possible to have static mana?

[Conlius]

Hey all, haven't posted here in a while...

Just wondering, do you guys know if it is possible to have static mana for units?  i.e. a character has 100 mana for the entire game, regardless of their level.  The idea is to give all units move mp-up and a static set of mana.  This way, abilities can be balanced with cooldowns in mine...you can make [uber strike of death] cost 70 mana and it is impossible to run around spamming it.

Thoughts of other ways of implementing are more than welcome

[RavenOfRazgriz]

Use Pokeytax's ASM that makes you able to set a growth to null if you enter 0 in the appropriate slot, use one of my Workbooks to set the raw MP of a Level 1 unit to 100, then use the MP Multiplier attribute of each Job to make each unit's MP between 0 and 255.  With 100 raw MP, MP = MP Multiplier and with Pokeytax's hack it won't grow so it'll do what you need it to do.

You can find both Pokeytax's Growth = 0 ASM and my Workbooks with minimal poking around the Hacking section so you should be all set to go.

[Conlius]

This worked perfect!  Thanks!

[Neophyte Ronin]

Sounds like someone was inspired by the Monsters' Den Flash Games.  They too had static Power levels of 100 only (except Chronicles, where you can adjust the Max value a little with equipment).  That should prevent spell-spamming at any level, but force mages to think about each spell they cast.

[Conlius]

I have never played Monsters Den but I am basically going for the same idea.

I want melee to also have static power, but basically fixed at 100.  I want to make certain stats available through gear that benefit one playstyle.  For example: Mages, Sorcs, etc will have small boosts to their MP through gear but massive MA boosts (and require them to make their spells hit hard).  Healers will have fewer MA boosts but larger MP boosts (and higher mana cost spells).  I was thinking I might separate staves and rods here, one for caster dps and one for healers to make this work.  It will sorta prevent a healer from being able to nuke extremely hard with a secondary caster dps skillset or mages from being able to be effective healers (longevity at least) with a healer secondary.  Basically just helps make your primary skillset power powerful and your secondary skillset actually secondary

[formerdeathcorps]

This idea is workable, but personally, forced specialization virtually goes against the core of how FFT works as a game (where you could mix and match primaries and secondaries to create dangerous hybrids).  Also, this model doesn't account for the fact that status magic will be an invariant in strength, regardless of whether it is equipped as a primary or secondary.  How do you intend to address that?

[Conlius]

Yep, and i'm OK with the first statement.  Primary/Secondary being at different levels is just my personal preference.

Status magics: There will be a lot more status magics applied across the board, with the ability to add/remove them with abilities.  There isn't going to be one "dispel magic" that removes everything benefitial or remedy that removes everything negative but rather have abilities that are consistent in adding/removing them.

For example, a gladiator will have an ability called expose.  The idea for expose is that it does moderate damage and removes shell/protect (gladiators role is to deal damage or increase damage taken by the target).  He can also berserk himself.  A guardian (protect allies and reduce incoming damage) will have an ability to remove haste/berserk and another to add shell/protect to himself and/or an ally.

If a mage picks up the guardian or gladiator's skillset as a secondary, that's fine with me.  He will still have the core functionality but he will hit for much less.  He will have to give up launching off a giant spell damage nuke that turn to attempt to add/remove a debuff.  Status affects that I believe are extremely powerful (haste, slow, don't act, silence, frog, etc) will become mainly single target spells with shorter CT.  Some will have cast times (to make use of cancel-charging) and many will be dispellable (at the cost of MP or a turn).

Personally, I see it as just a video game.  Things don't HAVE to be completely balanced.  RNG can be fun sometimes and a PITA at other times.  I just want to enforce some mechanics that make the player think about what ability they are going to use instead of just launching off lightning stab over and over and over again or recasting golem every turn.

Once I get further into it i might post more about changes made but for now, i am far from finishing addressing all the issues that it could create