judged accordingly in other jobs. Since ITEM is a especial skillset that cannot be combined with another, I'm totally getting rid of curative items. Cadets can now mix their own medicine with ingredients represented by Gil. Remember how I said Gil will be a commodity? Well, I assure you that the riddance of physical, acquirable healing items won't mean that you can go crazy with infinite healing effects without depleting your funds really quick. By the way, "Handgear" stands for a new weapon category that includes Knuckles, Gloves, Gauntlets, Claws, etc.
Enchanter: The "magical" branching path's start. A red mage of sorts, can learn the first level of black and white magic spells, plus haste and some physical attacks. Mostly mediocre stats, but it has the best MP growth of all classes, which along with the versatility of effects at his command and the invaluable innate Move-MP up, keep it fresh even in the late game.
Warrior: The starter of the "physical" branch. It uses most of the old Knight abilities, plus a few new tricks and has the highest HP growth of all the classes, plus a very good multiplier. That, coupled with overall decent stats and a powerful innate support skill, makes him attractive even without an endemic movement ability.
Priest: The old White Mage minus the first level spells, plus some new offensive tricks. Movement, PA and speed stats are quite bad, but they compensate with great MP and MA stats and the best HP growth among the infamously fragile magic classes. The Gablados Church demands that Priests keep their head uncovered before God, so they lost the ability to equip hats. They can now wield sticks to make up for it.
Wizard: The old Black Mage minus the first level spells, plus an improved array of elemental magic with diverse area of effect. Absurdly fragile and sporting the worst mobility, they compensate with the best combined magical stats, enforced by innate Focus.
Monk: Pretty much the old Monk, with more balanced and specialized abilities and great (if not noteworthy) stats. In their search to get rid of all vanity, they've lost their ability to equip hats (even Ribbons!) and accessories. However, to help modesty, they now can wear clothes and robes and have incorporated a couple weapons in their repertory.
Marksman: Marksmen now have a modified THROW skill that only work with bows, allowing them to shoot a variety of arrows with different elemental/status properties.
Berserker: A new class, representing the evolution of Monks that let their thirst for battle overcome their search for enlightenment. They have ridiculously high PA growth and multiplier, but their abilities are slightly prone to miss due recklessness. However, when they hit, the enemy is in for more than simple damage. Clothes and robes keep getting torn in the throes of their fury and armor is too restricting, so they simply eschew body protection at all, leaving to their trusty helmets and shields (which they are known to use offensively) the task of protecting him. His weapon attacks and abilities cause knockback with a high chance, so get on with defenestrating those enemies!
Champion: A warrior that has decided to give purpose to his battle thirst and becomes a mage knight. Has the best of the old Knight abilities, plus a few of the "Holy Knight" swordskills, and additional tricks. A bit less powerful than a Berserker but with less weaknesses, they are one of the two generic classes capable of equipping Knight Swords.
Hunter: Marksmen that learned to employ their skills to live in the wild, hunting for survival and communing with nature. They have the innate, unlearnable support ability of Geomancy (Elemental,) which now appears as another command in the Act menu under "Attack", freeing their skillset to have an assortment of different abilities. One of the three classes capable of wielding a gun.
Rogue: The old Thief with added damage abilities. Took a big hit in the PA and HP department, but now has the best speed growth, and second to best evasion, which combined with the innate Reflexes, allows him to go back and forth between the enemy ranks, while avoiding damage.
Cosmologists: Mages that focus in the studies of Time and Space, they comprise the old Time Mage and Summonner, keeping only the most useful of their combined skillsets. They have by far the best Speed stats among the infamously slow magic classes and the biggest pool of weapons to choose from.
Warlock: Wizards gone "grimdark." They specialize in necromancy and forbidden arts and have several abilities that cleverly combine status effects to make of both allies and enemies the warlock's personal zombie army. They have the best MA stats of all the classes, balanced with several of the worst stats. It's the only generic class with three elemental affinities.
Spiritualist: The fusion of Oracles and Mediators, taking the best of both worlds and getting the best combined stats among magic classes. They also observe the tradition of keeping their heads uncovered but now can wield Harps and Staves. Units killed by Spiritualists always crystallize, never leaving a chest behind.
Animist: Our version of blue mage and the inheritor of Tame. In addition to the array of monster skills they can learn, they have a few abilities that work on monsters, including a monster-only invite.
Assassin: A replacement of sorts for Ninjas. Their abilities are focused in causing instant death or statuses that lead to it, and as such they have the worst PA stats along with the Warlock, but the best evasion and mobility. To aid said mobility and discretion, they eschew the use of hats, but they are the only other class capable of wielding guns.
Paladin: In a word, tanks. They have the best HP multiplier of all classes, coupled with innate Defense Up. Their abilities protect, buff and heal allies (albeit less efficiently than priests,) while still having great offense. This is where Jump ended, now as an innate unlearnable action, like Throw and Geomancy. Since it can't be learned, it's capped at 5 horizontal, 8 vertical. Their innate support skill Crusade buffs human allied units in adjacent tiles, like a human-Monster Skill of sorts. Paladins are opposed to killing so units KO'd by them never crystallize nor become chests.
Pirate: His rather ho-hum stats for a tier 4 class may trick you into believe it's the weakest. However, in a world where Gil is a premium commodity, his damage+Gil acquisition skills will keep you afloat. Additionally, this is now the only class able to "invite" human units to your party and one of the two able to wield the powerful new weapon class, Sabers. Units killed by Pirates always leave a chest behind, never crystallize.
Samurai: Pretty much unchanged from Vanilla, they now have worse PA and better MA stats to support their Iaido without having to dabble in magical classes for too long. Their new innate support ability, Bushido, honor-binds them to the battle preventing their spirits to depart their bodies after being KO'd.
Performer: Dancer and Bard combined in an unisex class. This is undoubtedly the most versatile class and where the beloved Two Swords ability (still learnable!) ended. As such, it's the most difficult class to unlock.


How can you help?: I intend to do as much coding as it's possible, but since I'm a total novice, all advice will be greatly appreciated. Suggestions of resources, tutorials or examples of mods doing similar things to what I'm attempting, will help me very much. New ideas that you see fit to the previously stated objectives, will be also welcomed. Last, but not least, I'll seriously need help with spriting. Any kind soul that feels like attempting to create sprites for the Warlock, Berserker, and Pirate classes will have my eternal gratitude.

Joseph Strife

Man, you sure have a great idea there, a very explained mod that, at least for me, seems to be realy promissing, i can't help you directly coz i'm already in a project, but i'll give some tips and ideas often. I eager to see this done, i liked very much your ideas and they seems real good.
Your new classes are very good. Do you have something to tell us about the story? will it be left untouched or you plan to ravamp it a bit?
Anyways, keep up the good work and be sure to expect help from other people around. I wish the best of luck for you and your project, i hope i can play it in little time. :D
Gaffgarion: It's in the contract!
Ramza: Does your contract says: "When you find a former squire, that now is a Holy knight that has kidnapped a princess, in a bridge by a waterfall fighting a brigade you are supposed to kill everybody that helps him!"
Gaffgarion: ... Sure!
Ramza: ... Let me see your contract...
Gaffgarion: ... No...


Pylgrim

November 03, 2011, 01:08:38 am #2 Last Edit: November 12, 2011, 12:00:37 am by Pylgrim
Thank you! :D After a lot of discussion in the IRC channel, I made some improvements to my previous post, more relevantly to the Marksmen. I've been working a lot in the chart of generic skills but it sure is a time consuming process! So I'm breaking it in parts as I progress which I'll be adding to the first post:

Some notes:

  • The old "Holy Water" item ability is now moved to the Cleric and is capable of healing a much wider array of ailments.

  • Several abilities now have a chance of causing related status effects as part of a bid to make them more relevant.


Durbs

November 05, 2011, 10:52:42 am #3 Last Edit: November 05, 2011, 10:55:35 am by Durbs
How do you intend to do the Paladin giving adjacent units effects? That sounds either impossible or requirant of ASMs, and if you're a novice then good luck.

Same thing with having the pirate always cause a treasure drop. I'm sure that one's possible, but it would require ASMs.
  • Modding version: PSX

Lydyn

You'd have to use an ASM for the Paladin support skill, but the pirate one is easy - just make them immune to Crystal. It makes it so they always turn into a chest, or it should.

Durbs

Quote from: Lydyn on November 05, 2011, 12:59:04 pm
You'd have to use an ASM for the Paladin support skill, but the pirate one is easy - just make them immune to Crystal. It makes it so they always turn into a chest, or it should.


But then he has one (Spiritualist) that always turns them to crystal.
  • Modding version: PSX

Lydyn

Read it wrong. Yes, that'd require an ASM hack, most likely.

Pylgrim

Right. As I said, several of these ideas I'm just throwing them out there without knowing their viability at all, precisely so more experienced coders could tell me if they are worth the amount of work they'd involve. For example, I did know that there was such a thing as Crystal/Chest immunity but not that there's no straight way of implementing each of them for different abilities in the same assembly. Similarly, I figured that the Paladin's ability could be worked from something like Monster Skill, which triggers flags on adjacent monsters. Obviously all of this coming from my imagination rather than actual coding knowledge. That's where you step in, guys, to keep me straight and realistic. :)

Next skills update coming up soon.

Pylgrim

I've just updated the first post with more skillsets and fixed some details of the previous. I'll now be updating the first post always to keep a centralized source. Thanks again go to Raven, Eternal, and FDC, which continued advice has allowed me to refine my ideas and put them down like this.

Notes on this update:
Arrows are now items! Using a modified THROW skillset they can be fired from your inventory as long as the unit has equipped a bow. Most of them will be purchaseable in shops or are easily found in chests instead of the old Soft, Holy Water, Echo Grass, etc. However, the rarer and more powerful can only be caught from high leveled enemy Marksmen or obtained at Move-Find Locations or battle rewards.
Wizards now have two sets of each non-holy, non-dark element with varying ranges and AoEs. Most of them have a small chance of causing an additional status. Wizards do keep their ability to transform people in frogs, though!

Hope you find it interesting, and as always, criticism, suggestions and corrections are very welcomed and keep in mind this is a first draft. It's probable that some of these skills won't be possible or practical to do and so, I've strieved to create a high number of them so even if I have to scratch some, there won't be aa want for them. Thanks for reading!