Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hello there!

I went top speed to Parted Ways boards and forgot to introduce myself here. *extreme inverted facepalm with moonwalk*

Been a fan of FFT since it's release, when I was still at school age and got dragged here by my nostalgia. Actually, I was looking for mods to make the game fun, because even if my nostalgia is big enough to make me replay FFT, I think I wouldn't play it through the end AGAIN. So, mods might make it interesting to play it in different fashions, with different points of view, different bugs and different tantrums.

Hopefully I'll be around regularly so I can make a mod myself. Until then...Cheers!

Hello there. I hope the title will suffice.

I'm new around here and hacking stuff as well, and I find these things pretty much interesting, specially when it comes to bring some new life to the games we most loved.

I was reading things here and there and I got curious regarding three things that I don't actually know if can be done with the hacking tools and codes you guys use, so I wanted to know if there's some similar mechanisms or even if it's possible anyway:

1. Immolation-like aura effect: e.g. you cast Immolation on yourself, and all surrounding enemies will be damaged each turn (for 'each turn' I mean every time any character does an action OR damage can be input only over each character when it's one's turn - affected) BEFORE they do anything, act or move or wait or blink. What comes first in my mind is a new ailment entitled Immolated or Burning, that would be inflicted on all surrounding targets, triggering damage following this and that parameter. Is this right? But this ailment should immediately be dispelled as soon as the surrounding targets move away or when Immolation Aura is turned off or gets away from range.

2. JUMP with larger AoE: is it possible making JUMP hitting a larger area, like range 1 or 2? And adding animation or multiple hitting properties? For example: there is this special movement from Star Ocean 2 called Spicule (first thing in the video) that I'd like to make as a similar ability for a Dragooner/Lancer, something of the sort, only you get the picture. The idea is having a large damaging area when Jump lands. The other idea is when the Jump finishes, it'll damage once and immediately after, as a 'shockwave effect', an animation follows damaging target(s) again, making it look as if it's the same ability.

3. Multiple-hit summoning: like we have in FFX with Anima, for example, or FFVII Knights of the Round. What I think at first is a similar mechanism as we see in Rafa's Truth skills, but making each hit have a different animation, in a way that it'll all look linked, as if they are all part of a single spell, so I wondered...

4. Samurai-dash like skill: it's that trademark ability we see in samurai-style stories - samurai dashes through the target, and gets to the other side. Then the target feels the blow after that. On this game, I mean this skill to actually be suitable to hit a line of units (like Kikuichimonji does), but the Samurai would have to MOVE to a suitable panel at the end of that line. If not possible, then the skill wouldn't be allowed to be performed. Plus, this ability can only be performed by spending two actions such as MOVE and SKILL/ACTION. If the Samurai already moved, then one would not be able to use this skil and vice-versa. In addition to that, it would mean new sprites for the Samurai to make that movement? Hum, perhaps not, only the animation of an ordinary attack, then disappearing and reapearing on the other panel, and a beautiful animation of slashing effect on all targets left behind.

Thanks in advance!

******
I cheated! 5th question:

5. Ailment that breaks EXP and JP gain: is there a way to make this ailment work in our current modding options? It renders target unable to gain Exp or JP when taking actions.

A question: the Fury and Will (B/F) modifiers still boost themselves proportionally like in the original, when casting spells and the such? I think the proportion was + 5 boost in battle -> +1 permanent.

I see. Really couldn't recall that crystals meant all stuff at once. Better then. haha

Yes, in a long term thought, stealing equipment is a good way to earh some gil, given that we get none in random battles afais. Vanish, I gather, will add transparent and it's self casting? The other units are doing good so far. I see many interesting supportive and reaction abilities, so there are some awesome combinations.

T H I E V E ' S  F O R T

Well, this one had not anything that I'd call bug. Only a strange behaviour from one of the Magus. She's the one that's on the top of the rocks, on the right hand side of the default position. She went as far as possible from my party, disregarding any action she could have done to attack me, whilst all the other enemies interacted in the battle normaly.

Miluda, I suggest that you keep her original pixels (if possible), given that now every knight has a helm-like sprite. She could keep her old visuals to give her a unique feel, also to match her portrait.

GENERAL OBSERVATION

• Either in random battles or in storyline battles, whenever I pick a crystal of a fallen enemy, regardless the ability I choose, my hero ends up lerning all abilities (dunno if all of them from all jobs, but all that are from the same job list - but by ALL, I mean all that the crystal offers as options for learning). For example, I picked up a crystal that could teach me Steal Armor, Steal Weapon, Steal Accessory. My hero had not any of these. I picked up Armor, and then, after battle, I went to learn other things and all three skills were learned.



• The description of Piety says that it reacts whenever one is magically damaged. But it is activating whenever you cast anything on that unit. It reacted when I cast shell or when I cast protect, so this might be an unbalancing feature.



• SUGGESTION: Brigand is showing to be too strong due the easy means to acquire stealing skills, plus the put to sleep ability. I mean this because you made the game so far where units are dependable on equipment to have numbers in HP and MP, which can balance the game itself, but if you steal a Helm or an Armor, the victim is likely to become too vulnerable. I would boost the cost to learn Steal Armor, Steal Helm, Steal Weapon. The other two I don't see much problem of being cheaper, given that they are most likely what boosts one evasion and protection, so it's a way to balance itself having easier means to counter attack (by stealing).

That's that for now.

I played the Japanese FFTA (I'm not really familiar to the language, so most of things I had to guess, so I had a tough time with those Judges...).

Brigand so far is eye candy with all the steal abilities. I'll play tonight to have a better view on them. Barbarians seem fun. ^^

Oh, by throwing knife I've meant that skill Thousands of Blades, I just forgot de name...Thousand Knives!

Yeah, but I only know some of those japanese terms through Naruto, such as Fuuton, Katon, Mokuton, for example. These are almost like trademarks. I liked those because they are very familiar to me.

Well, that I couldn't check, but I might test again and see it myself. There's just many equipments with many effects that I need to be more cautious (*setting support ability: Beta Attention*).

Continuing...either in DORTER and the DESERT storyline battles, the only strange things that happened were related to what is already descripted in the first post, glitches in events, Throwing Knife with wrong targeting, oh, remembered something on the menu, but I'll test with other characters first - it's about a cape that actually increased 1 in MA and some evasion. But whenever I equipped and unequipped something on that character, instead of showing +1 MA, it showed -1 and the number started adding, becoming -2, -3, -4...but, when equipped, the values were all right, so it's just a matter of labelling. I'll take a screenshot of it when I get home.

Started playing with a Shinobi (naruto-fan here), Brigand and Barbarian.

Something I liked in the storyline battles is the scalation of levels of our NPCs, so we don't have problems with them becoming too weak if we decide leveling up here and there.  Something I didn't fancy much, though, is that we control NPCs. Having them out of reach was, somewhat, fun - because they love to mess up with our expectations.

Oh, well *blinks, blinks*, what I've meant for update is to know what in that list has been made already, or all of that is still missing? Knowing what's missing is what I want to know. So I can focus on something and start, feverishly and having spasms, spriting stuff here and there.

EDIT

Hum...got interested on Necromancers... *derp grin*

Quote from: Panda_Tar on March 07, 2012, 08:11:18 am
- It was impossible using, actually, hitting a Freelancer after some rounds with Ramza. I'll add a screenshot later showing this. Even when I tried to attack from the back, side, front or whatever, the cursor attack showed as if I was trying to attack through something, like when we try to hit someone behind a wall with a crossbow. If I attacked, the attack would be blocked or evaded, but then it SHOULD show the damage input and chance to hit being a melee attack.

This is the sreenshot I spoke of. It started happening just after Ramza missed a 99% chance to reduce another target's CT to 0. I almost had a seizure. After that, he wouldn't be allow to lay melee damage on that freelancer.

Quote from: Eternal248 on December 18, 2010, 08:43:54 am
This topic is reserved for discussion for sprites to be used in FFT: Parted Ways. Currently, sprites being used are the following:

Sprites Used
-Viking Female (Created by Lijj, used for the female Viking job class)
-Tonberry (Created by Kagebunji for FFT, original design by Square-Enix, used for the Tonberry monster jobs)
-Werewolf (Created by Kagebunji for FFT, original design by Atlus, used for the Werewolf monster jobs)
-Female Cadet (Created by Kagebunji, used for the female Freelancer job class)
-Demetrius (Created by Kagebunji, used for Gerard the Beastmaster)
-Male Rogue (Created by R999, used for the male Brigand job class)
-Female Rogue (Created by R999, used for the female Brigand job class)
-Generic Male Warlock (Created by R999, used for the male Magus job class)
-Generic Female Warlock (Created by Lijj, used for the female Magus job class)
-Cannoneer (Created by Jon, temporarily being used for the male Viking job class)
-Generic Male White Mage (Created by Lijj, used for the male Devout job class)
-Generic Female White Mage (Created by Lijj, used for the female Devout job class)
-Guardian (Created by Kagebunji, used for the male Paladin job class)
-Scholar (Created by Jimmyjw88, used for the male Scholar job class)
-Lucavi Follower (Created by Kagebunji, temporarily being used for the male Necromancer job class)
-Melodia Fenzol (Created by Zozma, used for the female Performer job class)

Sprites Currently Being Made
-Lamia
-Female Elementalist
-Male Elementalist

Sprites Still Needed
-Male Freelancer
-Female Paladin
-Male Berserker
-Female Berserker
-Male Viking
-Male Psion
-Female Psion
-Male Necromancer
-Female Necromancer
-Male Performer
-Male Alchemist
-Female Alchemist
-Female Scholar
-Male Harbinger
-Female Harbinger
-Templar (Male only)
-Assassin (Female only)
-Quinn (Ecclesian Sage)
-Rad

If you want to help out in making some of these sprites, go for it. Any suggestions are welcome.

Can you update it? I might even help here, given that I'm familiar with sprite editing to some extend. ^^ Just need to practice a bit.

Well, I'd like to say that I like the...new coinance system. Pretty cool to think on it. I also thought interesting having simplified potion to only 1 type (as far as I can see) and input those FFX based items, such as the Curtain family. Also, all the new items look important and situational, which is something I didn't see in the original, where we could perhaps NEVER use something like Maiden's Kiss (and how do you bottle a maiden's kiss, for that matter? oO), for example.

Item effects, cost and descriptions seem really nice so far and I'm also amused by how you rewrote the dialogs in the storyline (of course you seemed still not having changed anything on Bars dialogs, for 'Death Corps' name was visible at Rumors still, and I believe it's not an urgent matter either).

Double Exp seemed too cheap. But, given that much of our capabilities seem to depend on items and skills learned, I'm supposing that Leveling Up might not be that important, is that right?

Random battle can be hard! This is good. But killing monsters seemed a bit easier than expected. I think they can use some more defensive statuses, but I'll see on late game how that feels by.

Accordingly to the little I played yesterday, I got all of the following on a random battle on Mandalia, before moving to Sweegy Woods:

M A N D A L I A   P L A I N S
GRAPHICS

- In Mandalia, during the turn of almost any character of mine, when I openend the option for movement, the texture of some rocks kept 'trembling', a little. Dunno if that happens all the battles, but I only noticed on the random battle.

- Reflect didn't bounce protect cast on Ramza, only got reflected, but the spell didn't get anywhere. Is this how reflect works now?

- It was impossible using, actually, hitting a Freelancer after some rounds with Ramza. I'll add a screenshot later showing this. Even when I tried to attack from the back, side, front or whatever, the cursor attack showed as if I was trying to attack through something, like when we try to hit someone behind a wall with a crossbow. If I attacked, the attack would be blocked or evaded, but then it SHOULD show the damage input and chance to hit being a melee attack.

THOUSAND KNIVES

This was the most irregular thing that I noticed so far. There was a particular female freelancer that got the Oscar for messing up with that skill. I'm not 100% sure, but almost 90%, that this bug happened once in the storyline fight, mind you.

• It shows that the area to use this knife are 4 directions, up to 5 squares of range, in a cross-shaped area, is this it? Well, sometimes she would target an ally that was on the panel ajacent to that line, she did that many times during the random battle.


• When she did it the first time, it was the storyline battle, when we have a strandled panther, right? One freelancer attacked it and was in the front of it, that was standing on a rock on the far side of the map. She hit moved next, and targeted it outside the line. Even so, she SHOULD have hit the ally in front of panther in prior to the poor animal. It so happens that when the animal died in the third hit, the fourth hit landed on the allied freelancer. But both of them were not in the line supposed to be the AoE of that ability, but on a line parallel to it. Nothing alike happened until the end of the battle.


• But on the random battle, I started to notice because it was a bit too frequent. Something I wanted to ask is if you purposedly made this skill be able to self target the character? I'm asking this because that female freelancer, not happy with all the cheating he procured to far, performed this skill when she was standing on the middle of the map on my male freelancer, standing not only too far (corner of the screen), but on the diagonal position in relation to that wicked female freelancer. But to perform it, she targeted herself! And then I noticed that she would target herself whenever she cheated. I tried to do the same, to see if it simply chose the nearest enemy target if you tried to target yourself, but no, I always got hit by my throwing knives on...myself.


• It also shows the damage it can inflict even if the target is not suitable to take damage, i.e., behind any obstacle.

I actually lost this first random battle, but more because I forgot to buy potions for support. When 2 of my characters became crystals, I loaded the game. Some of the bugs mentioned on the first post happened, but very little. I got affected by Don't Act and I didn't see the ailment lable showing that, for example.

And...less important, of course, when reading the Cross Slash description by pressing select, a second page of explanation would prompt, but it was blank.

No bugs were noticed on Sweegy Woods battle. Beastmaster skills and inate worked perfectly, Lamias charmed Ramza. I just thought he was too heartless in his dialog regarding the animals (to kill them all!!) for his job.

How would I report bugs? Is this the way or should I write less? How to.

I had some issues, mainly regarding Thousand Blades skill. It was on a random fight at Mandalia. I'll explain later. Might get some sleep now.

Roger that. I used to have Mustadio around very much. Those aims of his were just too useful. ^^ Rafa and Malak...I tried to persevere with them, but in the end I used Rafa as something else and Malak went into oblivion.

*Bumps*
Has it been decided yet?

Well, I'll just keep having 4 regular followers as I usually did, so I'll have room for new story characters and see what you have stored regarding any new goodies. I'm sure that I might consider dumping someone off after a thought or two. 

You can also consider that Diabolos being gravity like being, he can damage and suck in units together, causing a PUSH effect 1 square towards the central point of the spell casting on all affected targets. This way you can plan strategies over AoE spellcasting, and due the pushing effect, it might also cancel abilities that are being charged... *dreaming happily*

Ah, I see, now I understand the mechanics you used there. Well, Diabolos can then decrease target's PA or MA, or even inflicting MP damage? This way you don't worry with elemental based stuff. Other Summonings can be inserted on another characters or relate them to item effects, if possible, but let's see what we currently have then on your design of spending magicite. I really like this idea, mind you. Micromanagement of mechanics rather than only MP cost or CT is always welcome, ihmo.

IC, then I'd stick with Dark Matter.