|
The main thing is that "Attack" is basically the least interesting option possible. All those other abilities are much cooler.
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2012 05:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:52 |
|
|
You're right, but I like my weapons to be more than just stat sticks. I like skills that do damage and do something interesting. If the knight commands could deal damage (even reduced damage) on top of breaking a stat or equip (yes I know that breaking armor is very much like attacking HP, but it always seemed strange that I could hamstring someone's speed or smash his helmet and somehow not injure him), that sort of thing would be enough for me.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2012 06:30
|
|
|
It's too bad the CT handling isn't more robust. Having attack use less CT than Draw Out would be pretty resonable.
|
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2012 07:50
|
|
|
Well, in CCP very few of the PA classes have a viable option besides marching up and mashing attack. Warrior has loving charge (completely unchanged loving worthless charge at that), champion and ghael are both slightly different flavored faith/MA/mp based white mages, nomad skills are situational at best and cost too much mp, and torero has a bunch of lame status attacks saved by the sheer brute force that is terminar. Gunslinger and Brawler are the only ones that have reliable offensive options, but for gunslinger that's just attacking with a 25% chance to cause a status effect. Brawler wound up basically being a swordskiller, in a game with MA based swordskills with 1.3 style nerfs buried in the rear end end of the job tree. E: There's a preview of the next version of CCP up now, playable til the end of chapter 2. dis astranagant fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Dec 25, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 25, 2012 08:25
|
|
|
Episode 16: Goug Machine City With the Princess completely and totally safe, we're now trying to rescue Mustadio's dear old dad from the shady merchant firm Bart Company. Cardinal Draclau said he would dispatch troops to Goug to give those ne'er-do-well traders a sound thrashing, but having arrived in the city, we can find no sign of a struggle.  Prufrock and Mustadio split up to play Nancy Drew, arranging to meet up later in the slums to swap intel, which is where now find ourselves.  Suddenly, Mustadio and a fat guy in fancy clothes show up.  I'm guessing the no-neck negotiator is not Mustadio's newly-rescued father. (He is, in fact, the head of Bart Company.)  'Besrodio' is a cool name. Coupled with that sick handlebar mustache, I think it's safe to assume that Mustadio's old man is some kind of kickin' rad cowboy.  Since the Ivalician approach to hostage negotiation involves giving the other side whatever they want with no safety assurances, Mustadio directs Prufrock to meed their demands.   Prufrock hucks the shiny rock to the corpulent consigner, certain that once Bart has what they want, they'll definitely not kill the only witnesses.  You've got to be making GBS threads me, Cardinal Dracula turned out to be a bad guy after all!  Obviously the butterball broker isn't planning to just let us walk away.  Instead we're going to have to cut our way through yet another squad of Bart thugs.  The Ninja makes its first appearance among enemy formations, and true to enforcer-for-a-rich-rear end in a top hat-form, the two here come equipped with some nice gear.  Both the enemy Thieves and the enemy Ninjas are lightning fast, but I've brought my own speed demons to the party. Lavian, now a Ninja herself, gets the first move but starts out of range of any good attacks, so instead Praise gives Prufrock a little insurance against his (what I'm assuming to be) inevitable slaughter.  Mustadio has no gear at all for this fight, so the first Thief to get a turn moves up and one-shots him. Prufrock has to deal with the second Thief's assault.  Fortunately, Auto Potion still kicks mega rear end, so that Reraise might not be as necessary as I had assumed.   Ninjas still Throw poo poo, and since Throw's range is based on the user's Move stat, they have quite a lot of reach.  These Summoners are able to cast advanced spells and can really wreck your poo poo  Confusion is actually rather weak here, since Summoners are still pretty likely to catch our units in those big-rear end AoEs.  Rushing two fragile units directly at the Summoners, far ahead of the rest of the team, was a big risk. We were sort of counting on the status attacks disabling them for a round or two while I took care of the Ninjas, but that gamble did not pay off.  Having cleared Prufrock out of the way, Alicia manages to catch both Thieves with a Draw Out.  Though they may seem like the least threatening enemies, remember that they do have Steal Heart and we've got two women plus a monster on the team.  Here's the price of a failed gambit: the un-charmed Summoner gets a spell off, and boy is it a doozy.  Leviathan is one of the strongest Summons, with the widest AoE.  It kills both Iago and Rad in one go, leaving my team outnumbered 2 to 1, in addition to being outleveled and outgeared. I'm not gonna lie, I was entirely anticipating a Game Over at this point. Things look really bad.  But it's not over yet! Like it's hasty brother, Slow 2 has a neat animation.  Of course, it's going to take a lot more than a double Slow to turn this fight around. The real reason Prufrock cast it is to change up the AT order slightly, allowing Lavian to act immediately after.   Now that is how you even the odds. Don't get me wrong, we're still playing catch up, but at least now we've got a fighting chance!  Thieves can use Ninja Knives in 1.3, giving them a higher-offense option over the relatively weak but Speed-boosting Daggers. Like the aforementioned Daggers, they also use the wielder's Speed stat, as well as PA, to determine damage.  I did mention Steal Heart, yeah? Were this to hit, it would seal the deal on our loss.  But whaddya know? Looks like we're still in this thing.  And the AI apparently isn't smart enough to try again. Take the helmet, it's yours, see if I care. You can wear it to your funeral.  Lavian doesn't hit nearly as hard as the enemy Ninjas (would, if they weren't napping), owing to a big gap in equipment and to her very small Daggers.   More Leviathan coming right up. Fortunately Alicia is not so squishy as a Thief or a chocobo, and takes it on the chin.  Prufrock really needs to start getting the rest of his team back into the fight, especially since those death timers are counting down uncomfortably quickly. Losing a unit to crystal is the next best thing to Game Over on its own.  One of the upsides to wielding double Daggers is the ludicrous Speed buff. Even at her lower level, Lavian is by far the fastest unit on the field.  It's a drat good thing Life heals 50%, because even with half his HP, that Summoner almost knocks Rad back down with her staff. I actually had to stop and mentally calculate the damage she would deal before deciding to raise him.  Another of Draw Out's many strong points is that it's unevadable, allowing it to slaughter low-HP, high-Evasion units with narry a care in the world.  Chain revivals can allow one to recover from even the direst of circumstances. One newly-raised unit revives another, until every one is standing and the last link in the chain goes on the offensive.  Her damage may be low, but Lavian can throw out enough attacks to make up for it. Death by a thousand cuts and all that.   Sticks loving hurt. Their WP isn't fantastic (aside from one poachable item) but they use MA instead of PA, making them very dangerous in the hands of high-magic jobs.  Seriously, look how many loving turns Lavian is getting. She's lapped poor Alicia like twice now.   We won't see Choco Cure very often, since the healing isn't fantastic and it's usually better to have Iago go on the attack. In a pinch, though, we have to make do.  It'd be really nice to have Rad get Prufrock back on his feet, but the (still) Confused Summoner has a Shiva charging right on top of his body.  So instead Rad shoots a mother fucker in the dome.  Worst compat's a bitch.   Choco Ball doesn't get strong until very late in the game, due to its damage formula (PA/2*PA). To be honest, it's worth keeping Iago around entirely for Choco Star.  Anyway, it's not long until we finish this fight.   The Summoner puts up a decent struggle, right on to the end.  I imagine that if the AI was capable of surrender, she would have said “gently caress it” and gone home a long time ago.  I guess that's what you get for joining the combination Mafia / East India Co.  Maybe you should be a bit more worried about yourself, dude. I think I can see some sky through that hole in your chest.  The trophies for this battle aren't very exciting. We can buy all that crap in stores. Later, back at Besrodio's pad...  Yeah Mustadio, you probably could have gotten a little more for the ransom than “kill us just a bit later than now”...  Oh you cheeky bastard.  Turns out Mustadio is smarter than he looks (and frankly those coveralls make him look like a nerd).  You know what kid? You're alright by me.  No time for more condescending half-praise, though. If the Count is in league with that ten-ton tycoon Rudvich, there's no telling where else he might have sunk his fangs.  Yeah, so remember that whole 'third major powerful political organization in Ivalice' deal?  Turns out the Glabados Church isn't particularly benevolent in its interests.  The Church, evil? And in a Final Fantasy, you say?  After spending the whole first part of the chapter saving Ovelia, we get to go rescue her royal rump yet again.  I'm getting more than a little deja vu here.  Yep, this definitely reminds me of something, but I just can't put my finger on it.  Well, whatever, I'm sure it'll all work out. After all, it's not like this is the first time we've... . . .  …oh. J. Alfred Prufrock fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Apr 21, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 01:12
|
|
|
Is that Choco Ball formula right? I feel like it's missing something. Also, it'd make more sense and be clearer as (PA*PA/2). Just a thing that bugged me.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 01:19
|
|
|
GeneralYeti posted:Also, it'd make more sense and be clearer as (PA*PA/2). Just a thing that bugged me. I that's an artifact of how the BMG wrote things out. I want to say the first XA encountered in a formula is the one all the modifiers are dumped on, which makes a difference with all the truncation issues caused by using integer math everywhere.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 01:40
|
|
|
Looks like things are certainly starting to pick up... I can't wait to see how things are in Chapter 4... and in the Deep Dungeon. This should be interesting. Oh ho ho ho...
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 03:00
|
|
|
Class Acts: Ninja Ninja are still the same fragile damage dealers from vanilla, having only received a few minor tweaks and adjustments. However, despite the job itself changing very little, it's relative value as a physical powerhouse has decreased somewhat thanks to improvements to its competitors (namely the Thief, but other jobs as well).  The Throw skillset is essentially untouched except for the loss of several options including Axe, Katana, Knight Sword, and Spear. The only missing option that doesn't make much sense is Spear, since the other three weapon types have disproportionately high WPs thanks to their unique qualities. This relatively minor nerf is counteracted by increased WPs on most Throw-only items. Magic Shuriken and Yagyu Darkness now also deal Wind and Dark elemental damage, respectively, giving the Ninja access to most damage types. Additionally, since Throw uses Speed instead of PA or MA, its damage is now much easier to boost thanks to the fact that Daggers and one type of Ninja Knife now add a point of Speed each. --- Abandon allows certain setups to become nigh-on-impossible to hit with any evadeable physical attack. Though evasion tanking is only viable against specific enemies, it will dominate those battles in which it is relevant. Sunken State actually does something now. Transparent gives the user 100% accuracy on their next attack (basically, a single-use Concentrate). Sort of hard to rate because anybody who really needs to ignore evasion probably already bought it with their support skill, but since the player can't really control when to use it (outside of attacking their own units, and even then it's still limited by Brave) and since it won't always be especially useful even when it does go off, I'm going to go ahead and suggest leaving this one at home. Two Swords remains one of the easiest ways to boost damage on a weapon attacker. Twice the attacks equals twice the damage, which is generally stronger than Two Hands or Attack UP, but of course only works with a limited selection of weapons. Also combos with Battle Skill, Precision, and Mustadio's Snipe. Walk on Water still exists. Yep. --- The only change of note to the Ninja's base stats is a small decrease in PA, leaving them slightly worse off at using other jobs' weaponry, though the improvements to Daggers and end-game Ninja Knives mean that the Ninja's attacks with their native gear remain just as powerful. As dedicated physical damage dealers, Ninja still excel, but are fairly specialized in that role. Their excellent mobility and speed also make them great mage hunters, since they can easily reach enemy backlines and deal just enough damage to take out lightly-armored casters, and get plenty of turns which leads to plenty of interrupted charges. Not really a glass cannon, more like a glass high-powered rifle. However, with other jobs like the Knight, Thief, and Dancer getting big attack power boosts, they do have a lot more competition when it comes to choosing a beatstick. Still, it's hard to go wrong with a Ninja.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 06:42
|
|
|
J. Alfred Prufrock posted:Magic Shuriken and Yagyu Darkness now also deal Wind and Dark elemental damage, respectively, giving the Ninja access to most damage types. I feel like this is much less relevant in FF1.3 due to the removal of most "Elemental Weakness" in the mod. I guess the 2 additional element helps with avoiding resistances but I never felt Throw was worth its damage if it wasn't hitting a weakness... I guess it works as an anti-sandbag measure albeit not the best one. quote:Sunken State actually does something now. Transparent gives the user 100% accuracy on their next attack (basically, a single-use Concentrate). I think this feature was actually already in the original. And IIRC, Transparent also makes the AI not single target you intentionally (they'll still try to knock you out of it through AOE effects)
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 07:03
|
|
|
Ninja, not the generic physical uber-job that it once was, but still good at what it does. There are some interesting setups you can do with it in 1.3, since ninjablades were revamped to be more versatile, including the ability to make an effective ninja-geomancer.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 07:07
|
|
|
Davzz posted:I feel like this is much less relevant in FF1.3 due to the removal of most "Elemental Weakness" in the mod. I guess the 2 additional element helps with avoiding resistances but I never felt Throw was worth its damage if it wasn't hitting a weakness... I guess it works as an anti-sandbag measure albeit not the best one. Yeah, I seem to recall that 1.3 removed the "invisibility" aspect of Transparent, so the AI will still target you. Can't have invisible dancers! But it does make the ability pretty worthless. The removal of elemental weaknesses is really one area where I feel 1.3 made things "less fun." Elements are basically there so you can't use certain skills without healing enemies- you can't target weaknesses anymore. That takes out a lot of the depth of the element system when it's all Absorb, no Weak. On top of that, a lot more items and abilities now have elemental properties to make them useless against some enemies. In other words, elements added to attacks is a straight-up nerf, period. Dark, in particular, is a problem- lots of attacks are now Dark, and most bosses are just straight-up immune. Schwartzcough fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Dec 27, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 07:39
|
|
|
Can't have you exploit elemental weakness to make fights more interesting. This is 1.3, afterall.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 07:41
|
|
|
Except that giving a thrown item wind elemental does exactly that? It was basically impossible to do wind damage in regular fft, now you can wreck all those floating dudes.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 09:16
|
|
|
run DNC posted:Except that giving a thrown item wind elemental does exactly that? It was basically impossible to do wind damage in regular fft, now you can wreck all those floating dudes. Except enemies aren't weak to wind (or any other element) anymore. That's the point. There may be a few enemies that still have elemental weaknesses, but they're extremely rare if they exist at all.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 09:20
|
|
|
Schwartzcough posted:Except enemies aren't weak to wind (or any other element) anymore. That's the point. There may be a few enemies that still have elemental weaknesses, but they're extremely rare if they exist at all. I think he's saying to make them with oil and float.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 09:23
|
|
|
Schwartzcough posted:Except enemies aren't weak to wind (or any other element) anymore. That's the point. There may be a few enemies that still have elemental weaknesses, but they're extremely rare if they exist at all. Lots of enemies have float.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 10:16
|
|
|
Elemental attacks can also be boosted via equipment such as the 108 Gems, Earth Clothes, or the elemental rods. On the whole, I do agree with the disappointment in the removal of weaknesses, since they create interest and encourage variety. As it stands, most spells might as well be tagged Elemental/Nonelemental, where Elemental just makes attacks worse most of the time, except when carrying some very specific equipment. The lack of weaknesses also hurts skillsets like Summon that use elemental types to differentiate between largely similar spells (Shiva vs. Ifrit vs. Ramuh, for example). Of course, this may simply indicate a larger problem with such skillsets (see the vanilla version of Black Magic for a how-to on repetition) but even so I can't see how weaknesses hurt anything when factored as just another advantage in deciding which attack to use. Knowing how to exploit elemental weaknesses is a skill, just like knowing how to successfully sandbag or how to predict the Tactics AI, so even from a challenge perspective I don't understand the intent. There are very few things that I feel 1.3 made worse, but the removal of vulnerabilities is one of them. Maybe Archael can shed some light on the thought process behind the decision. I'm sure there's some reason at work, but I really couldn't tell you what it is.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 11:29
|
|
|
run DNC posted:Lots of enemies have float. Do floating enemies really have inherent weakness to Wind? I always thought Float was a "positive" status effect. That's interesting. I can already think of one battle where I wished I knew that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 11:42
|
|
|
Davzz posted:Do floating enemies really have inherent weakness to Wind? I always thought Float was a "positive" status effect. Final Fantasy IV and VI had weapons that exploited floating status. IV had spears and boomerangs that were "throw" element that did extra damage, and VI had the hawk eye type weapon that Locke chucked at the enemy doing like 4x damage to it. Kind of like inviz in VI being a buff except for the 100% magic accuracy, or haste being a buff unless condemn is used and it counts down faster. 95% of the time its good, but there is a minor downside
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 14:15
|
|
|
Also, don't forget the elemental boosts you get from the weather like snow (which boosts Ice magic). Even though these weather effects don't really occur too often, it encourages you to use certain elements.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 20:48
|
|
|
J. Alfred Prufrock posted:Maybe Archael can shed some light on the thought process behind the decision. I'm sure there's some reason at work, but I really couldn't tell you what it is. Because it lets you kill enemies faster and maybe avoid endless repetitive sandbagging. So it has to go.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 20:50
|
|
|
Davzz posted:Do floating enemies really have inherent weakness to Wind? I always thought Float was a "positive" status effect. I think the float *status* now creates a weakness to wind, but I don't think the float *inherent/movement ability* does. In other words, I'm pretty sure Bombs and Ghosts are not weak to wind.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 21:46
|
|
|
I can understand it if you want to emphasize the spread/effects of magic instead of their element. It's kind of a over-simplifying cliche to just do the elemental rock paper scissors of Ice>Fire and Fire>Ice. It's sort of a World of Warcraft approach to balance - you want to bring a Mage for the effects of their abilities instead of 'Ragnaros is weak to ice, stack Frost Mages'(you ended up doing this anyway, but not due to frost damage). Instead, and especially in later expansions, the element of the attack was secondary to its effects in the rotation. However, World of Warcraft has mostly did away with elemental immunities/resists too. Firelands, the Warcraft elemental plane of fire, had Fire Mages as a perfectly valid choice for raiding. It functionally makes elements meaningless outside very certain situations - a Shaman self-buff boosts nature damage done by 30%, as to not add to the burst of the bursty-fire spell. Taking away weaknesses but not enemy resists is the problem, essentially. I think the 1.3 Black Mage is infinitely more interesting than the Vanilla one myself, even if their were more weaknesses to play with.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 21:56
|
|
|
Elemental Weaknesses reward players for using the right element. Elemental resistances punish players for using the wrong element. Since 1.3 is all about punishing the player, it's only natural it stays in.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 22:00
|
|
|
Schwartzcough posted:I think the float *status* now creates a weakness to wind, but I don't think the float *inherent/movement ability* does. In other words, I'm pretty sure Bombs and Ghosts are not weak to wind. Float is innately weak to wind in 1.3, but bombs/ghosts have Levitate instead of the former, which doesn't have wind weakness. I think Fly also doesn't have wind weakness. Dr Pepper posted:Elemental Weaknesses reward players for using the right element. Most monsters with elemental weakness had them removed, excepting the undead. Generic human enemies have the same elemental values as the player, since those are equipment related, excepting certain special jobs with Dark immunity so they can't be cheesed. The removal of elemental weakness from monsters is also part of the attempt at making monsters more useful for the player. Sure, you can't guarantee to one-shot monsters with weaknesses anymore, but it also means your monsters aren't vulnerable in the same way. You sound awfully bitter. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Dec 27, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 22:40
|
|
|
Oh God. Why didn't anyone tell me someone else was doing this? Back shortly after Declan gave up, I did my own runthrough of 1.3.0.5/6. I played at high framerate, so given some of the timestamps you can see how long some fights take. If you want to actually see sandbag looping, you might enjoy it. There's spoilers (it's a full run, minus the Deep Dungeon which I am not masochistic enough to do) of course.J. Alfred Prufrock posted:Knowing how to exploit elemental weaknesses is a skill, just like knowing how to successfully sandbag or how to predict the Tactics AI, so even from a challenge perspective I don't understand the intent. There are very few things that I feel 1.3 made worse, but the removal of vulnerabilities is one of them. The best fix for this would be to have more gear that grants resistances also grant vulnerabilities. For example, Earth Clothes could give you a vulnerability to Wind in addition to absorbing Earth. Personally, I don't like the inherent weaknesses, especially for monsters who can't really make up for them with gear. Schwartzcough posted:Dark, in particular, is a problem- lots of attacks are now Dark, and most bosses are just straight-up immune.
There are a number of other places where this comes back to gently caress you, notably in instances where the Immortal flag is used. Chapter 2 is pretty much my favorite part of the mod (well, a few parts of Chapter 4 also) because it occurs prior to the massive Immortal-flag boner that is Chapter 3 and beyond. The Immortal flag, in addition to making it so a unit never crystallizes (which is both unfair and unfun because it means you cannot draw out the enemy's sandbagging), makes them immune to Invite, Charm, Petrify, Frog, Undead, Death Sentence, Blood Suck, Chicken, Berserk, and Confusion. Don't Act still works (except it doesn't, for a different reason), and sometimes so does Sleep. You might note that this completely destroys the status effect usefulness of almost every class that isn't Mediator or Oracle, and is a pretty hefty hit to the latter. Yep. Yin-Yang Magic is still amazing because Pray/Doubt Faith are incredible but more on that some other time. I suspect the abundant use of Immortal flagging where it is completely inappropriate was initially done to prevent the player from acquiring the Elixir/Power Source skillset, since every enemy that has Item slotted is Immortal past a certain point in the game. As are non-boss units in special classes (most bosses were always Immortal, you just didn't know it because missions ended when they died), which actually makes sense as things could screw up if those units were crystallized. And sometimes every enemy unit is just immortal because gently caress you. p.s. Enemies still have infinite supplies of everything so the restrictions put into place on the best Draw Out abilities mean absolutely nothing to them. Enjoy having Koutetsu be the dominant Draw Out power metric for 99% of the game while the AI freely does what-the-gently caress-ever. p.p.s. Some parts of this mod are really, really good though. The class changes are great and the enemy formations can be downright devious. The bosses are, almost without exception, overly-tanky brick shithouses with only a few subject to really cool strategy.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2012 23:05
|
|
|
Episode 17: Bariaus Valley Welp, we're back to rescuing a princess, and from an evil church, no less. Could this get any more Final Fantasy? (I suppose we haven't met Cid yet...give it time.)  As Mustadio pointed out, we probably can't waltz up to the castle as ask politely for Ovelia's return, so we're going to have to sneak around back via boat.  It looks like Providence has brought us together again with our old friend Delita.  Apparently Delita has joined forces with some other shadowy group pulling strings behind the scenes. He certainly seems to know a lot more than he's letting on.    Delita is easily my favorite Final Fantasy antagonist. He's ruthless and capable, and doesn't make any dumb fantasy villain mistakes, but at the same time his motivations are complex and very human, and his tragic flaw undoes him in the end. To draw a Shakespeare comparison, he's more Macbeth than Richard.  Meanwhile, another, more sinister meeting takes pla- holy poo poo is that Teta?  Nope, it's just Gafgarion? Who is the most convincing crossdresser ever?  Either Gaffy is a grizzled vet who likes to get pretty on the weekends, or she's really a young lady who disguised herself as an old man to join the military without prejudice. Either way, I'm declaring it officially canon.  Knowing full well that the first thing Prufrock will do is rush to Ovelia's rescue, the Count devises a trap.  Maybe our hero is naïve enough not to expect an ambush of some sort, but I think he's just set on saving the princess, dastardly plot or no.  Once Gafgarion leaves, the Cardinal advances on the elephantine importer.  “You have failed me for the last time.”  And the morbidly massive merchant is no more. Cutting back to our heroes...  We find Agrias fleeing through a rainy river valley, Lionel troops in hot pursuit.  Seems she managed to escape Vlad's clutches, but Ovelia is nowhere in sight.  Fortunately, Prufrock and his team arrive in time to help Agrias kick some ordained rear end.  This is the last rescue mission for the chapter, though there will be several more later in the game. Being a Holy Knight, Agrias is pretty tough, which is helpful since she starts on the other end of the map from the player's formation.  Of course, the very first thing to happen is a Priest charging a 350ish damage Holy directly at our rescue objective.  Obviously that spell cannot be allowed to go off, so we're forced to rush headlong into the fight.  Had I though to put Mustadio on this side, he could have just interrupted it with an Arm Aim. Ah well.  Speaking of Arm Aim, it adds Don't Act and has a hit rate modified by the user's Speed. Since Engineers are quite fast, it's got solid accuracy.  I usually like to start fights off with either Arm Aim or Mosfungus Bomb, to get a bit of breathing room against superior forces.  Iago also does what he always does. Both formations start this battle divided by the river running down the middle of the valley. Without Float or Walk on Water it's incredibly difficult to cross the water except at either end.  When approaching this battle, the player can either place super mobile units on one side and then have them rush over to the other to join both squads...  Or try to quickly disable the smaller enemy squad first and then close on the larger squad threatening Agrias from two sides.  I prefer the latter, since cramming 12+ units into that one corner of the map makes for kind of a clusterfuck.  Either way, a good measure of mobility is very important. This is not an easy battlefield to navigate, and the player has a large distance to close right from the very start.  But the correct play really depends on your units' capabilities. If you brought a Summoner, Samurai, and Sage, a clusterfuck might be exactly what you want.  Now me, I brought a Dancer.  Last Dance is the opposite of Last Song.  Rather than set your units' CTs to 100...  ...it sets enemy CTs to 00.  They both accomplish the same goal, however: give your formation a poo poo load more turns than the enemy.   As in most battles to come, the enemy is prepared with lots of sandbagging.  One can also expect a lot of status attacks in this fight.  I'm basically facing down my own favorite strategy here.  Mustadio's guns are very accurate and have extremely long range. Coupled with his high Speed, they make him an excellent unit with which to pick off weakened enemies.   No, I'm not using a Mage Masher, that Oracle has MP Switch equipped. Personally, I've never understood its appeal on spellcasters; you'd think it would be best on units that don't need their MP to function.   Just like Last Song, Last Dance is stupendously good on any map in which you have the space to use it.  That Oracle may not have MP left, but she can stick what you with a Stick for a lot of damage.  It's also important to keep the Knights focused on sandbagging and away from beating up Agrias.  Slow + Last Dance can lock enemies out of getting turns pretty much ever.  Dance, like Sing, does lose effectiveness at higher levels, as increased Speed means more and more turns go by between dances.  Lavian has a huge reach thanks to Throw and her high Move stat.  At this point, the battle is already won. Not only is the enemy down two units, with a third wading through the river confused, but Prufrock and Mustadio are throwing out Slows and Alicia is keeping them from acting.  Doubt Faith's incantation.  The Innocent status both prevents a unit from casting magic and makes them immune to its effects.  Against caster-heavy formations, it works well as both an offensive debuff and a defensive buff.   I realize that I frequently declare fights to be over well before the final screenshot, but it's not due to arrogance.  1.3 is a game of momentum.  Build enough, and victory usually falls into place.  Outside of a few exceptional comebacks, a strong early lead will cascade into a win.  This is particularly true when dealing with effects that deny units turns. And is part of what makes status attacks so strong.  Of course, this all changes in the late game, when huge swathes of enemies are status immune and can heal themselves or each other to full HP and MP in a single action.  Then, the focus shifts a bit away from denying enemy actions to making the most out of your own.  For now, though, let's just enjoy crippling the other team and watching them flail around trying to recover.  I am drawing this fight out a bit, but I've got a good reason to do so.  See, a new unit has just joined the team, and the trouble with fresh recruits is that they rarely come with any good abilities already learned.  I could grind out JP, but doing so without over-leveling is a long, tedious process.  To do that, you have to use spillover JP to build up to Sage, and then use Move-Get JP to fill out the rest.  Regular grinding will mean that you gain a lot of levels, which is very bad. Enemy levels scale with your own, but enemy equipment scales with enemy levels, not with what's available in stores.  Crystals, then, are the best way to learn a bunch of new abilities relatively quickly, and without gaining any EXP.  Whenever you get a new Join Up, try to spend at least the next fight gathering as many crystals as possible.  (Or use an editor, whatevs)   Seems that Princess Ovelia is scheduled for some good old-fashioned capital punishment. We've got a hanging to crash, so let's ride.  But first, some so-so treasure (only the Flame Shield is better than what we can buy right now)...  ...and, much more importantly, we finally get Agrias as a permanent member of the team! I don't know about you all, buy when I first got to this point in the game, I was loving stoked. The game's been showing off how powerful she is all through the chapter (and even in the intro) and at last the player gets to control her. You feel drat near invincible. Of course, that feeling rapidly subsides after the upcoming kick in the balls. Next Time: a kick in the balls. J. Alfred Prufrock fucked around with this message at 21:29 on Jun 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 00:50
|
|
|
To be fair though, Agrias is pretty much all that and should be brought up to speed as soon as possible. Despite having suffered from the general nerfs of Swordskills in 1.3, they're still incredibly strong, and Agrias pretty much has the best of the bunch overall. She also happens to have an incredibly deep MP pool in her default job class, meaning of all the sword-skillers she's the one who has the least problem paying for them under the new mechanics. I think she also got a so-so PA boost in her Holy Knight class to make up for being female somewhat. Not that being female doesn't have plenty of advantages all by itself. As for Boco/Iago and Mustadio... I wish Mustadio's class had more abilities, as it's very lean on them despite the ones he does have being pretty cool. At least a few utility things from the Squire class would be nice on him. He's also supposed to have innate Maintenance but I forget if he does or not. Some class is supposed to have it but actually doesn't, possibly Chemists. Still, he's wicked fast for a human unit and his skillset works well as a secondary if you put him in certain other classes. Boco just owns. Choco Star is great, it only gets better as he levels up, his abilities other than Choco Star are still pretty nice, and he has a cool feature when interacting with other monsters if you care to do it. He's also fast as poo poo and has Neutral compatibility with everything (notice his unusual zodiac sign of Serpentarius), which is usually to his benefit since his MA scales up really well so losing good compatibility with enemies that can hurt him isn't such a big tradeoff for extra hit chance on Choco Star. That said, I did eventually stop using him just because some stuff can be absolutely brutal on monsters (Concentrate Marksmen especially).
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:22
|
|
|
Yeah, 1.3 Agrias has much better growths and multipliers and is arguably the best sword-skiller now. WotL 1.3 Agrias is even better, with Life and Esuna added to her job skills.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:26
|
|
|
Corvinus posted:Yeah, 1.3 Agrias has much better growths and multipliers and is arguably the best sword-skiller now. WotL 1.3 Agrias is even better, with Life and Esuna added to her job skills. EDIT: Although going with a Virgo Ramza does mean Agrias is Neutral to him, but I think she has Good compatibility with her knights. Nakar fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Dec 28, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:28
|
|
|
Do all the special characters keep their normal abilities? I don't recall you mentioning that.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:36
|
|
|
Rabbi Raccoon posted:Do all the special characters keep their normal abilities? I don't recall you mentioning that. I don't think Agrias keeps any abilities she learned with JP when she was a guest. The version that appears in Bariaus Valley is basically a new Agrias.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:38
|
|
|
I never noticed this while I was playing, but... ...the sweet heck is wrong with the river? Twisted Flow indeed. --- Also, I'm enjoying how in-depth tactical your writing is. It gives me a feel not just for what you're doing, but why you're doing it, both micro-scale and macro-scale. F5 F5 F5 F5... Sorites fucked around with this message at 01:49 on Dec 28, 2012 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:43
|
|
|
Nakar posted:Some of their classes and skillsets have been changed a lot. Every special character keeps their class, which replaces Squire. So Agrias is still a Holy Knight, still has her Holy Swordskill set, but it behaves a little differently. The moves have slightly different stats, cost MP, and they're subject to evasion. He mentioned all of that, and I think he also mentioned Mustadio's new ability Mosfungus Bomb. I knew about the Guest to permanent member stuff, but I must have missed the rest. Thanks.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:43
|
|
|
Nakar posted:Some of their classes and skillsets have been changed a lot. Every special character keeps their class, which replaces Squire. So Agrias is still a Holy Knight, still has her Holy Swordskill set, but it behaves a little differently. The moves have slightly different stats, cost MP, and they're subject to evasion. He mentioned all of that, and I think he also mentioned Mustadio's new ability Mosfungus Bomb. I think that if Mustadio had the Marksman ability set added into his own (eg. WotL 1.3 Balthier), which would then let him run with Item secondary, he'd be top tier.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 01:48
|
|
|
Sorites posted:I never noticed this while I was playing, but... The unnaturally straight vertical edge of the stone outcrop is making the vertical water tiles (the ones you see from the side where the water flows from a higher surface onto a lower one) look weird.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 02:08
|
|
|
The Gaf/Teta bug is fixed in the new version so you might want to update since I believe it also has a few other bug fixes. On the other hand it's friggin hilarious so personally I would suggest holding off for a while.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 03:04
|
|
|
I'm not sure you can really call Delita an antagonist. For all his talk he always ends up fighting on Ramza's side and there's never really a time where Delita trying to use everyone ever manages to run counter to the player's goals.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 03:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:52 |
|
|
Davzz posted:The Gaf/Teta bug is fixed in the new version so you might want to update since I believe it also has a few other bug fixes. I'm using 1.3.0.6, which is, as far as I know, the current version. Did you mean something else?
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2012 03:29
|
|