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So here's another mechanics tidbit. PoisonMushroom had Ramza eat kalonZombie's crystal and was disappointed to have not learned anything. So when a character takes a crystal, they have a chance of learning any skills that the dead character had in jobs that the crystal-eater has open. So if the dead unit knew Throw Stone from Squire, a generic unit that doesn't know Throw Stone yet has a chance to learn it. The issue here is that the job has to be EXACTLY the same. So even though Ramza has a class called "Squire," and he can learn "Throw Stone," he will never ever learn any Squire abilities from a generic unit because's Ramza's Squire class is technically different (different sprite, some additional skills, etc.). However, Ramza has the same Chemist job and every other generic job as other generics, so he can learn those skills.
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Jun 17, 2014 03:05
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It's actually a different class each chapter, isn't it?
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Jun 17, 2014 03:10
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Schwartzcough posted:So here's another mechanics tidbit. PoisonMushroom had Ramza eat kalonZombie's crystal and was disappointed to have not learned anything. Is something wrong with me that after that intelligent explanation, all I can hear is Snake's voice saying "Yeah, but how does it taste?"
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Jun 17, 2014 03:30
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I don't see anything wrong 
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Jun 17, 2014 03:33
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I hate to make another "tell me about FFT" post in this LP thread, but can someone explain to me how Calculators work? I already know a number of skills, but their menu still remains greyed-out in battle. 
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Jun 17, 2014 05:02
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Mak0rz posted:I hate to make another "tell me about FFT" post in this LP thread, but can someone explain to me how Calculators work? I already know a number of skills, but their menu still remains greyed-out in battle. You need at least one number (3, 4, 5, Prime) and at least one "variable" (CT, Level, height, etc.). Then you can instantly cast the selected spell on every character on the field whose variable is a multiple of the number. This can be terribly abused by having a character with a speed of 10 use CT 5, since it will hit almost every character on the field.
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Jun 17, 2014 05:43
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Schwartzcough posted:You need at least one number (3, 4, 5, Prime) and at least one "variable" (CT, Level, height, etc.). Then you can instantly cast the selected spell on every character on the field whose variable is a multiple of the number. Yeah, I just figured it out. They technically have two categories of command skills, but that's not explicitly mentioned in any way. Their abilities became available once they learned the multiplication calculations.  You also need at least one of certain White/Black/Mystic/Time spells to use the calculations, but presumably you'd have some by the time your units become a Calculator. The spells have no charge time, cost no MP, and have infinite range. They also have no splash range, which can be a good or bad thing. I can see now how they are considered insanely broken. However, their speed stat is god drat abysmal. I'm guessing that was Square's attempt at balancing them. Schwartzcough posted:This can be terribly abused by having a character with a speed of 10 use CT 5, since it will hit almost every character on the field. How so? And why does the caster's stat matter? 
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Jun 17, 2014 06:14
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Because of the way CT works. Every "tick" while in battle, each unit gets their speed added to their CT gauge, and when the CT gauge reaches 100, that unit can act. So a unit with 10 speed will get a turn every 10 ticks. And regardless of other units' speeds, every ten ticks their CT gauge will be a multiple of 5, no matter what. So CT 5 <spell> cast by a unit with 10 speed will hit literally everything on the battlefield, the caster included.
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Jun 17, 2014 08:19
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CT5Holy with an item that absorbs Holy damage is one of the most mindless ways to break the game in half, actually.
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Jun 17, 2014 08:53
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Mak0rz posted:How so? And why does the caster's stat matter? To put it another way, when a unit with 10 speed gets their turn, 10 "ticks" will have occurred. So a unit with 5 speed with have 5 x 10 = 50 CT. A unit with 6 speed will have 6 x 10 = 60 CT. A unit with 7 speed will have 7 x 10 = 70 CT. See a pattern? They're all multiples of 10, and consequently all multiples of 5. Technically I think another unit with 10 speed may have moved and acted before the caster, resetting their CT to 0, and I don't believe they'd be hit. But that's rare.
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Jun 17, 2014 09:10
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Mak0rz posted:However, their speed stat is god drat abysmal. I'm guessing that was Square's attempt at balancing them. Not that it's entirely relevant to the LP, but you're not really meant to use Calculators as Calculators. The fastest way to build them up is to use an ability like Sing or Dance that isn't based on CT, so they get multiple actions during the one turn they're active, and once you have all the math skills, you use it as a secondary skill on a faster job. Balance? In FFT? Surely you jest.
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Jun 17, 2014 23:21
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Schwartzcough posted:Technically I think another unit with 10 speed may have moved and acted before the caster, resetting their CT to 0, and I don't believe they'd be hit. But that's rare. Speed being equal, I think enemies and guest characters go first before your own.
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Jun 17, 2014 23:46
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Geez, I really need to check out if there's any "Break the Game in Half" guides for FFT so I can have a real entertaining run after I finish this one.Nidoking posted:Not that it's entirely relevant to the LP, but you're not really meant to use Calculators as Calculators. The fastest way to build them up is to use an ability like Sing or Dance that isn't based on CT, so they get multiple actions during the one turn they're active, and once you have all the math skills, you use it as a secondary skill on a faster job. Yeah, that's true. Though there still needs to be at least one Calculator on the battlefield in order to accumulate Calculator JP. Nidoking posted:Balance? In FFT? Surely you jest. I said attempted balance. Square was never really good at it, let alone for just this game Corvinus posted:Speed being equal, I think enemies and guest characters go first before your own. Yeah, AI-controlled characters get priority it seems.
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Jun 18, 2014 00:02
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Mak0rz posted:
How broken are you talking? "Horribly maim and/or murder the enemy before they can ever reach your party"? Or "so minmaxed out the wazoo that you're literally a physical god"?
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Jun 18, 2014 01:31
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OFS's LP, linked in the OP, is a pretty handy guide for making the game significantly easier, if not breaking it slightly. Having two female mages with high faith and good compatibility with Ramza makes at least the early game a breeze.
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Jun 18, 2014 01:39
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I've been sick and lazy, so haven't been working on another update yet. Instead, I've been playing through another file for shits and giggles. And I ended up coming up with some kind of goofy builds, including a Samurai with Leap and Doublehand flying through the air and cutting dudes in half (Doublehand and Leap's bonus for spears doesn't stack, sadly), and a very sad realization that you can't dual-wield guns. I also gave Tactics 1.3 an attempt and I can say with no shame that I will never, ever be able to beat it, and anyone who does should immediately be institutionalized. The first random battle of the game put me up against a level 9 thief, a level 5 thief, two level 6 bombs and a level 7 Chocobo. It's not quite as bad as, say, Kaizo Mario 64 where a bunch of new obstacles are thrown at you without any thought, and in fact a lot of work went into giving you new tools to deal with all the issues. Unfortunately, though, it looks like even the "easy mode"/"content" version of the mod just turns off boss level scaling. Ah, well. So much for that. v  v
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Jun 19, 2014 12:46
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Poison Mushroom posted:I also gave Tactics 1.3 an attempt and I can say with no shame that I will never, ever be able to beat it, and anyone who does should immediately be institutionalized. The first random battle of the game put me up against a level 9 thief, a level 5 thief, two level 6 bombs and a level 7 Chocobo. It's not quite as bad as, say, Kaizo Mario 64 where a bunch of new obstacles are thrown at you without any thought, and in fact a lot of work went into giving you new tools to deal with all the issues. Unfortunately, though, it looks like even the "easy mode"/"content" version of the mod just turns off boss level scaling. Ah, well. So much for that. v One of my buddies played through most of 1.3. And by "most" I mean "made it to the final boss but couldn't get any further because it has an absurd amount of HP." I'd be interested in trying a version of it that just has the class/skill changes but no difficulty spike. Of course, asking that of the ROM-hacking community is pretty pointless  In other news, I beat the game! Now I'm starting again using Orange Fluffy Sheep's LP as a guide. I'm having a hell of a lot of fun with the JP Scroll glitch. OFS didn't abuse it, but I sure as poo poo am 
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Jun 19, 2014 14:35
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Bah. That's not even the -fun- way to break the game.
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Jun 19, 2014 14:40
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Aishlinn posted:Bah. That's not even the -fun- way to break the game. Listen I already know how annoying it is to grind for JP so I'm going to avoid it where possible
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Jun 19, 2014 14:42
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Reading through this LP and OFS's earlier one is making me want to play through this game again. I don't care what anyone says about archers--I use them anyway because archery is rad. I just can't decide if I'd want to abuse the JP glitch or not.
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Jun 19, 2014 17:09
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Grinding is often the least fun part of RPGs, Tactics not excluded. I say use the glitch.
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Jun 19, 2014 17:13
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But you don't need to grind in FFT to get good?
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Jun 19, 2014 17:55
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Mak0rz posted:One of my buddies played through most of 1.3. And by "most" I mean "made it to the final boss but couldn't get any further because it has an absurd amount of HP." I'd be interested in trying a version of it that just has the class/skill changes but no difficulty spike. Of course, asking that of the ROM-hacking community is pretty pointless Actually it exists though I can't speak for how up to date it is; I also recommend not hanging around the forums for too long. But it does exist. It is still harder than the base FFT, but FFT is not an especially hard game without any self-imposed challenges (like this permadeath challenge) except on a few specific stages. It's way more playable than the actual 1.3 is - that said, I haven't played through it all the way, so I guess it could catch you off-guard right near the end. But I played a couple chapters when it came out.
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Jun 19, 2014 19:22
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Prism posted:Actually it exists though I can't speak for how up to date it is; I also recommend not hanging around the forums for too long. But it does exist.
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Jun 19, 2014 19:30
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Poison Mushroom posted:Unless I somehow managed to spectacularly gently caress up the patching, the only difference I saw was the boss level scaling. Huh, I thought there was more than that. The one I played was quite a bit earlier, and I'm not sure it had the same name, so maybe this is a different one. I'll take another look later on.
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Jun 19, 2014 20:04
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Poison Mushroom posted:Unless I somehow managed to spectacularly gently caress up the patching, the only difference I saw was the boss level scaling. Content has fixed level story battles (randoms still largely scaling based on your own level, like vanilla), somewhat fewer boss/boss-like enemies with ??? stats and with more status vulnerabilities, and most boss/boss-like enemies no longer have innate Def Up/Mdef Up. It is quite a bit easier than 1.3 and can be useful for getting a feel for the 1.3 changes, though it won't really cure people who rely on over-leveling to win. dotchan posted:The two things I found to be very frustrating about FFT 1.3 is that the enemy always outclasses me in terms of gear (and in this game, gear > levels for most of the game) and they can sandbag so much better than you because they have infinite stores of healing items. Enemies have a combination of set gear and random gear. If the random gear is consistently above what shops offer, then you're grinding too many levels. But, level 99 challenges have been done and the solution is to steal enemy gear. Later versions reduced the number of enemies with Item, and I only remember a couple battles where the number of enemies with revive capabilities were a pain in the rear end (get hosed, Zalmo). 1.3 has an odd difficulty curve where being either much lower than average level, or level 99, makes most of the game easier than intended. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Jun 19, 2014 |
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Jun 19, 2014 20:42
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The two things I found to be very frustrating about FFT 1.3 is that the enemy always outclasses me in terms of gear (and in this game, gear > levels for most of the game) and they can sandbag so much better than you because they have infinite stores of healing items.
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Jun 19, 2014 20:46
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The scaling random battles have always been why chocobos are such scary opponents.
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Jun 19, 2014 20:46
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Fister Roboto posted:But you don't need to grind in FFT to get good? It's not about being "good," silly. It's about obliterating everything in your path with the least amount of effort possible. That glitch is by far the most game-breaking bug I have ever encountered in any video game. Item dupes come close, but that's only really useful for permanent stat-boosting (or, taken to the extreme, Pokemon's Rare Candies) consumables or rare equipment, which often take effort, or at least a few hours, to obtain. The JP Scroll bug is about as easy to execute as it gets and can easily be done within the first hour of playing.  Prism posted:Actually it exists though I can't speak for how up to date it is; I also recommend not hanging around the forums for too long. But it does exist. Yes, they refer to this as "easy mode," but remember this is the ROM-hacking community here (let alone insanedifficulty.com's level of  ). "Easy mode" to them still means "relentlessly brutal" to even most experienced players.
Mak0rz fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jun 19, 2014 |
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Jun 19, 2014 21:32
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Ironically, I think 1.3 Content (the easy version) can be trickier in some ways. The original scales enemy levels to your level, while 1.3 does not. So if you don't grind levels, the fixed levels for enemies in content may be higher than your level instead of scaled to it. I find the real problem with 1.3 is that many bosses have been so twinked that you basically have to employ one or two different strategies to have any real hope of winning. That kills the fun in a game about trying out different setups.
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Jun 19, 2014 23:55
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Schwartzcough posted:Ironically, I think 1.3 Content (the easy version) can be trickier in some ways. The original scales enemy levels to your level, while 1.3 does not. So if you don't grind levels, the fixed levels for enemies in content may be higher than your level instead of scaled to it. Schwartzcough posted:I find the real problem with 1.3 is that many bosses have been so twinked that you basically have to employ one or two different strategies to have any real hope of winning. That kills the fun in a game about trying out different setups. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 04:13
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Really, all I'd want from a difficulty mod is "give the enemy larger JP pools in their classes and sub-classes so you're not facing a team of monks who only have Spin Fist and who also might throw a stone at you" The AI seems to be pretty drat good and would probably scale a challenge just fine if given opponents with viable skillsets.
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Jun 20, 2014 15:38
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Bumping because I want to see what happens next. (Oh god please don't be over already)
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Jun 27, 2014 19:15
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I think I forgot to mention it before, but I think Poison Mushroom should put the insta-death rule on hold for random battles. Eventually you'll get to the point where the enemies are strong enough that'll it'll be extremely tedious trying to train up a level 1 character without them dying. So you'll get caught in a loop of constantly having to retrain new characters from scratch as everyone dies in training.
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Jun 27, 2014 22:28
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Schwartzcough posted:I think I forgot to mention it before, but I think Poison Mushroom should put the insta-death rule on hold for random battles. Eventually you'll get to the point where the enemies are strong enough that'll it'll be extremely tedious trying to train up a level 1 character without them dying. So you'll get caught in a loop of constantly having to retrain new characters from scratch as everyone dies in training. That happened to me in Hoshigami. I had something like 40 hours of gameplay notched up, despite only being on the third or fourth story mission. Then again, gently caress Hoshigami.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:10
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:gently caress Hoshigami. I wanted so hard to like it, but it's impossible.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:12
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:That happened to me in Hoshigami. I had something like 40 hours of gameplay notched up, despite only being on the third or fourth story mission. Not to derail, but is there somewhere I can read about what exactly makes the game terrible? I have an odd fascination of reading about poor game design choices.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:27
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:That happened to me in Hoshigami. I had something like 40 hours of gameplay notched up, despite only being on the third or fourth story mission. I think I got maybe to level 10 just replaying the first map. Then it got stolen, along with a bunch of my other games. They also took Unlimited SaGa, so they at least did me some small service.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:27
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Schwartzcough posted:I wanted so hard to like it, but it's impossible. I imported it, because it was never released in the UK. I'm selling off a lot of my US PS1 games right now, but I'm keeping Hoshigami, just to remind myself that sometimes, these things remain unreleased for a reason. Poulpe posted:Not to derail, but is there somewhere I can read about what exactly makes the game terrible? I have an odd fascination of reading about poor game design choices. Short version: you know how most romhacks are designed for people who demand a mashochistic challenge in lieu of actual fun or gameplay? Imagine if one of them got released as a commercial game. That's Hoshigami.
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Jun 27, 2014 23:33
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It's not dead, my life is just a mess right now.
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Jun 28, 2014 00:22
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