This guide is a
Work-In-Progress. I have posted about 20% of the things I wanted to write so far. Contribute your findings here or PM me if you wish for them to be added on here.
Katanas and Draw Outs Related-
Draw Out formulas on non Draw Out ability slots, the Item referenced for breaking (along with its associated break chance) is the first Katana (Asura Knife). Yes, you can break Asura Knives if Cure is set to Murasame's formula.
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Draw Out Katana break chance is based on the WP of the weapon in question. The higher the WP, the higher the break chance.
- Consequently, when Asura Knife's WP is set to 0, all abilities that use Draw Out formulas have an extremely low chance of displaying the "Broken" message (1 occurrence in over 150 attempts that I have tested). Furthermore, if the player's inventory has 0 Asura Knives, this "Broken" message will never be shown.
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Katana Draw Out skills in the Draw Out skillset with Action Menu Type set to Draw Out:
- Draw Out Ability Slots are hardcoded to break the Item by their Item ID. It does not matter if Katanas are of any other Item Type.
- Draw Out Ability Slots will 100% break the designated Item when a Non-Draw Out formula is used, though the "Broken Message" is never shown. [Thanks to DeadManWalking for testing this.]
- Draw Out Ability slots function as expected when using a proper Draw Out formula, it does not matter which one.
- Draw Out ability slots does not behave normally; they do not take accept MP usage, among other things that I could not remember. (needs more testing).
-The Draw Out ability slots can be freely manipulated if used inside another skillset, whether they are using a Draw Out formula or not.
Formula Related - Geomancy Ability slots when inside the Geomancy Skillset under Geomancy Action Menu Type:
- Some formulas do not work (all of the Multi Hit formulas can only hit once, regardless of its X value)
- They do not behave normally; they do not accept MP, CT, among other things.
- 100% status formulas (including 2D PA*(WP+Y)+100%) and Separate (Inflict Status)
- If only a single status is set, the proc chance for that status becomes 25%.
- If more than one status is set, the proc rate becomes 100% and will always reference the first status according to status Order.
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[Weapon Damage] formulas
- These formulas do not actually use the formula of your equipped weapon; it uses a hardcoded formula of the original game's although the real WP of your weapon is used. For example, if you change the Stick's formula to MP damage PA*WP, when using any Ability with a [Weapon Damage] formula (assuming Weapon Range OR Weapon Strike is checked) the damage you deal will always be MA*WP instead.
- Gun Glitch: Up to 999 damage can be easily achieved when using a [Weapon Damage] formula with a Gun weapon; the reason is that the Zodiac compat variable is not reset when switching targets. Note that even if the actual Gun Weapon's formula is changed to say, SP*WP, it would not fix this [see previous note].
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Formula4, cast Fire123/Ice123/Bolt123
- These formulas are hardcoded to use the exact Fire123/Ice123/Bolt123 Ability slots. These abilities can be freely manipulated, although beware that the AI ONLY looks at damage (and healing) when using Weapon Attacks. Yes, you can make a weapon proc Meteor, if you wanted, but it would only have the range of your weapon (which also overrides AoE).
- Ability to cast depends on the element of your weapon, if no element is set, the abilities corresponding to Ice123 slots will be used.
- Chance of casting tier3 spell is roughly 10%; chance to cast tier2 spell is roughly 30%; chance to cast tier1 spell is roughly 60%.
- Fire/Ice/Bolt slots do not actually have to be elemental; they can be freely set to any element.
Item Related-
First slot, <Nothing> corresponds to the Monk's bare fists weapon. Changing it will also change how Monk's (and perhaps other units with barehands) behave. For example, changing its formula to [Heal Weapon] will make fist attacks heal HP; changing it to formula2 will let you proc a spell 25% of the time, etc. [s:2qnpfzb9]You can also uncheck 2 Swords to prevent fists from hitting twice.[/s:2qnpfzb9]
Reaction / Support / Movement (RSM) RelatedMove-HP Up and Move-MP UP: Move-HP Up will always override Move-MP UP [thanks to formerdeathcorps].
Teleport can be stacked with any other Movement Ability, including Move-HP/MP UpP.
Abandon/Reflexes and Weapon Guard if set, will make any other reaction you try to stack inactive, including Distribute.
Misc. Behaviors, Flag Settings-
Direct flag (not AI-Direct) overrides Target Enemies=True, Target Allies=True.
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Default Attack Slot - This is the very first ability slot in FFTPatcher (<Nothing>). If the AI-Direct flag is set to true, the AI will actually attempt to use Bows/Crossbows/Guns to fire at targets in point blank range. However, it also causes very stupid behaviors with Books and Harps AI usage (they will try to hit someone at point blank range with a Book weapon).
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CT/Charging > 0 and Weapon Range and No-Follow Target: Charging is cancelled immediately upon movement unless
Normal Attack or
Follow-Target is flagged. If the former is flagged, targets can dodge your attack by movement. [Needs more confirmation on the AI side]
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Normal Attack flag related:
- This flag really screws up the AI. Even if the attack does 0 damage (for example, TargetMaxHP-CurHP) and if it inflicts no status (if using 100% formula) the AI will attempt to use the ability, as long as they have the range to do it.
- With Normal Attack flagged and Follow-Target off, the ability will continue to charge and proceed even if a movement has been made.
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Ranged Weapon related
- Ranged Weapon and Duo Wield: If caster has two weapons armed and Duo Wield is equipped (you can force two weapons without Duo Wield, in which case this condition will not be satisfied), the ability will be used twice, regardless if the formula used actually uses any weapon properties.
- Ranged Weapon overrides AoE radius entirely, Effect = 0.
- Ranged Weapon overrides Range = Weapon Range, including the minimum range from guns, bows, harps and books.
- Ranged Weapon overrides Hit Allies = true, and Hit Enemies = true.
- Ranged Weapon with spell proc (formula2): the proc will only be casted (as a self cast) on the target, ignoring the Effect. This is also the reason why Ranged Weapon abilities are always bundled with Target Self and Hit Caster.
- Ranged Weapon abilities are Direct attacks (do not pass through obstacles) if the armed Weapon has Direct range (like a Bow). However, unless the ability is also flagged AI-Direct, the AI will never try to exploit using the skill at minimum range. For example, casting Arm Aim at point blank range with a run.
- Ranged Weapon with Follow-Target: Regardless if the target is out of range of the caster's weapon, the target will be hit. However, if the caster's weapon has Direct range, the attack can miss or hit another target depending on line of sight of the target being followed. Note that this can be problematic because unless you also flag both Direct and AI-Direct for such intended ability, the AI will not be aware of this; only the target being followed will be aware of this.
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Reflect related
- For normally non-reflectable spells and special effects: Reflect still works as expected but note most special effects do not have a "reflect" animation attached, so you won't see the reflect animation -- unless your reflected attack lands onto a target, in which case, the entire animation would be replayed onto that target(s).
- Consequently Reflecting attacks that do not have a regular special effect (such as FFFF) will result in absolutely nothing being displayed upon Reflect, though the damage/status/etc would still be applied, it just won't be visible.
- AI is very smart about using Reflect as a means of extending their range. This is their default behavior. If a target is equipped with a Reflect Mail or has innate Reflect and is dead, the AI will still use that target as a way to extend their range.
- Reflecting multi hit formula attacks will actually reflect the entire spell, including its AoE and every single hit of it. For example, if unit A has Reflect on, and units B, C, D all cast Triple Flame (set to Reflectable) on unit A, anytime when unit A is hit once, the entire spell will be reflected at the expected reflected destination (not just a single hit, the entire spell).
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Counter Magic related
- If the monster uses Counter Magic, it will actually consume its MP (Monster jobs never uses MP otherwise). [thanks to formerdeathcorps]
Counter Magic on monsters will use MP if the original spell used MP, even though if a monster used the same spell as an action, it will not cost MP.
You cannot have Move-HP Up and Move-MP Up on one unit simultaneously.
I have lots more, but I'm not sure what I have and haven't typed out in other posts on here yet.
^ Sadly, I haven't wrote notes like this for myself. I really should though.... incase I forget something. From now on I will be writing random bits of discoveries on this thread so they won't be lost.
If you flag Two-Handed on default attack, do unarmed attacks work with Two-Handed?
QuoteYou can also uncheck 2 Swords to prevent fists from hitting twice.
I tried to do that a while back when I was trying to convince Philsov to get rid of two fisting and nothing happened. I was still able to two fist normally. Maybe I did it wrong?
^ Oh really? I have to double check on that then. Thanks for pointing this out.
Just got a broken Katana even if setting 0 to the breakage chances with Razele's hack. This sucks.