Final Fantasy Hacktics

Bait their Banishes with Ramza.  Get them to kill his MP instead while they hang back.  It would risk getting a gameover with his defeat though...

Sharking Alphonse into a ghost would break the game, I'm pretty sure.  As in crash at the first cutscene I come across after doing so.

I'm well aware of all the secrests in the game.  I'm mainly just trying to decide if I want to go through so much trouble to use Ghosts and Dragon Zombies all the way through the game, or if I should just make due until I can do the Quest that gets me the spell to make them.

But that doesn't matter anyways, for now.  Someone's finally talked me into trying Minecraft and I'm pretty sure it's going to wind up eating my soul or something.

I didn't read the other replies, so forgive me if my advice is redundant.

1.)  Yes

Name the patches Disk 1 and Disk 2, have a Readme instructing them to name their ISO's accordingly, and put in a message about needing to save and boot up Disk 2 at that point.  You can style the message after all those older (and some not so old) RPGs that have multiple disks.

2.)  Undecided

I despise grinding, but as long as the gil flows fast enough that the PCs aren't lagging behind in equipment quality, then it shouldn't be a problem.  Making expendables more expensive helps curb spamming them too, but if someone could figure out how to limit how many the player could carry without serious bugs, that would be preferable.  Or rather a mix of the two would be.

3.)  Yes and No.

I love having to make tough strategic decisions on how to outfit my characters, but making ALL the items in the game perpetually useful would ultimately lower the amount of items in the game, at least to avoid duplicates.  Make tiers, and make a few equal choices each tier.
Maybe make the items able to compete to some small degree with the tier above them, such as, I don't know, limiting certain bonuses to every other tier so that if you REALLY want that advantage, you'll have to pick the lower tier.  Not too sure about doing that, though.

4.)  Conditional

If you can make them true to their originals to some degree and avoid making them useless or overpowered, then sure, go for it.  Please do NOT make Luso a Ramza clone though.  I'd prefer taking some ideas from FFTA2 classes instead.  Parivir shouldn't be too hard to mimick.

5.)  Conditional

Can you make Parry worth using compared to other abilities of its type?  Then no, don't make it innate.
Are you unable to make it appealing compared to other more awesome abilities?  Then yes, make it innate.

6.)  Undecided/No

I prefer Defend lowering damage rather than helping evasion.  That said, accessability is more important.

7.)  Undecided

That very question has made me think that if/when I make a patch that I just want to elliminate exp gain and leveling at all, or start everyone off at max level.
Just... do what makes sense.  Pick whatever fits into the plot to the point that it seems intuitive, if you can.

I would get that, Vanya, but I'm currently a little broke.  :/

Jon, I forgot to mention, those numbers are averages.  They can and will vary based on how good the character's luck is when leveling up.  Which is why recruiting soldiers on the last day with the best luck they can get is awesome.
I think you're right about Alphonse being immune to statuses.  Now that you've mentioned it, I'm wanting to recall that I read that was indeed true at some point.
Why is Knight better for finances?  Equipment availability?
I STILL want to know how you got past the undead.
Isn't the name "Fafnir", not "Farfanir"?

You're making me want to play the game again, only this time I think it might be fun to do an undead playthrough.  Hrm...  The game is most of the way over before you can get the necromancy spell, and I have no idea where my old Action Replay is.  I suppose procuring a digital copy and using VBA's gameshark utility could work.  But then, the undead are best made AFTER the character has lived a full "life" up to level fifty and THEN made undead as their growths suck oh so horrifically.  What do you think, play through normally until I can make an undead army, or use a cheat device to get the necromancy spell early on and then grind through training to get the entire party to level 50 and start making them undead?
I figure it shouldn't skew the difficulty much since I'd level Alphonse too and that doesn't do a thing to net me good equipment.  I COULD just not grind them to 50, but then they'd suck throughout the game and only serve to infuriate me.
Oh, and I will not include Liches in such a playthrough as they're just cheap, don't mechanically count as undead, and would defeat the purpose of using unconventional troops.  I might use Angel Knights as support units though...
It amuses me that Warlock would likely be best for such a playthrough.  Or Wizard for a long range spell as well rather than only a couple undead supports...

"apparently he's balanced the system"
This is what I'm most curious about.  So having less weight won't make your characters exponentially better, hopefully?  And bows won't rule the day?

QuoteI will from now on go as a Dragoon with Volcaneous Spear (once I get it) and a bunch of curing herbs.

Hah, well, the biggest reason to use Knight instead of Dragoon is that their growths are almost identical but Knight's is slightly superior (in HP, if I remember correctly).  Maybe use a Dragoon for the last fights in the game so you can use the special spear to its fullest potential, but you'll need the best growths you can get to come out on top with only Alphonse.
Knight is the best for Strength growths, Ninja is the best for Agility, Cleric for Intelligence, and Valkyrie/Warlock for balanced growths.
Special characters with unique classes tend to have unparalleled growths, so changing them is stupid.  Special characters without tend to have a good headstart on generics due to never leveling as Soldiers, Ivanna in particular, so you can either have absurd Strength (for Ivanna) or absurd Agility (for Shiven) or you can swap them to Ninja or Knight respectively at some point for more balanced physical stats.  Orson is the exception as he has bad luck on the day you recruit him, and Archers have really bad growths.  So... he sucks.

I forget how to answer to get the "S Start" in stats, but 10 HP, 10 Str, and 4 Agi is really good compared to the others due to not wasting any points in MP, but since there are no Int boosting emblems at all, "I Start" answers are the best for spell casters with 10 MP, 10 Int, and 4 Agi.

I would personally go with the 23 Warlock, 20 Cleric, and 6 Ninja, though I have no idea how you answered the questions.  That build, when using Warlock, would provide you an MP costly power attack so you aren't constantly using up your HP to bring the hurt, and you could also take a couple support spells with you to try and incapacitate some of the enemies with Paralysis or Sleep so you wouldn't have to deal with them all at once, or Teleport for a quick getaway, etc.  The weakness is that it would NOT provide you with a ranged attack and it is incapable of using the heal spell.  Knight is definitely superior in that regard, though only so versatile in preparation, not in actual combat.  Of course, it can use a bow just as well as a Knight can.  And really, once you reach level 50, growths no longer matter for what class you currently use, so you can use those stats with any of them.

For the undead levels, all I can think of is turning him Cleric, giving him Banish, then running like hell and chomping down on MP healing items until he can start banishing them one by one.  I usually just make Eleanor a Cleric so she learns her special ability ASAP and then use THAT on the undead, but... you can't do that.

There's not enough contrast in the chest or hair, and why do you have yellow gloves?  Find a sprite with bare arms and see if you can use its arms or adapt yours to look similar.  That will free up some colors too.  For the hair, you'll need a lot more shades of gray from what it is now.  I'm not really sure how many though.

I think he means it's slow to get characters promoted to something other than Soldier.  It's not really that slow or hard to do when you KNOW what you're doing, but... a first time player would likely take a while to unlock the good stuff.

Meh, unless you're desperate for spell slots, Ninjas and one or two Clerics are the way to go until you unlock things like Knight and Swordmaster.  Have a level one ally wade into some water in training mode, have a Cleric keep them alive, and then pepper them with a short bow.  Five successful hits in a row is easy, especially if you abuse terrain element alignments, and it nets you some bonus AGI really early, which is a huge help to getting Ninja in the first few levels.  Cleric is the best shortcut for spellcasters, however, and getting a soldier to become a Cleric takes quite a bit longer...

The game's real problem is that it is over by the time you finally get to play around with Liches and Angel Knights.

What class are you using for Alphonse for the SCC and what stat leaning are you going with?  Seems to me an AGI heavy Alphonse would be the easiest in order to dodge all the attacks, but a Cleric Alphonse could dish out some serious hurt with the holy projectile spell as well as keep himself alive with Heal and that status curing spell.  Ninja/Swordmaster Alphonse would easily be mauled by spells if the enemy has a lot of casters (especially the fights against summoners), Cleric Alphonse would be squishy to physical attacks but have the most potent self-preservation, and Knight Alphonse would be durable but would either have to go without a ranged attack (unless you went with bows such as Crescente or the Sherwood set) or without healing beyond consumable items.
If I remember the name right, Knight with Heal, Lachesis, and the Sherwood set would be fantastic for hit and run, and the spell could make up for the self-inflicted damage from Lachesis, though no matter what setup you have, a shield is a MUST for some of the latter levels if you're only going to use him.  Petrification would be an instant game over.
Oh, right, and the fourth alternative, Warlock.  A balanced build could dodge decently often, shrug off spells easier, and swap between sword strikes, a powerful point-blank spell, and some debilitating or utility spells.  Warlock is my favorite choice for Alphonse in normal games because he's plain and simply the best at it, and high INT makes the Barren Soul spell compete with some of the stronger attacks in the game.

SCC?  I'd likely go with Cleric or Knight.  Or some combination.  I'd want to make sure Heal was available on the longer fights, and the holy projectile is effective against almost everything in the game.
By the way... how the hell do you get through the undead levels with only alphonse?

Interesting bit of trivia:  The ONLY advantage Dragoons have over Knights is the Spear specialization.  Knights are superior in almost every other way.  (Maybe not in movement.)

I finally got Dragon Age: Origins.  So late, right?

The game is overrated, definitely.  But it's still fairly awesome.  The choices are deceptive, appearing more complex than they actually are, but there are still far more variables in what can happen in this game than any other I've ever played.  It doesn't have the kind of freedom that people make it sound like it has, but the game makers did achieve a fairly healthy balance in their designs, I think.  Making the game truly as complex as its hype suggests would be fantastic, but there's no way the budget/deadline would have made it, not to mention they already went above and beyond most other games I've ever heard of.

Saddly it suffers from as many bugs and unfinished content as Final Fantasy VII.  Thankfully player-made fixes are readilly available and even accomodated by the PC game.  Bugged abilities, item attributes, item locations, and more all have fixes out there made by dedicated players who examined the code closely and only altered such things when they confident they knew what the original intent was for each.  The only bugs that I'm not sure were fixed entirely are the companion conversations and events, though most of them are fixed.  I've seen fixes for Morrigan, Zevran (I think), and some for Alistair who normally doesn't respond properly to your choices at the Landsmeet.

And of course I'm a sucker for balance mods and balanced for-fun mods.  I can look up the names of them for anyone who wants, but for the moment, I've forgotten the names.  Anyways, there's one balance mod in particular that overhauls every ability (or wait... I'm not sure if it does anything to Shale's abilities...), fixes the bugs along the way, balances them all so that there isn't one superior ability worth learning more than the others (at least with the same "difficulty" to reach), and gives very thorough documentation to the point of comparing the old and new stats for all of the abilities.
There's another one that adds separately obtained and automatically awarded Specializations and two classes that I tried out for the sole reason that one of the classes is Warlock.  I can't say I'm all that interested in the added specializations.  It was fun, it's mostly true to its source, and it isn't horridly overpowered.  That said, it's a little bugged, giving Warlock a clone of the Spirit Healer specialization is kind of silly in comparison to its source, and it doesn't seem to want to play nice with another mod that allows you complete control over your characters' starting stats, skills, and abilities (as opposed to having a skill/ability point or two spent on something that does not necessarily fit into your plan).  Quite honestly I'm torn as playing a Warlock is quite interesting, but the mods it is incompatible with make a huge difference in my enjoyment of the game.

I have a growing desire to move to Switzerland.  I never hear about idiocy on their part.

...from each game?  Um...
FFI:  Bahamut
FFII:  Cid
FFIII:  Bahamut
FFIV:  Bahamut
FFV:  Boco
FFVI:  Maduin
FFVII:  Cid, for the line with the tea.
FFVIII:  Um... Bahamut?
FFIX:  Vivi
FFX:  Auron.  I can't help it!
FFXI:  Um... Bahamut was in that game, right?
FFXII:  Balthier.  I can't help but like him either.
FFXIII:  Sahz.  He seemed to be the most psychologically real of the characters.
FFT:  Ramza the Screaming Squire.  I just like saying that phrase.
FFTA:  Um... the guy that invented the anti-law cards was somewhat interesting.  Sort of.
FFTA2:  Er... Frimelda I suppose, but even she was a little lacking in depth.
FFX-2:  Shinra
FFVII Advent Children:  Tifa
FFVII Dirge of Cerberus:  Vincent.  You saw that coming.
FFVII Crisis Core:  Zack.  You saw that coming too.
Revenant Wings:  ...do I have to?  They all suck.  I'll go with Bahamut.
Dissidia:  Onion Knight for turning ADHD into a super power.
Crystal Chronicles:  The miasma.  Destroy that world faster, damnit!
Final Fantasy Spirits Within:  ...again, they all suck.  That didn't even have Bahamut for me to use as a copout.  How about calling that satellite thing Ultima since it is so similar to the Ivalice one?  Yeah... that works.

Never played any of the others, so I'm just going to say Bahamut, Chocobo, or some random dude for the rest of them.

And just for good measure:
Chrono Trigger:  Whichever sage it was at the End of Time.
Chrono Cross:  Glen

NOW I know why people like Eternal Wind so much.  Dang, that's awesome.

Every man, woman, and Dome for him/her/itself!

A special human style sprite has been made for Mercenaries.

The one near the bottom is it, I think:
http://www.ffhacktics.com/sprites.php?p ... perpage=20

Percival probably fits well enough into the setting actually.

Quote from: "Shade"

Quote from: "Kaijyuu"

Quote from: "Samuraiblackbelt"I'm not sure how serious to take this whole thing

I really hope no one is taking it seriously at all.

I hope people take it seriusly, cause it's get alot funnier.

Mine is a very badly drawn grenade.  You won't miss it.

Unless some strange stuff is done with formula modifications, normal skills can only give equal chances to every status that can be inflicted.  You want a small chance of Death Sentence, you have to set it to Randomly cause one of several statuses (including Death Sentence).  You can't have a high chance of one status and a low chance of another status.  Or I suppose you could, but that would take duplicating statuses (like changing Wall into a complete replication of Blind).  I think LD has something planned already for all the statuses, and that would be FAR more trouble than it's worth.

The only part of the story worth anything in FFTA2 are the longer sidequest chains, specifically the one involving the that ninja and his allies.  The main plot itself was rather horrid.  They REALLY could have done more with the whole Heritor bit too.  It ends on a rather ambiguous note, you having learned nothing about them, and the final skill flat out sucks.  I mean, sure, it has its uses, but a melee range, single target regen is not very impressive, even if it doesn't have an MP cost.  Spending every one of her turns just applying regen to everyone is just wasteful.  If it effected a somewhat wide area around her, it would at least be a good opening move.

Eh, most of the time what ruins tactical RPGs are silly little balance oversights and a failure to keep the difficulty curve from flat-lining long before the max level.  You would think that eventually one of them would produce a tactical RPG that is able to stand on its own without fan tweaks to fix the balance...

Making sure Alphonse was at the front in every fight helped difficulty in Knight of Lodis (enemies scaled solely to his level).
Wild ARMs XF managed to keep some difficulty in the game up until the final chapter.  Then it was like a balloon had popped...  They ceased providing strategic puzzles and instead just threw randomized enemies at you with a bit higher stats than the average enemies up to that point.  I suppose using sub-par equipment would help, but really, you shouldn't have to purposely play poorly to get a challenge...
The first two Disgaea games should have had less grinding in the post-games.  (Never did play the third.  No PS3.)
The Fire Emblem games offer a challenge but can get TOO cruel (they could have just made them unusable in the next fight instead of permanently dead...), and the lack of freedom in characters makes me want to put this series and games like it into their own separate sub-genre.  I much prefer the customizable job system ones.