Final Fantasy Hacktics

I am really liking all the little changes you're making with the storyline, I especially like the new Rad and Quinn subplots you've added, as well as your expansion of the Beowulf/Reis subplot.
:EDIT: one nitpick is that i'm not really sold on the Gerard Beastmaster character, he sort of shows up out of nowhere and then you don't do anything with him later on, so he feels rather superfluous right now.

I don't know what Eternal's planning for the other specials, but i've got this cool idea for Rafa/Malak that might fit, the Sword Sage/Sage Sword.

The Sword Sage would be Rafa's job, she is a spellcaster that gains spells by equipping physical skillsets (either as a secondary, or as a primary with Sword Sage secondary)
for example, if Rafa equipped the Viking skillset, she would gain access to Water and Thunder element spells, if she equipped the Sniper skillset, she would gain a set of long range 'sniping' spells, and so on.

the Sage Sword would be Malak's job, he is a warrior that gains abilities by equipping magical skillsets (same as Rafa above, but the other half of the job tree)

I am liking all of these proposed changes, especially the proposal to add some sort of inverse-faith Inquisition style ability to the paladin skillset, speaking of which...

Inquisition: Range 4, AoE 0, deals (100-Cfaith) * (100-Tfaith) * PA * 20 non-elemental damage, CT 0, MP cost 10

The ninja justus already deal inverse faith elemental damage, and as such have a higher damage potential with elemental boosting, so I think the paladin inverse faith ability should be non-elemental for reliability at the cost of damage.

Also, does anybody else think that Dia would be a little better if it were either moved to the Priest or used the elemental damage formula?

I liked how half of every book was dedicated to lavish descriptions of food they [the characters] were eating.

Ice Gigas [Behemoth]
Ice element concept as well as magic-tank

Absorb: Ice
Half: Wind, Water
Weak: Thunder

Reaction: Meatbone Slash
Support: Magic Defend UP
Movement: Cannot Enter Water, Move-HP UP

Abilities

Sudden Cry: range 1v0, basic physical attack, may inflict instant death

Ice Breath: range 2, area 2, linear attack, deals PA/2 * MA ice damage and may inflict silence

Stasis: range 4, area 0, inflict Stop/Slow/Don't Act/Don't Move

Hibernate: self inflict sleep, 100% HP heal

Brain Freeze: deals 50% MP damage, range 3v3, area 0

Bull Demon
serving the roles of fire-element representative and physical beatstick, both of which are currently missing from the monster line-up

Absorb: Fire
Half: Thunder
Weak: Water
Reaction: Counter
Movement: Ignore Height, Cannot Enter Water

Abilities - Monklike
Vulcan Wave Fist: range 3, area 1v1, basic physical attack, shake off effect

Fire Spin: range 0, area 2v1, deals PA/2 * PA fire element damage to all in range

Sacred Flame: Cleanse negative status and heal 25% hp, range 4, area 0, fire element, cancel: poison/blind/silence/don't act/don't move

???: something utilizing the choco meteor effect

Suplex: climbhazzard attack, dmg(TarMaxHP - TarCurHP), range 1v3

at this point all we need is two more monsters, one each for fire and ice respectively, and we'll have the entire elemental gamut covered. Any interest in bombs and behemoths?

awww... you got rid of possession? I thought that was a really cool ability in concept, having the ghost briefly possess the body of a teammate to use their skills. Was there some sort of problem in testing or did you just not like that particular flavor?

copy-pasta from the other monster thread

Skeleton
Always: Undead
Absorb: Dark
Weak: Holy, Fire
Half: Ice, Wind
Immune: Don't Act, Don't Move, Death Sentence, Poison, Regen, Sleep
Reaction: HP Restore
Support: Defend UP
Move: Move Underwater

Knife Hand: deals basic physical damage and may inflict Don't Act

Burial: deals 40% of target hp damage, range 4, area 4, linear attack, dark element

Coffin Nail: deals PA/2 * PA damage, range 2, area 1v3, dark element, may inflict Don't Move

Lurk: self heal 25% hp and add Defending (death formula)


Ghost
Always: Undead
Initial: Transparent
Weak: Holy, Fire
Half: Ice
Cancel: Earth
Immune: Don't Act, Don't Move, Death Sentence, Poison, Regen, Sleep
Reaction: Sunken State
Support: Defend UP
Move: Teleport, Float

Throw Spirit: deals PA/2 * MA damage, range 4

Possession: give a single ally an extra turn, cannot target self, range 3

Scare: inflict Don't Move, Silence or Sleep, range 4, area 0

Malevolence: sacrifice self to deal shock damage + 100% Charm, range 4, area 0

Drain Touch: steal 50% of target MP, range 1v3



:EDIT: instead of sunken state, other reaction choices are Blade Grasp or MP Switch to represent it's ethereal nature, I'd say MP Switch might be the better choice, since it blocks punch art as well as reduces the potential damage from Malevolence. Also replaced confusion status with Silence status in the Scare ability.

General note/ideas
All monsters need some sort of special effect tied to their 'basic attack', such as enhanced range or status infliction. In my examples above, the skeleton inflicts Don't Act and the Ghost has a ranged magical attack instead of a standard melee attack.
Monsters need innate status resistance, aside from the undead units above, I imagine most would have immunity to only 1 or 2 status effects each.

To clarify pokemon stat growth for Arch

All pokemon stats are determined by the following equation,

 Stat in status screen = (( BaseStat * 2 + IV + EV/4 ) * Level/100 + 5 ) * P

IV = individual value, a random number between 1 and 32 determined when the pokemon appears and cannot be changed thereafter

EV = Effort value, basically stat specific exp gained by battling in addition to regular exp, can also be gained via stat-boosting drugs, total EV points are capped at 510 distributed among all stats, and no more then 255 applied to any single stat

P = Personality, in the newest games, pokemon also have a random personality assigned, some of which alter their stats (+10% in one stat in exchange for -10% in another)

So, since most of these values are static and determined at pokemon creation, stats don't "grow" so much as they are "recalculated" whenever one of those variables change

WIP of the job list from a personal patch i've been working on, based in part on DnD

5 Base Classes

Fighter (Defensive Physical) - skills based on formations and and leadership, heavy armor, shields, short swords and swords

Barbarian (offensive physical) - skills based on application of brute strength, medium armor, axes and bastard swords

Rogue (balanced stats) - two sets of skills, one based around 'tools' requiring the Backpack support skill (replacement for Item skillset), and another set of skills based around concealment (ambush/assassination skills requiring the user be under Transparent status), light armor, knives and bows. Innate Backpack, Throw Item

Priest (defensive magical) - healing and support magic, medium armor, shields, staves and flails

Wizard (offensive magical) - attack and status magic, light armor, staves and books

11 advanced classes

Dragoon (Fighter 6 + Barbarian 6) => great all-around stats with an emphasis on HP and PA, the highest stat totals of any class and the only class to have above average base speed, But only have a base move of 1 panel, practically requiring the use of a chocobo mount. heavy armor, polearms, flails and shields

Ranger (Fighter 3 + Rogue 5) => light armor unit specializing in ranged attacks and monster taming. light armor, bows and short swords, Innate Any Ground, Move in Water

Paladin (Fighter 5 + Priest 3) => medium armor unit built to hunt undead and demonic foes. Medium armor, swords, flails and shields, Innate Defense UP

Hexblade (Fighter 5 + Wizard 3) => medium armor unit that specializes in cursing the enemy. medium armor, katana and bastard swords, innate Magic Defense UP

Dervish (Barbarian 4 + Rogue 4) => light armor unit that wields two weapons at once. light armor, katana, innate Two Swords

Shaman (Barbarian 3 + Priest 5 ) => warrior-mage that channels the spirits. light armor, spears and books

Warlock (Barbarian 3 + Wizard 5 ) => warrior-mage that attacks with conjured weapons. light armor, axes and books

Gambler (Rogue 4 + Priest 4) => Gallant warrior that uses cunning and luck to outwit and befuddle enemy and ally alike, light armor, guns and knives

Performer (Rogue 4 + Wizard 4) => Whimsical warrior whose magical performances enchant all, light armor, harps and knives

Aetheritor (Priest 7 + Wizard 5, Male only) => Master of magic whose spells manipulate the very source of magic itself, light armor, staves, flails, shields and books, Innate Teleport

Gravitrix (Wizard 7 + Priest 5, Female only) => Mistress of magic whose spells control space and time, light armor, staves, swords books and shields, Innate Float, Immune to Gravity element

Mime (Rogue 8) => master of disguise that can copy any ability. Innate Counter, Counter Magic, Throw Item
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Other notable features of this patch are my Armor Weight system and Physical Elements

Elemental System

Fire > Wind > Water > Fire

Crushing > Piercing > Slashing > Crushing

Aether < -> Gravity

I think haste would be more managable if it followed the FFTA/2 pardigm, basic haste is single target, Haste 2 is AoE 1. Yell would be changed to inflict quick at a decent %hit (just don't let it target the caster, since we don't want the AI casting it on itself over and over till they run out of mp)

What i'm most disappointed about is that I didn't get to see a single casting of frog, I was hoping to catch people off guard with that, as it's a rather obscure status that most don't bother to protect against.

My bard is supposed to have life song, and not last song, I didn't notice any other mistakes. Yeah, my performance was rather poor, but this wasn't a very seriously made team to begin with, more of a 'doodle' then anything.

Alright, my new team, based around negative status infliction

Deneb's Garden

we could always replace absorption with immunity, which is currently a very underutilized trait (Just rubber shoes, seriously, and I guess technically Feather Boots as well)

I feel maybe if the yellow squire had significantly darker hair and skin they might stand out more, but aside from that one, they're all looking good.

keeping an AoE of 3 is 25 panels to potentially hit, so you'd need an average or consistent result of 12-13 hits to cover effectively (effectively in this case meaning at least a 50% chance to hit any given target in the area at least once, adjust this up/down to your own taste/sense of balance). It's up to you if you want it to be able to target allies or not, if you still want it to have that massive AoE, i'd suggest not, otherwise just adjust the # of hits and/or vert tolerance to whatever your comfortable with. Also, reflect + random fire spells is a nono, since if even one hit gets reflected, the ENTIRE spell will be duplicated onto the reflect target.

as for berserk, what if the Salty Rage item also inflicted permanent blind status? Then stacking Berserk + Attack UP becomes a real gamble (except with guns, but ranged direct fire berserkers tend to not make very smart targeting choices). The oracle's blind rage spell and mediator's insult could likewise inflict both berserk and blind status (it would also make those two abilities more useful as the AI views berserk as more of a debuff status anyway, even though our player base views it as a buff status)

Also, since we're running fury anyway, any chance of using your reaction % hack to simply set reactions to 50% constant activation rate?

as for the mixed M/Attack UP-M/Defend UP abilities, could it be possible to make it so that instead of combining both attack or both defend abilities, it combined the attack and defend abilites for a single type? so you choose either Attack UP (+30% phys damage dealt), Defend up (-30% phys damage received) or Might UP (+15% phys damage dealt AND -15% phys damage recieved)

looking much better now, awesome!

hmmm... I feel like the female squire might work better with more contrasting colors for the armor, or just a couple of variations of armor color (like "Polished Steel", "Black Iron", and "Burnished Bronze")