Ah I see, I thought that would just count as a second attack even without the "attack again" function, or otherwise tamper with standard damage calculations.
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FFTA/FFTA2 Hacking / Re: A new way to balance magic in FFTA2
January 09, 2022, 05:19:01 am
Yes, I'm well aware there are some balancing issues regarding Nu Mous in general and the strange MP system, I'm just trying to address the damage department. And perhaps I worded it poorly but when I was talking about intermediate spells I also meant Aero and Water in addition to the -ra ones.
The way I see it only the weakest/cheapest of spells (basic black magic, ninjutsu...) would guarantee the x0.5 multiplier because the way it is now at higher levels they're always more efficient in terms of MP usage, without even factoring things like Doublecast. Ninjutsu veils already have the negative multiplier in vanilla, but I would increase their base damage to compensate.
There's also the issue with summons, which are sort of tier 2.5. I gave them the friend/foe targeting back and increased their base damage to 80 (sounds like a lot but it in practice it isn't if you take away Blood Price + Doublecast cheese) while avoiding giving them the x2 treatment. Really, in my mod I just gave it to Flare, Holy, Gigaflare, Scathe and (Proto)Meteor in addition to the -ga spells and some of the boss uberskills.
Regarding the MP cost... Well, perhaps the tier 3 spells could have a summon-size area of effect like the level 4/-ja spells from FFT to justify their cost. With those multipliers in my tests Thundaga deals about 50% more damage than Thundara on average even at lower levels (base damage differences are really that negligible!), which I guess doesn't warrant having to wait an additional turn just for the damage increase. Still, a 50% increase in damage is much better than the whopping ~20 flat points of difference there's in vanilla.
The way I see it only the weakest/cheapest of spells (basic black magic, ninjutsu...) would guarantee the x0.5 multiplier because the way it is now at higher levels they're always more efficient in terms of MP usage, without even factoring things like Doublecast. Ninjutsu veils already have the negative multiplier in vanilla, but I would increase their base damage to compensate.
There's also the issue with summons, which are sort of tier 2.5. I gave them the friend/foe targeting back and increased their base damage to 80 (sounds like a lot but it in practice it isn't if you take away Blood Price + Doublecast cheese) while avoiding giving them the x2 treatment. Really, in my mod I just gave it to Flare, Holy, Gigaflare, Scathe and (Proto)Meteor in addition to the -ga spells and some of the boss uberskills.
Regarding the MP cost... Well, perhaps the tier 3 spells could have a summon-size area of effect like the level 4/-ja spells from FFT to justify their cost. With those multipliers in my tests Thundaga deals about 50% more damage than Thundara on average even at lower levels (base damage differences are really that negligible!), which I guess doesn't warrant having to wait an additional turn just for the damage increase. Still, a 50% increase in damage is much better than the whopping ~20 flat points of difference there's in vanilla.
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FFTA/FFTA2 Hacking / A new way to balance magic in FFTA2
January 07, 2022, 11:34:55 am
The damage scaling of magic in this game is very bad, mainly because the formula uses the power factor of a spell as an additive, which means that at higher levels when casters have high magick stats, the difference between spells like Thunder and Thundaga is laughable.
I found a partial fix to this issue: using damage multipliers on the spells! This is because the multiplier function affects final damage rather than just the inherent power of a skill. Of course, using anything higher than x2 results in way too much damage to ever be balanced, but in my experience adding a x2 multiplier to high end spells like Flare, Scathe or the -Ga ones along with them having less base power makes them actually worth it. This helps Nu Mous keep the pace in terms of damage, specially when pitted against the OP stuff other races have at their disposal.
The only issue I came across was with the "intermediate" spells, which in my opinion is the majority and includes stuff like Aqua and Aero. Sadly there's no x1.5 multiplier in the code so I just decided to stick with them relying on base damage just like the basic spells. In practice this is a bit wonky though, because the difference between Thunder and Thundara is considerable at lower levels but minimal at higher ones, and the opposite is true between Thundara (High BP, no multiplier) and Thundaga (Low BP, x2 multiplier). And adding a x0.5 multiplier to the very basic spells would make them practically useless at any level in my opinion... But maybe this setup could work:
Thunder - 6 MP, 20 BP, x0.5 damage
Thundara - 12 MP, 20 BP, x1 damage
Thundaga - 24 MP, 20 BP, x2 damage
Edit: After testing I think the following layout yields the best results, even if it looks weird behind the scenes:
Thunder - 6 MP, 60 BP, x0.5 damage
Thundara - 12 MP, 40 BP, x1 damage
Thundaga - 24 MP, 20 BP, x2 damage
Anyway I'm not sure if anyone is interested in this idea or even if someone already implemented it, but I wanted to share it nonetheless.
I found a partial fix to this issue: using damage multipliers on the spells! This is because the multiplier function affects final damage rather than just the inherent power of a skill. Of course, using anything higher than x2 results in way too much damage to ever be balanced, but in my experience adding a x2 multiplier to high end spells like Flare, Scathe or the -Ga ones along with them having less base power makes them actually worth it. This helps Nu Mous keep the pace in terms of damage, specially when pitted against the OP stuff other races have at their disposal.
The only issue I came across was with the "intermediate" spells, which in my opinion is the majority and includes stuff like Aqua and Aero. Sadly there's no x1.5 multiplier in the code so I just decided to stick with them relying on base damage just like the basic spells. In practice this is a bit wonky though, because the difference between Thunder and Thundara is considerable at lower levels but minimal at higher ones, and the opposite is true between Thundara (High BP, no multiplier) and Thundaga (Low BP, x2 multiplier). And adding a x0.5 multiplier to the very basic spells would make them practically useless at any level in my opinion... But maybe this setup could work:
Thunder - 6 MP, 20 BP, x0.5 damage
Thundara - 12 MP, 20 BP, x1 damage
Thundaga - 24 MP, 20 BP, x2 damage
Edit: After testing I think the following layout yields the best results, even if it looks weird behind the scenes:
Thunder - 6 MP, 60 BP, x0.5 damage
Thundara - 12 MP, 40 BP, x1 damage
Thundaga - 24 MP, 20 BP, x2 damage
Anyway I'm not sure if anyone is interested in this idea or even if someone already implemented it, but I wanted to share it nonetheless.
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FFTA/FFTA2 Hacking / Where can I get the FFTA2 Text Table?
May 08, 2019, 09:15:56 pm
I saw Eternal mentioning one in a couple of posts but I have no idea where to get it myself. I know there's a Text Editor now but the stuff I want to change (random names among them) isn't included in it yet so I have been trying to find out a way to do it with hex editing with no luck so far.
People obviously already used hex editing to change this game's text many times but I don't get where they got their information from, and I've been searching the forums for a while now. Probably I'm just missing something obvious and I'm sorry if that's the case, but I would appreciate the help.
People obviously already used hex editing to change this game's text many times but I don't get where they got their information from, and I've been searching the forums for a while now. Probably I'm just missing something obvious and I'm sorry if that's the case, but I would appreciate the help.
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FFTA/FFTA2 Hacking / Re: FFTA2 Text Editor, Feedback wanted.
May 07, 2019, 05:50:18 pm
I've also been waiting for an update to change the random name pool since I didn't find how to do it with a hex editor. There are instructions and offsets for FFTA names, but not for FFTA2 from what I've seen. I even tried to make the program work with unit names myself but since I have no idea of java coding I found this rather complicated. Otherwise this text editor was a lifesaver, specially with the included command list editor.
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