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This is reminding me of Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World, where you need to plan early on how you're gonna build your characters with very little room for straying, only with far more options.
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Apr 22, 2020 14:36
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:This is reminding me of Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World, where you need to plan early on how you're gonna build your characters with very little room for straying, only with far more options. The upside to Void Divergence is that it's not overtuned to assuming you will be min-maxed...heck, even on the highest difficulty, it didn't feel all that different from the vanilla experience in terms of numbers coming out of encounters (but then again I was just experimenting with regular encounters).
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Apr 22, 2020 15:36
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I don't really like the job level limit. It pretty much penalizes you for not knowing exactly what build you want and also you need to know what every class gives from day one. The limit may be high and I'm overthinking this but I don't think FFV's job system was made for this, no matter how changed it may be here. Also you have a broken image in the Liquid Flame fight.
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Apr 22, 2020 15:36
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Blaze Dragon posted:I don't really like the job level limit. It pretty much penalizes you for not knowing exactly what build you want and also you need to know what every class gives from day one. The limit may be high and I'm overthinking this but I don't think FFV's job system was made for this, no matter how changed it may be here. Very much this. I mean, I was already rather displeased with the "certain characters are incapable of using certain jobs because reasons" thing, and then I find that they're artificially limiting your total job levels on top of that? That's only a step or two away from a "no jobs" hack, which is pretty much completely missing the point of FF5.
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Apr 22, 2020 15:56
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I think it'll be more fine when all the jobs are properly implemented and written up, but I'm more used to Four Job Fiesta rules than anything now. I don't like the arbitrary job limiting, though.
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Apr 22, 2020 17:19
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Live on twitch for more Void Divergence.
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Apr 22, 2020 17:25
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Once again live on Twitch, hopefully this time I can get farther than I did last time.
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Apr 23, 2020 15:36
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 Trying out Ranger and Bard will have to wait until I'm done getting Double Cast on the people who can use Red Mage.  I found Ramuh (6475 HP, weak to poison/cold) on my first encounter (wonder if I got lucky or it's guaranteed) and dealt with him in short order.  There's a weird graphical glitch in Bartz's house; leave it alone, as interacting with it borks the game.  One Black Chocobo world tour/shopping montage later, I'm ready to see what Sandworm has to offer.  Sandworm (21650 HP, no stated weaknesses but takes extra damage from lightning and water) is when Void Divergence takes the kid gloves off even for the lowest difficulty setting. In addition to his usual nonsense (which is why I didn't want to experiment with Aqua Rake), he can also throw Quake at the party and his holes will still randomly cast Demi for no apparent reason that I could figure out even in the replay.  So it was over to Istory forest to grind levels and eventually (after some more failed attempts at Sandworm) Dual Cast for at least Tiz before I throw myself at Sandworm again since Mini Dragons are no longer super-minions that guarantee a TPK unless you hit hard and fast.  I also discover that the Float I get from the Stealth ring can be passed onto all party members if I put it on them, engage in a random battle, and then end it by winning or running away. (And no, I couldn't have cast it as Time Mages; Float is either not yet available, or not available at all.)  With Float, the extra levels and Doublecast, I manage to overcome Sandworm, but even then I was spending a lot of turns where only Galuf was attacking and the other three were stuck in sandbag mode. Overcoming Sandworm (the failures, the grinding, plus the final successful attempt) took me a total of two hours.  I didn't have !Scan equipped when I engaged Cray Claw, but given that he's basically a Karlobos recolor, I breezed through him without issue.  Since I still needed to do some shopping, I also took the opportunity to learn all of the Blue Magic I cared to pick up (done off stream because I thought that too boring to watch/commentate over).  Adamantoise (948 HP, weak to poison/cold) was, by this point, nothing more than a speed bump.   Ditto the mini-bosses (3614 HP, weak to water/thunder; 3484 HP, weak to water/wind) guarding Flying Ronka Ruins; I didn't even need to drag out the battle to learn the Blue Magic they had (once I remembered to switch to Blue Mages).  Sol/Soul Cannon (45035 HP, weak to poison/thunder; the Launchers were 15332 HP each and weak to holy/flame), though tough (I ended the battle with only two units alive), had much of his toughness mitigated by Vampire, which is probably what the Mod was expecting me to have with Sandworm, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that.  Archeoavis (each form having around 5300 HP and weak to wind/holy, flame/earth, water/wind, cold/poison, and flame/holy respectively) being one of the few bosses with rotating elemental weaknesses didn't have its script changed as far as I could tell (other than tagging each form's special ability with its associated element) and I didn't have much trouble with it.  Trying out the new jobs will be left for the next update.  (I did have Ranger in my party while grinding, and I kind of wish !Aim was the default ability since !Animals is usually something I only put on anybody when I need to heal; that Mysidian Rabbit was changed to the FF6 version (which gives a piddling amount of healing for the party) is of little comfort.) Fire Jobs (2) Overview: Ranger Usable by: Bartz, Lenna, Faris Stats: 27/28/23/22 Level Bonus: STR, AGL, VIT Innate: N/A Default ability: !Animals Abilties: !Aim, !Animals, !Calm, !Rose (no idea what that does yet), !RapidFire ; Rangers can also equip Caution (avoids back attacks) and Endure (Max HP +10% and "defy death", not sure what that means, though  )Dot-chan's Impressions: Like I said, I would have rather had !Aim as the default ability, but otherwise Ranger is fine to sit in for this part of plot. Bard Usable by: Lenna, Galuf, Faris Stats: 21/29/26/23 Level Bonus: AGL, AGL, VIT - not implemented Innate: N/A Default ability: !Sing Abilties: !Hide, !Sing, !Animals, Dot-chan's Impressions: It's Bard. I may learn !Hide for the lulz, but otherwise I don't mind having a dedicated Bard doing nothing but !Sing setups when necessary. Oracle Usable by: Galuf, Lenna Stats: 23/18/26/30 Level Bonus: Not implemented Innate: N/A Default ability: N/A Abilties: N/A Dot-chan's Impressions: From the Job description, this looks like the GBA Oracle Job, which would at least be interesting to experiment with once it gets implemented but I otherwise would not have the patience to science out the timing necessary. dotchan fucked around with this message at 20:41 on Apr 24, 2020 |
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Apr 24, 2020 18:49
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You didn't put the weakness for the second miniboss of the Flying Ronka Ruins.
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Apr 24, 2020 20:19
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Blaze Dragon posted:You didn't put the weakness for the second miniboss of the Flying Ronka Ruins. Whoops! Thanks for the catch.
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Apr 24, 2020 20:42
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Live on twitch to at least finish World 1.
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Apr 27, 2020 20:10
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 The Purobolos (1721 HP each, weak to water/wind) had their gimmick changed to be, in my opinion, way more annoying: in stead of casting Arise/Life 2 at death, they cast Life when their health is near critical, and at that point you can only kill one of them at a time (and they still cast Life as a last act), so as far as I can tell the faster way to end the firght is to wait for them to self-destruct (I didn't have the patience to bleed out their MP).  Titan (4323 HP, weak to holy/flame) I trivialized by using the same Stealth Ring shuffling trick I used against Sand Worm, and a good thing I did, too, because his script was updated to throw Quake at the party during the fight in addition to casting it as a final act.  Chimera Brain (6000 HP, weak to wind/earth) ended up being not nearly as dangerous compared to vanilla, so I didn't pay attention to whether he got any new tricks.   The two fights in World 2 that lead to the party getting captured were nothing to write home about, but Gilgamesh (13090 HP, weak to holy/flame) had his script changed in a very annoying way: his "run away" dialogue still triggers, but he stays in battle until all of his HP is expended. T.G. couldn't win the damage race in the front row without getting very lucky dodges, so on my third--and successful--attempt at the fight I swapped him to Wizard, and even then I still had to quaff and Elixir.  Big Bridge Gil (15020 HP, same weakness as before) had the sense to run, but not until he was down to his last hit point (and after he started his whole "buff himself and start Jumping like mad" phase).  In addition to new equipment, Rugor has new spells: Black Magic Drain, Break and Bio; White Magic Blinka and Shell; and Time Magic Comet, G100 (not sure what it does against flying enemies, but I will try it at some point after I've mastered Ranger), and Reset; I forgot to play the piano here, so I'll have to come back.  Shield Dragons (7740 HP, weak to water/earth) are now not a pain in the butt to farm even at the beginning of World 2; right now I don't feel the need to grind experience or AP but I'll definitely keep this place in mind if I ever do.  I probably should have tried using Phoenix Downs on Tyrosaur (7330 HP, weak to holy/flame). Oh, well.  Because I had the drop-boosting ability on, I got two copies of Golem when I rescued him.   I think I accidentally made Dragon Grass (19632 HP, weak to wind/holy) easier on myself with the equipment I was wearing, because I wasn't affected by any of the status effects that got thrown my way. Eh, a win is a win.  Ship Gil (18770 HP, same weakness as before) wasn't difficult, just sort of tedious, especially once Enkidu (5480 HP, same weakness as Gil) joined the fray, but at least I only saw one instance of White Wind go off.  Even with max encounters turned on, it took forever and half to grind 4 Reflect rings, such that Galuf mastered Ninja. After that, I switched him first to Geomancer to try it out (verdict: at least here plenty of enemies are weak to most of his stuff, but there's still the occasional mystery effect--as shown in this particular screenshot--that doesn't seem to do anything, at least not to this particular set of encounters).  Next was Dragoon, and that feels like it hits much harder compared to vanilla, but then again, I've been secretly building level bonuses on top of the elemental rock paper scissors.  Atomos (48234 HP, weak to water/thunder) wasn't nearly as dangerous compared to vanilla; even though he threw more dangerous spells than Comet at the party (I saw "Bleed"--a red-tinted Iron-Claw type spell which did damage in the neighborhood of 800 HP--as well as Demi and Hurricane, among other things), eventually I must have put him into stunlock because he just stood there and let me pound him into the dirt. Even Tiz being dead and unable to be brought back to life for whatever reason (it wasn't because he was wearing Bone Mail because I could still heal him just fine--so I suspect it was a way to simulate Atomos' old gimmick because the modders couldn't reproduce it) didn't slow me down much.  As it turns out, "Rose" is simply a fancy name for Level 1 Red Magic, which is slightly disappointing because I was hoping it was something fancy. (Then again, given how horrifically !Twincut was implemented, I'm also relieved the modders didn't try anything too fancy).  ...and of course I decide to check the magic shop after I'd dropped all my money upgrading my equipment. Good thing money isn't a pain in the butt to grind. The spells available in Moore were: Storm (I haven't used this yet, but it is attacking white magic probably equivalent to one of the Aero- family spells), Wall (i.e. Reflect), Fury (i.e. Berserk), Quake, Tempr (I forgot to try it out this update, I'll do it next time), Curse (ditto), Echo (ditto), Renew (ditto), and Old.  Having bought everything I cared to purchase, I was ready to tackle the Crystals, which each had 5352 HP (and you should know the elemental system by now, right?  ) and none of them hit that hard, though I did end up triggering rage scripts for the last two Crystals. The Exdeath fight is still just a cutscene battle, but I suspect his stats were super-inflated compared to vanilla; even with elemental rock-paper-scissors in play, that's one hell of a Fire spell.   I decided to leave Meat Castle to the next update, so the last thing I did was pick up Shoat (and, offscreen, the Surgate castle treasure chests, finally netting myself a guaranteed way to have Float). Speaking of the next update, I've been having intermittent internet Earth Jobs Overview: Dragoon Usable by: Faris, Galuf Stats: 24/26/28/22 Level Bonus: STR, VIT, HP Innate: N/A` Default ability: !Jump Abilties: Bulwark, !Jump, !Lance, Pierce, !S-Jump; Dragoons can also equip !Stomp and Mastery (increased accuracy and 70% chance that you keep a !Released monster) Dot-chan's Impressions: I have no idea why the mod decided Dragoon should synergize with Beastmaster (for flavor? ) but being able to equip everything without having to use up a slot does at least mean !Jump is useful for more than just avoiding damage for other Jobs.Samurai Usable by: Bartz, Faris, Galuf (?) Stats: 28/27/23/22 Level Bonus: STR, STR, AGL - not implemented Innate: Evade, Default ability: !Swdslap, Abilties: Evade, !Swdslap, !Slash (i.e. Inaiuki), !Martial (if I learn it I will see what it is), !GilToss Dot-chan's Impressions: Given I'm already mastering at least 4 Jobs on everybody, I don't know if I'll have the patience to grind the AP it'd take to throw money at the problem, but I guess it's on the table as a possibility. Chemist Usable by: Lenna, Galuf Stats: 23/20/27/27 Level Bonus: VIT, MAG, HP Innate: Pharmacology Default ability: !Mix Abilties: !Drink, !Mix, !Aim, Pharmacology, !Recover; Chemists can also equip Caution Dot-chan's Impressions: With Mix now front and center as Chemist's Job set that's probably another Job I can leave unused until I need it for TED and superboss hunting. Dancer Usable by: Bartz, Lenna, Faris Stats: 25/27/21/27 Level Bonus: AGL, VIT, MAG Innate: Default ability: !Dance Abilties: !Flirt, !Dance, !Fury, !Finesse (see LP), !Steal; Dancers can also equip !Finesse without having learned it and MP +30% Dot-chan's Impressions: Everybody can already wear ribbons, so if I can put a full set of Swords-Dance boosting equipment on non-Dancers, I might have my Ninja-capable characters learn it instead of RapidFire. Magus Usable by: Lenna, Galuf Stats: 18/22/28/28 Level Bonus: VIT, MAG, HP Innate: N/A Default ability: N/A Abilties: N/A Dot-chan's Impressions: Lenna and Galuf have Jobs with higher magic stat so I won't even be using this Job for spellcasting. Arcanist Usable by: Lenna, Faris Stats: 23/27/19/27 Level Bonus: STR, AGL, MAG Innate: N/A Default ability: N/A Abilties: N/A Dot-chan's Impressions: Bench. Assassin Usable by: Bartz, Faris Stats: 28/29/18/24 Level Bonus: STR, AGL, MAG Innate: N/A Default ability: N/A Abilties: N/A Dot-chan's Impressions: Ditto. dotchan fucked around with this message at 18:49 on Jun 17, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 18:39
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I get this is a WIP but it'll never stop feeling off to see the end of the update with so many jobs that have nothing implemented yet. Why even have the job avaliable like this? Also you have a broken on Dragoon.
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May 13, 2020 00:59
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Blaze Dragon posted:I get this is a WIP but it'll never stop feeling off to see the end of the update with so many jobs that have nothing implemented yet. Why even have the job avaliable like this? My guess is that, it's a Mystery Box to generate speculation and interest!. (And speaking of, thanks for the catch!)
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May 13, 2020 01:17
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 This mod has, for the time being, defeated me.  Things started off normal enough as I picked up Carbuncle.  Then I found out that if I don't sit through all of Box Gil's first form dialogue, he outright dies upon hitting 0 HP. Since I wanted the Genji Belt, that ended up being my first reset.  Exdeath opens with a party-wide Condemn that at best gives everybody only one turn to do anything; the next 7-8 times I tried fighting him, the death effect cannot be negated via having Reflect, being Undead or using any Mixes (and though the animations play properly, who knows if any of them even work), so the next thing to try was either Hide or Jump.  Except the Ninja's version of Hide is bugged such that the character is removed from the fight; trying to Show a hidden Ninja just results in them reenacting that one emote where a guy comes into a room, freaks, and backs right back out again.   (Incidentally, Rapid Fire now only hits three times but as far as I can tell the damage formula is otherwise unchanged, and Twin Lance only hits once, also without a corresponding damage boost.)  I was willing to grind for Jump on everybody who could use Dragoons, since Meat Fort was giving out an average of 25 AP a fight at the max encounter rate, but Jump is bugged on Ninja as well, freezing the game and causing me to lose two hours. Jump works for Bards and Faris can be one, so if I were stubborn enough I can still work my way back through Meat Fort and give Exdeath another shot, but right now, I am burnt out on this game, so I am moving on to the next mods I wish to showcase. I may revisit it some other time, but I make no promises. dotchan fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jun 1, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 15:11
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Live on Twitch with a new setup, hopefully more stable internet, and a gimmick that will at least be entertaining to watch, if not play.
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May 14, 2020 17:03
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Once again live.
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May 16, 2020 22:07
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Having seen what a carefully constructed and planned mod looks like, let's now take a brief dip back into the randomized side. The SNES game has two of them. First is Abyssonym's Grand Cross Randomizer, is a straightforward Palette/Stats/Job/Abilities/Drops/Chests/Shops/whatever with togglable flags. The second I will (hopefully) showcase after the next mod. The GBA game also has a randomizer (download link availabe if you join their Discord channel, which is also where you can discuss/ask questions about/make suggestions for the GBA Ancient Cave).  (Sorry about the chat window being in the way, I was experimenting with OBS and thought it could be visible on stream but not in the recording. I will use a different layout next time.) Given that this LP has turned into a showcase--plus I might hit a wall like I did with Void Divergence--I decided to play both randomizers simultaneously (as in, using a single input stream for both games, with the SNES version on the left and GBA on the right) with as many flags on as I could stand and the lowest difficulty settings available for both. The early game is breezy enough that I won't die too much (I hope), and if I need to focus on one particular team I can always just park the other team in a safe zone somewhere.  One of the immediate effect of any randomizer is all item locations could have something potentially useful, especially at the beginning--that is, if I can even equip what I find. Not familiar enough with FFV to know where all the locations are, I will be consulting a guide.  Otherwise, everything is fairly straightforward (parallel gameplay shenanigans not withstanding) until we pick up our first set of Job crystals. Since neither version shows what jobs our intrepid heroes actually picked up until I check the menu, that's when I chose to screencap. The GBA version also lets you rename everybody else in the party by using the config file that also sets the flags.  Now the fun begins. I'm not sure what the SNES version does with the innate abilities (I was able to dash by holding down B so I suspect all of the jobs still have the same Wind Crystal innates), but it definitely randomizes the primary default ability and all learned abilities. On the SNES side, we have: Dragoon, Berserker, White Mage, Black Mage, Time Mage, Bard, and Freelancer; on the GBA side: Knight, Ranger, Black Mage, Summoner, Bard, Oracle, and Freelancer.  The SNES version also does not guarantee Fight or Item available as a command for any job if you choose to randomize base commands (the GBA version allows you to randomize each of the command slots separately, so for the sake of my own sanity I only randomized the primary ability).  The vanilla GBA version shows whether or not a particular piece of equipment is an upgrade, but not the SNES one, so unless I recognize something as better than what I have equipped I will be fairly stingy on at least one side of the screen.  I will be buying all the magic I can afford, though, since even though I have no idea when I might be able to use any of these spells I also don't want to backtrack if I can help it.  The GBA randomizer added a few quality-of-life changes, one of which I got to see early: it tells you what tier of magic you have unlocked so far (so instead of having Red Magic, we'll be be improving team morale through sessions of Resident Evil games :P ).  As for how each side is doing so far: Team SNES, only having Berserker, Black Mage, and Time Mage with the Fight command (as well as not getting much luck from chests of enemy drops), faceplanted on Magissa and Forsa (not helped by the team being down by one member), necessitating a trip down the mountain to sleep at an inn (because I had lost a party member without any Phoenix Downs or Tents to my name) and back up again. Team GBA, meanwhile, struggled a bit in the beginning but started getting luckier and luckier starting from the Wind Shrine, trivializing each boss in short order.  Thanks to Team GBA practically being on autopilot, I was able to split my attention between two games without much issue (though there were a couple times I did need to focus on one side or another), and was even able to have Team GBA upgrade gear and clear out several treasure locations while Team SNES made the round trip.  One layout adjustment later to get the chat window out of the way, among other things, I'm ready to continue, with Team GBA heading into Walse Castle to clear it out and Team SNES raiding the pirate hideout.       Team GBA's streak of absurdly good fortune just keeps on rolling, such that they're sitting on more money than they know what to do with and end-game tier equipment that they are either currently carrying or will be able to wield once more jobs are unlocked.    And Team SNES keeps on stalling; after my third attempt, I finally realized that I should pay more attention to what else I can mix and found a combo--as well as the right ingredients for sale at a price I could afford--that allowed me to absorb the Ice element.  Team GBA reaches the water crystal well ahead of Team SNES, getting Monk, White Mage, Time Mage, Red Mage and Cannoneer into the rotation.  (By the way, Liquid Flame isn't Heavy, because the game doesn't expect the player to have any instant death spells at their command. Hopefully this will mean Team SNES has a chance to catch up.)  Team GBA's Fire jobs: Dancer, Geomancer, Necromancer (plus Thief and Chemist, not shown in this screenshot because I am still grinding AP for the other Jobs).   Stop it, randomizer! Any semblance of challenge has already been brutally murdered, buried, dug back up, and beaten to pieces! I even got another Chicken Knife as a regular encounter drop!  Team SNES finally gets their Water jobs: Samurai, Blue Mage, Beastmaster, Chemist, and Geomancer; I was so tired that I ended the stream without checking to see if any of them could equip the (slightly) better weapons sitting in Team SNES's inventory.  By the end of Saturday's two and a half hour stream, Team GBA is ready to head into the Ancient Ruins, while Team SNES just barely made it to Karnak, so I will save the time comparison chart for when there's more data to show. Team SNES wipes so far: Magissa/Forza, Shiva x 3, Gakimasura (and at least 3 of these deaths were definitely on me playing poorly, so I can't blame it all on bad luck) Team GBA wipes so far:
dotchan fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 09:13
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Seems Team GBA will finish this much faster. Also some of those randomized palettes are eye-searing terrible, I love them.
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May 17, 2020 14:42
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Blaze Dragon posted:Seems Team GBA will finish this much faster. Not necessarily. Team GBA is technically behind Team SNES in terms of level and AP because I haven't needed to grind and only fought incidental battles while traveling between locations (and if I need to run with Team SNES while Team GBA is also in battle, guess who also gets to boldly run away). Outside of the giant piles of cash, Team SNES will be getting the stuff Team GBA has been picking up eventually, and if I can farm the right Mix ingredients for Team SNES they will be able to close the gap somewhat, if not entirely. quote:Also some of those randomized palettes are eye-searing terrible, I love them. Seeing what sort of fashion disasters the party turns into has been, IMO, the most fun part of the randomizer so far. dotchan fucked around with this message at 05:01 on May 28, 2020 |
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May 17, 2020 15:59
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Streaming on Twitch. Will Team GBA be able to maintain their lead, or will Team SNES make a comeback for the ages?
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May 18, 2020 21:59
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 One inventory check later, I switch Team SNES into new Jobs so they can take advantage of the scant few weapons marginally better than what they had previously, and Team GBA is sent into the ruins to play hide-and-go-seek with Lenna's dad.  Fighting battles on Team SNES side while Team GBA was trying to navigate the world via Airship meant a lot of unnecessary landing and taking off unless I just happened to be flying over a mountain range. As I remarked on stream, poor GBA!Bartz must have suffered from motion sickness something fierce while that was going on.  Team GBA breezed through Sol Cannon, who wasn't even able to get its initial Surge Beam to fire.    The last chest before Liquid Flame yielded a Dark Matter for Team SNES, making it possible for me to Mix a Death Potion, but I forgot to switch anybody into Dragoon so I ate an unnecessary death. :smack:  Lenna got turned into a frog while I was navigating Ronka Ruins and stayed that way until I got to the save point in there and decided to burn a Cottage.  And the SNES randomizer left most of the chests in Burning Karnak castle untouched, most likely due to me setting the chaos factor so low, but I still couldn't get out until the fourth try because I took too long scouting on the first run and opening some chests I didn't need to on the second.  SNES Fire Jobs post Karnak: Thief, Ninja, and Ranger.  I didn't expect Team GBA to have any trouble, so in my arrogance I underestimated Purobolos, eating two wipes to Explosion despite Galuf having learned Gil Toss (when the notification popped up, my focus was on navigating Team SNES through the Fire Ship so I mistakenly attributed the event to that team); I ended up throwing Shiva at the problem until it was solved, but not before I grinded a bunch of levels on Mini Dragons (and I also really should have checked stats to see which Job now had the highest magic stat for an even more optimal fight, but ). It wasn't until I was attempting Purobolos that I thought to check Team GBA's Earth jobs: Ninja, Berserker, Mystic Knight, and Blue Mage. This means I have 5 (I think) more jobs waiting for me, one at the bottom of Walse tower, three at the bottom of the sea, and one in the postgame. If Team GBA is far enough ahead, I'll at least try the postgame dungeon (unless I get locked out because I don't have the right skills).  I ran into something really weird while Team GBA visited Lix: the Item shop seemed to offer Golem for sale, but I couldn't move the cursor down to select it and trying to "buy" the blank space only got me a message that I didn't have enough money.  Team SNES did not need to wipe to Ifrit at all, since all the Fire Ship and Library enemies kept dropping Turtle Shells and I could buy Maiden's Kisses in Karnak, but I didn't realize this--even though went on at least one world tour looking for other mix ingredients to buy--until I ran out of potions and backtracked there to get more; thanks a lot, tunnel vision!  Meanwhile, Team GBA spent an embarrassing amount of time stuck in the back end of Lix (apparently, the NPC technically takes up two tiles, so for him to move out of the way he has to also go through the narrow corridor of trees).  Team GBA now has enough Magic Lamps for each party member to be literally holding one each (but because what summons have been used are only tracked once, this doesn't mean 4 instances of each eidolon before I cycle to the next one).  Team SNES overcomes Ifrit on their second try, then Drain Kiss makes short work of Byblos.  And the Black Chocobo yielded Team SNES's last two Fire Jobs: Dancer and Mystic Knight.  Thanks to Combine, Sandworm is also a non-issue for Team SNES.  However, I had taken so long to discover I was sitting on unused speed tech that I can't think of many scenarios where Team SNES would be able to catch up unless I deliberately allowed that to happen. Team SNES wipes: Liquid Flame, Burning Karnak x 3, Ifrit x 2 Team GBA wipes: Purobolos x 2, Dragon Grass x 1 Next update will probably not happen until at least two weeks from now due to real life getting in the way. dotchan fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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May 25, 2020 04:59
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That's fine. Real life is the worst, most dangerous randomizer, so take care of that first.
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May 25, 2020 19:09
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I was playing around with alternate visualization methods and came up with this chart: Do you guys prefer the original version, the new one, or are you indifferent?
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Jun 4, 2020 13:05
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The new chart seems a lot easier to understand, the previous one confused me quite a bit.
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Jun 4, 2020 14:01
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Real life resolved, back to being live on twitch.
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Jun 10, 2020 14:48
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Once again live on Twitch.
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Jun 13, 2020 18:15
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I went back to see just what the hell was wrong with Void Divergence and it turns out I was playing on a very early release.  I do feel I owe it to this rom to give it a proper review at least up to where I played last time; I'll at least add an SSLP update link but not return to playing it properly until I've finished the randomizer "race". dotchan fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Jun 15, 2020 |
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Jun 15, 2020 20:36
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dotchan posted:I went back to see just what the hell was wrong with Void Divergence and it turns out I was playing on a very early release. That seems fair. Better to play an actual release with more stuff in it than something heavily incomplete that doesn't really reflect what the hack should be like.
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Jun 15, 2020 22:38
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That would explain the "unfinished" vibe I got from it
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Jun 15, 2020 22:39
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Once again live on twitch to get more footage for the randomizer and then maybe Void Divergence.
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Jun 17, 2020 21:58
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Like I promised earlier, here's a sneak peek of Void Divergence version v1.530. I will also be doing a parallel universe runthrough of the mod at least up to ExDeath to see if any of the early boss gimmicks have changed. Starting in Barrier Tower, I decided to have Team GBA use Zeninage to speed through regular encounters; I have more than enough money to buy everything for them at this point, so I might as well weaponize my cash reserves.  Not paying enough attention to Team GBA meant a wipe to Crystals, as Zeninage was just enough to put them into their rage script. On try two, this was dealt with by putting Float and a Fire Shield on GBA just in case. Team SNES Earth jobs: Monk, Red Mage, Dancer, Summoner; this means Mime is at the bottom of Walse Tower (I wonder if that's always the case).  GBA Carbuncle didn't have Reflect, so it helped me finish the battle faster by casting damaging magic on itself.  Though it was a bit annoying to eat a Level 5 Death in the Ancient Library, that proved to be a blessing in disguise since I went back to the Fire Ship to grind for Turtle Shells instead and realized that the drop rate there is so much better.  I took the time to get 99 of Turtle Shells for Team SNES before they head off to World 2 (meanwhile, Team GBA had barreled ahead all the way to World 3).  It was a good thing I'd gone shopping for supplies before going to World 2, because the Paos randomized to have ridiculous levels of defense.  And the Castle Exdeath basement creatures were too tough for Galuf to thug it out solo, but that's what I farmed 99 Turtle Shells for.  The GBA randomizer left the legendary weapons untouched (not sure if that's always true or an aspect of the low difficulty setting), so I was definitely going to have Team GBA tackle all of the tablet dungeons.  My overconfidence in Team GBA's abilities caused them to eat 4 wipes while attempting to clear Phoenix Tower (holy cow that beefed up Sol Cannon! ), so instead of relying on trial and error I looked up a guide and turned Kara (who had White L6 unlocked) into the always undead Necromancer so that she would be healed by Roulette. Team SNES picks up end-game tier armor at Moogle Village, and it immediately goes on Galuf.  Team SNES reaches Bal Castle and finally has a place to grind money/AP if needed. There are some things I want to pick up in the stores there, so I spend a bit of time accumulating cash.  I chanced throwing money at the Stokers, believing Team GBA to be capable of handling the counterattacks; I was immediately proven wrong by so on retry I went with Rapid Fire instead. (Team GBA also ate a death on their way out of the Island Shrine.) The SNES randomizer puts summons that are gained as drops (off the top of my head I believe that's Shoat and Golem) into the randomization pool, so I have no idea where Golem or Shoat are or if I can even get them. Raitzeno posted:Ramuh as well.  Team GBA was facing Omniscient just as Team SNES reached Atomos, so GBA ate some casts of Reset while I focused on eliminating Atomos before SNES could be consumed and start up another cycle of Comet casts.  Something I finally noticed as I was sending Team GBA through the Deep Sea Trench is that the FFVA randomizer tells you in what job and at what level you learned an ability, so I took the opportunity to spread some much needed skills across the party.  I pick up a second Chicken Knife--already my best weapon available thanks to all of the running away Team SNES has engaged in--in Moore's Forest. Right now I can't use them without also triggering the occasional chance to flee, but I don't think I've hit the magic 255 number yet anyway so that's just free attack power bonuses.  Then it was Team GBA's turn to finally get some love as they went down the underwater Walse Tower to pick up Mime.  Drain Kiss blew through all four Crystals' hit points without triggering any of their rage scripts, and SNES Exdeath fell just as Team GBA reached a save point in the middle of clearing out Istory falls, so I decided that was as good a time as any to take a break.  The solid lead that Team GBA built in the early game has yet to disappear and probably won't if I also have Team SNES tackle all tablet dungeons. Team SNES wipes: Page 32/64/128, Jail Bear Team GBA wipes: Crystals, Landcrawler x 2, Phoenix Tower Sol Cannon x 2, Stoker, Oiseaurare dotchan fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jun 26, 2020 |
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Jun 19, 2020 05:53
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I guess we can accept Team GBA as the winners then, even if there's a bit of game to go.
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Jun 19, 2020 13:53
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dotchan posted:The SNES randomizer puts summons that are gained as drops (off the top of my head I believe that's Shoat and Golem) into the randomization pool, so I have no idea where Golem or Shoat are or if I can even get them. Ramuh as well.
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Jun 19, 2020 14:12
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Raitzeno posted:Ramuh as well. I knew I forgot something, I just couldn't remember what. 
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Jun 19, 2020 16:01
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Live on twitch to rando and maybe void divergence.
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Jun 25, 2020 20:31
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(Click here to see Void Divergence played up to Liquid Flame using slightly more competence and with all of the new jobs, abilities, mechanics, and boss gimmicks in play.)  Team SNES faceplanted on Gil turtle twice in an abortive attempt to earn quick cash; meanwhile, Leviathan was a non-issue for Team GBA, them having either bought or collected more than enough Coral Rings at some point that I've since forgotten.  With all of the legendary weapons unlocked, Team GBA got its hands on three more jobs: Dragoon, Beastmaster, and Gladiator (by process of elimination, that means the last job is Samurai). It had slipped my mind that Bahamut was waiting at the top of North mountain, so Team GBA headed straight into the Void.  Whoops! I forgot that being turned into stone is a thing that can happen in the Void. There went about 15 minutes worth of progress.    As it turns out, Team GBA was definitely not ready for Omega; even in my fastest class, I was being out-sped something ridiculous and off the top of my head I can't remember if I have any means to cast time magic. Still, being stubborn, I ate some more before I pressed on (and ate a wipe to Apanda because I forgot to change the party back to one that can do damage in a reasonable number of turns).  Not paying enough attention on Team GBA side (plus having zero Phoenix Downs available to purchase or farm as far as I know) leads to two more wipes, one to a regular encounter and another to Omega yet again.  They also wipe on Twintania due to me forgetting he brings out Tidal Wave as an attack.   When Team SNES failed to overcome Gilgamesh, I went on a quick quest to restock and see if there's any place I can get more Turtle Shells; one is a rare steal from the Weresnake in the Bal/Rugor region, and the other is a drop from the Land Crawler in the desert ouside of the Moogle's forest. Neither is an attractive grind option, especially not while I have another randomizer running simultaneously, so I only splatted Land Crawlers until I got back up to about 20 Turtle Shells before I headed back into Meat Fort.   And while that was going on, poor Team GBA was once again neglected and died to a regular encounter as well as to Necrophobe.   In my first TED attempt for Team GBA I accidentally forced a phase change too early using Open Fire and, having forgotten to heal up beforehand, died to Almagest; in the second try, I brain farted and used regular attacks on TED, which procced Assassin's Dagger and (much to my surprise) also forced an early phase change before Lenna could sing any stats into the party and eventually another death to Almagest.  On the third try, my designated healer burned all of their MP reviving dead party memberes, leaving me with a dwindling party. Still, between Magic Lamp and Zeninage, Team GBA finished the game even before Team SNES could chop through all of Meat Fort Exdeath's HP (though, admittedly, that battle started later). After Team SNES finished their battle--consuming all of their Turtle Shells in the process--I let the GBA side run through the end credits while I dropped a save for SNES and then called it a night. Final remarks: I definitely didn't expect the GBA randomizer to be so much easier than the SNES version, but given that I was playing two games at once that ended up working out at least in terms of my own enjoyment, and I hope it was entertaining for you guys as well. I may continue to stream however much of the GBA post-game dungeon I can tolerate while I work on finishing the SNES randomizer (and the next time I do 2P1C, I will try to make sure either side has a reasonable chance to win), but this is it as far as the LP is concerned. Next update, I will be diving headfirst back into Void Divergence and will continue updates for as long as SA is around. (And if this LP does end up going somewhere else, I'll probably take that opportunity to make a director's cut version that smoothes out the rougher bits.) Team SNES wipes: Gil Turtle x 2, Meat Fort Gilgamesh Team GBA wipes: Achelon, Omega x 6, Apanda, Dragon Aevis, Twintania, Iron Giant, Necrophobia, NED x 2 Stat spread for all Jobs and time stamps of all bosses up to Exdeath II for Team SNES and every boss except Bahamut, Omega, and Shinryuu (and the end-game dungeons) for Team GBA, to be updated if I ever get around to finishing both randomizers.
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Jun 28, 2020 15:44
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As expected, team GBA won, although they seem to have had it rough by the end there. Looking forward to Void Divergence!
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Jun 28, 2020 16:43
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Live on Twitch for Void Divergence
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Jul 2, 2020 20:24
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| # ? May 2, 2024 09:52 |
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 Some levels both in EXP and Jobs later, as well as a trip back outside to pick up some Blue Magic and chests I forgot to get, I was ready to give LF another try.  With Galuf absorbing most of the damage (except for the occasional all-party-hitting Flame) and me being more willing to engage with the Brave mechanic to ensure extra healing or damage, I was able to win on the first try.  The Karnak escape sequence gives 5 minutes and change worth of extra time, just enough for the party to eat exactly 1 TPK and keep going if they only go for the non-Elixir chests; unfortunately for me, I spent too much time loving about and so I had to make a second run.  I'm still not used to trying status ailments on bosses so Ifrit took a while to chop through.  Ditto Byblos, who is no longer trivialized by casts of Ifrit.  I was expecting to die a million times to Sandworm, but either he was nerfed or the luck lined up in my favor. With Float making me immune from Quake, all I had to worry about was the occasion cast of Quicksand, which didn't happen often nearly as often as compared to the old version; Faris (otherwise my dedicated healer for this fight) even got in on the action and attacked a few times.  Adamantoise had tougher defenses than I remember the vanilla version possessing, but give that the last two times I fought him was in the randomizer while I was playing two games at once my recollections are hardly accurate.  On the other hand, Sol Cannon blew up before it could fire its laser even once.  The mod added a notification whenever Archaeoavis changes weak points, which is a very nice QoL update; however, I still ate a wipe and needed to grind a bit before I could overcome it.  In preparing to head to World 2, I noticed that I have Mime unlocked already for whatever reason. Whatever, I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Mime Usable by: Everybody Stats: 26/26/22/26 Level Bonus: AGL, HP, MP Innate: None Default ability: !Mimic, which now has a list of commands, see below Abilities: Endure, !Mimic, !Red, Mastery, !GilToss; Mimes can also equip !Red and Steady MP without grinding for it. Dotchan's impressions: It's a Mime, it does Mime things and a bit of additional utility. pre:Mimic MP Power Type Target Special Encore 0 N/A special self Mimic previous action Imitate 0 N/A special one Mimic an ability the enemy can use Image 15 N/A status one evade next physical attack Bore 8 N/A status one/all inflict sleep Bad Act 10 N/A status all inflict confuse Astonish 13 N/A status one inflict mute Curtain 14 N/A status one heal negative status effects except death and doom Assist 0 N/A special one Restore 100 MP  The Purobolos have, thankfully, reverted to their vanilla gimmick (though I decided ultimately to go with a different party layout so I could have more AOE).  Titan took a bit longer than necessary due to me not paying attention to field effects (and here I have to admit a bit of cleverness on the mod's part that I actually admired--Titan's weaknesses of Fire and Holy means that if I don't focus on one particular weakness, it makes it stupidly easy to create Sun icons, which heal Titan if he makes a move between my party's turns).   And Chimera Brain gained a bit of an annoying gimmick--if I kill the skeletons first, it casts Reset.  At least Gil runs away properly now.  The Big Bridge is still the Big Bridge, jamming beats and all. (Meanwhile, on the randomizer front, Team SNES cleared the Pyramid mostly problem free thanks to Requiem, though they still faltered on occasion, and I tried the bonus dungeon with Team GBA but they're a tad too fragile for that. So I had Team GBA grind in the Undersea Trench until Team SNES had collected their tablet and dropped a save, then focused on Team GBA exclusively to try Omega--but he's still too fast even for my fastest party. Fortunately, Running Shoes are a random drop in GBA's seed; unfortunately, that particular enemy lies in the bonus dungeon. The current plan is to grind in the Void until level 50, double check if any shops sell Potions, and then head into the Fire Ship to grind Dragon Fangs off Poltergeists so I can feed myself extra levels if necessary.) Next update will probably be delayed on account of me having zero willpower and grinding a stupidly addictive gacha game. 
dotchan fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Jul 11, 2020 |
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Jul 8, 2020 00:10
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