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How about naming it Sweettooth...cuz...cuz Needles Kane.  1000 Needles is a pretty nice move. Maybe I should recruit a Cactaur and ditch one of my lamer comrades. One change I would have liked in the PSX version of the hack is more units. 16 units, especially with all the new stuff, makes it really frustrating if you want to keep other dudes.
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Dec 15, 2012 05:07
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 00:01 |
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Name him Cacturne. Also, does anyone here have experience with the iPhone port of FFT? It's something that I would love to have to play on the go, but the reviews I've seen on the App Store are incredibly mixed. It's either 5 STARS TEH BEST GAME or people complaining that it won't run on their first generation iPod Touch.
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Dec 15, 2012 05:08
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I first came upon FFT on the iOS store. It's... Pretty good overall, though there were a few problems I did run into. Namely, it'd randomly stop playing the music if you exited the app and re-entered really quickly, and only a full-fledged restart of the iPod would fix it. Also, it had this rather annoying habit of quick-saving constantly during battles, resulting in going to the last move if you went for 'Continue' when you return to the main menu after you got a game over.  It also took a bit of getting used to playing such a menu-based game with a touch-screen, as well as moving the camera around to get a better view of the battle field and whatnot. Even so, I found those were all fairly minor annoyances in the long run, and clocked in over seventy hours (granted, a large chunk of which was devoted to levelling up Arithmaticians). Oh, and for reference, this was me playing on an iPod touch 4th generation.
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Dec 15, 2012 05:41
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Cactulet Cause you know... Capulet and cactus...
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Dec 15, 2012 06:04
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Lavinia.
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Dec 15, 2012 06:09
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Cactrot, from Final Fantasy VI, of course.
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Dec 15, 2012 06:09
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Name it Stephano
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Dec 15, 2012 06:32
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Shakespeare posted:
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Dec 15, 2012 06:44
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Endorph posted:Name it Imogen. Good enough for me. Imogen please.
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Dec 15, 2012 07:13
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Endorph posted:Name it Imogen. This is good do this please. Glad to see Geomancers got buffed in 1.3. They were my favourite class in vanilla.
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Dec 15, 2012 07:23
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Lets keep up the Shakespeare theme. Name it Romeo.
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Dec 15, 2012 08:04
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Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:Hack Blowfist! Voting for this because I didn't get enough of that naming style from your own FFT LP 
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Dec 15, 2012 08:05
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Hedrigall, the cactacae soldier from The Scar. Not quite the middle guy but close. (Stolen from DeviantArt -> nicholaskole.) 
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Dec 15, 2012 08:57
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Class Acts: Mediator With the removal of Brave and Faith manipulation in 1.3, the Mediator's skillset required a significant overhaul. Now Talk Skill shares a great deal more in common with the Oracle's Yin Yang magic, being focused entirely on status effects. Of the three affliction-based jobs (Oracle, Mediator, and Sage), the Mediator's skills are the fastest (being instant cast) and the cheapest (costing no MP), and are also unaffected by Faith; however, they trade range, area of effect, and some accuracy for those benefits.  Invitation has had its hit chance drastically lowered, making it essentially useless outside of dedicated recruiting. However, it is still the only way to permanently recruit enemy units, and with the improvements to monsters, as well as the fact that higher-level human units come with all of their higher-level gear, it is still plenty useful. Persuade is one of the few 'set CT to 00' skills, which makes it potentially useful against certain end-game enemies immune to most or all status effects (though many will have innate Finger Guard as well, lessening it's utility compared to Return 2). Praise adds the Defend status to a single unit in range, making it the single most garbage skill in the game, even surpassing Cheer Up in its total worthlessness. Threaten provides instant-add Don't Act against a single target. Don't Act is an excellent denial status and will typically remove an enemy from the battle for three rounds, since AI units afflicted by it naturally flee. Preach would be much more useful if the accuracy was a little higher. Free Reraise is potentially quite strong, but having your unit do nothing half the time instead makes it only occasionally worthwhile and never a replacement for an actual revival skill. Solution removes both positive and negative status effects, which can make it useful as both an offensive and defensive tool. Its low hit chance and single-target usage means it's probably not worth it against a single enemy buff outside of Reraise, but there are plenty of skills that apply multiple buffs at once, and Solution is a decent counter there. Death Sentence is almost always way too slow to make a difference, just like every other skill that adds Doom. Insult can obviously shut down enemy casters and support units, though like Praise it's hit chance is a little on the low side. Mimic Daravon is the only AoE Talk Skill and also definitely the best. Sleep is a very strong status and being able to apply it at instant speed allows for the interruption of long charge skills like high-end Summons and Planar Magics. Targeting multiple units goes a long way in alleviating concerns over low accuracy, and the AoE's nice vertical tolerance makes it easy to catch big groups at one. Easily the MVP of the skillset; if you're taking Talk Skill, it's probably for this one move right here. --- Finger Guard still never comes up, and even when you know you'll be facing a Talker it's still better to just equip some gear that gives you Sleep immunity and proceed normally. Equip Gun costs less JP, and the changes to guns in 1.3 make it a bit more worthwhile for dedicated non-Chemist support units that want a long-range poke with which to drop recently revived enemies. Train and Monster Talk are functionally unchanged. --- Mediators are hampered somewhat by their decidedly mediocre stats, making it difficult to justify actually ever using the base job. The only thing that makes the job stand out is the option to equip guns, and the ability of the Chemist to do the same, not to mention the Equip Gun support skill, basically leaves the Mediator obsolete on pretty much every front. On top of that, not only is Talk Skill somewhat stat-independent (double so in the early game), Mediators aren't even particularly good at using it, given their unremarkable MA. You can find good use for the skillset, but leave the base job at home.
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Dec 15, 2012 09:52
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Mimic Daravon is the poo poo. Primary Chemist or Bard with Talk secondary are my favourite uses for it. Alas, the only reason to ever be in Mediator is for its innate Monster Talk, which is very situational. Edit: I lied, Mediators can equip robes which does combo well with certain guns. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 10:52
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Corvinus posted:Edit: I lied, Mediators can equip robes which does combo well with certain guns. I wonder if there is a level range in which Magic Attack UP on a Mediator is better than Equip Gun on a class with good magic. It's way too late for me to do that math.
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Dec 15, 2012 11:10
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Endorph posted:Name it Imogen. 
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Dec 15, 2012 12:04
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J. Alfred Prufrock posted:I wonder if there is a level range in which Magic Attack UP on a Mediator is better than Equip Gun on a class with good magic. It's way too late for me to do that math. It's not very hard math to do; with MAttack UP, a mediator has an effective MAM of 133. Mediators have a really crappy MAC though, so assume that that number decays slightly over time. Heavy neutrino fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 12:07
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Heavy neutrino posted:It's not very hard math to do; with MAttack UP, a mediator has an effective MAM of 133. Mediators have a really crappy MAC though, so assume that that number decays slightly over time. Attack UP / Magic Attack UP work differently than job attribute multipliers (for instance, they're factored after elemental boosts but before shell/protect) so they don't map exactly.
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Dec 15, 2012 12:50
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J. Alfred Prufrock posted:Attack UP / Magic Attack UP work differently than job attribute multipliers (for instance, they're factored after elemental boosts but before shell/protect) so they don't map exactly. Does that actually have a consequence? Everything is multiplicative as far as I'm aware, so there should be no error in integrating (oh god the bad terminology) MAtUP into MAM. Maybe I'm missing something?
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Dec 15, 2012 14:29
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Heavy neutrino posted:Does that actually have a consequence? Everything is multiplicative as far as I'm aware, so there should be no error in integrating (oh god the bad terminology) MAtUP into MAM. Maybe I'm missing something? Other than possible roundoff errors from using integer math, you're pretty much right.
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Dec 15, 2012 17:45
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J. Alfred Prufrock posted:I wonder if there is a level range in which Magic Attack UP on a Mediator is better than Equip Gun on a class with good magic. It's way too late for me to do that math. Spell guns don't use the characters' MA. The spells they cast have a set power that is only modified through faith, MDef/MA UP, Shell, and elemental half/absorb/boost gear for the non-summon spells. A Mediator with MA UP would therefore do more damage than a Black Mage with Equip Gun. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 18:26 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 18:24
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Nth-ing Imogen. In vanilla, Equip Gun was one of my favorite skills. Most of the game was spent with a team of gun-wielding Knights going around and shooting enemies right in the Speed gland.
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Dec 15, 2012 19:23
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Edward_Tohr posted:Nth-ing Imogen. There was little more satisfying than seeing my Black Mage targeted by a Charge skill, then BANG, weapon broken. And they punch the air. Gun Knights were the best.
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Dec 15, 2012 20:50
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Edward_Tohr posted:Nth-ing Imogen. You know, this leads me to a question both about vanilla FFT and 1.3. What skills are affected by weapon range? Is it just Battle Skill?
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Dec 15, 2012 21:56
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bathroomrage posted:You know, this leads me to a question both about vanilla FFT and 1.3. Charge, Battle Skill and Snipe are the only weapon range skills.
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Dec 15, 2012 22:05
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bathroomrage posted:You know, this leads me to a question both about vanilla FFT and 1.3. Balthier's Barrage ability in WotL, and two abilities with a yet to be seen 1.3 character. And Priest's Holy Strike. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Dec 15, 2012 |
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Dec 15, 2012 22:17
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Edward_Tohr posted:Nth-ing Imogen. It's a pretty bad build, but there's definitely something appealing about Gun Knights. They've got style.
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Dec 15, 2012 22:26
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Heavy neutrino posted:It's a pretty bad build, but there's definitely something appealing about Gun Knights. They've got style. Well, the magic guns have really high WP and battle skill success rates are based on that, so it's not a bad idea.
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Dec 15, 2012 22:34
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dis astranagant posted:Well, the magic guns have really high WP and battle skill success rates are based on that, so it's not a bad idea. What I meant by bad is that if you want someone to Battle Skill with guns, there are much better options. You might start with a class that isn't slower than the government on a FOIA request. (What a lovely joke) Though it could be fun to send a Gun Knight with Counter solo into the enemy team and watch the bullets fly.
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Dec 15, 2012 22:41
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Heavy neutrino posted:What I meant by bad is that if you want someone to Battle Skill with guns, there are much better options. You might start with a class that isn't slower than the government on a FOIA request. (What a lovely joke) True. I'm a little spoiled by CCP's Gunslinger class, which are dualwielding gun-knights with cloth gear. They even get most of Snipe, though that's been reworked in a kinda dumb way.
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Dec 15, 2012 22:52
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Class Acts: Geomancer Geomancers were widely regarded as middle of the road in vanilla, largely due to the comparative weakness of the Elemental skillset. Not only has 1.3 buffed Elemental's damage, several other gameplay changes have made it a stronger option. The prominence of Item-based sandbagging alone makes Elemental much more valuable, as the instant, free, AoE damage it brings make it a natural counter to Phoenix Down spam. Additionally, the changes to Sword Skills mean that they no longer do everything that Elemental does only better (which was sadly the case in vanilla) affording the skillset much better niche protection.  As in vanilla, all Elemental skills use the same formula, and because the player is usually given little to no choice in which particular attack to use, they are best evaluated as a cohesive set. In 1.3 Elemental uses a different damage formula than in vanilla (which was (PA/2 + 1)*MA I believe) that makes for improved damage without changing the relative weight of PA vs. MA too much. The chance for a status proc is still a little too low to increase the value of the skillsert; one is best served by thinking of it as a nice bonus when it kicks in, but otherwise playing as though it doesn't exist. Despite the boost, Elemental's damage is probably still too low to be useful as a main form of offense, but its range and AoE make it an excellent option for softening up tough enemies or for finishing off already weakened ones. That it's damage can be applied immediately wherever it is most useful and often against multiple enemies at once also makes it a good sandbag counter. The biggest difficulty in boosting the damage of Elemental lies in the fact that its formula uses both PA and MA, leading to competition among equipment slots for stat-boosting gear and support skills, unlike, say, the Monk or Samurai who can focus exclusively on one or the other attack stat. This can be somewhat helpful, however, during the early game when equipment choices are limited, since no matter which stat a piece of gear boosts, Elemental will benefit. The only individual Elemental skills that stand out are the three non-elemental attacks, Pitfall, Hell Ivy, and Carve Model, as they cannot be boosted by means of 108 Gems (or rarely, other elemental gear), which sometimes renders them weaker despite the stronger status procs in Stop and Petrify. --- Counter Flood is obviously better because Elemental is better (though do be aware of the slighly shortened range). It can act as an okay Counter-type move for spellcasters, who obviously won't get much out of the physical skills, but because of Elemental's reliance on two stats, it still won't do much damage even there. Attack UP, Any Ground, and Move on Lava haven't changed, except that I think Any Ground does everything it's supposed to now, maybe? Really I'm surprised that Any Ground, Any Weather, Move in Water, Walk on Water, and Move on Lava are still five separate skills. Maybe if they were all condensed into one, somebody might use it ever. --- The Geomancer's biggest strength is their range of equipment, since their base stats are pretty strongly overshadowed by the Samurai. They have access to most of the best attribute-boosting gear, which can be tailored (  ) to either PA or MA to support any secondary skill. Unfortunately their rather unremarkable native attack stats leave them a bit wanting when it comes to carrying stat-heavy skillsets like Black Magic or Punch Art. 1.3 changed the Geomancer least of any job, which makes sense given their solid design in vanilla. However, the numerous attribute buffs to other jobs now sees the Geomancer struggling to keep up. The danger of being a jack-of-all-trades is, as always, that you'll be a master of none, and Geomancers could do with a few tweaks to help keep them competitive.
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Dec 15, 2012 23:51
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Elemental's damage is still ho-hum but with certain characters that can be specifically geared for it, it can hit for up to several hundred damage in the very late game. The damage formula it uses is such that having equal MA and PA (even # of PA best), and MA Up as support, gives the highest damage. Counter Flood is also really beastly on a few battles due to terrain allowing chances for petrify, and it having unlimited range. I tried making the non-elemental attacks into elemental ones (mostly earth) and it sorta fucks you when enemies start showing up with Earth Clothes. Corvinus fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Dec 16, 2012 |
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Dec 16, 2012 00:19
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Episode 00: The Beginning is the Middle is the Beginning The conclusion of Chapter 1 wraps up the double flashback, taking us full circle back to the past present rather than the past past.  We're back at Orbonne, where/when Delita has just made off with our princess.   Gafgarion does't seem to care that one of the most important royals in the country has been kidnapped.  Can I take a moment to gush about Agrias? Because I really like Agrias. She's a badass no-nonsense Knight dedicated who takes her duty and honor very seriously. She never gives up or wavers, and does it all without being a "strong female character". The fact that she's a lady only ever even comes up when she's being addressed formally. Tactics is generally pretty good to its women (with the exception of a few confusing lines made even more out-of-place by the rest of the game) and even our damsel in distress Ovelia shows strength as the plot unfolds. Anyway, aside over.  Elder Simon joins us in the monastery courtyard.   Prufrock obviously has to see Delita again. I'm sure that if my best friend went up in a massive inferno only to reappear kidnappying royalty, I'd be pretty intrigued.    Surprisingly, Gafgarion reluctantly agrees to come along as well.  And here we are in Chapter 2! Just one more thing before heading out... .png) .png) .png) New recruits! Normally I, like everyone else, take all their stuff and send them packing, but you know what? Let's get crazy. Say hello to Prufrock's new team!
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Dec 16, 2012 02:46
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Also of note, I am going to be switching to the most recent version, 1.3.0.6 for Chapter 2 and the rest of the game. Don't worry, it wouldn't have changed anything at all in Chapter 1, but it does add a new recruitable character later down the line.
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Dec 16, 2012 02:50
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Ah, these three. Most sane people do generally kick them out, but I suppose you could crystallize the old party members for a skill transplant. Of course, there will be one upside... Assuming that wasn't changed by the patch, of course.
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Dec 16, 2012 03:03
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Yapping Eevee posted:Ah, these three. Most sane people do generally kick them out, but I suppose you could crystallize the old party members for a skill transplant. I don't suppose a certain overpowered item from WotL was added was it? Of course, even if it was there still wouldn't be a reason to keep Rad. Except that he's rad, obviously.
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Dec 16, 2012 03:52
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Episode 10: Dorter? I Barely Knew Her! With Chapter 2 under way, we immediately jump from one rescue mission to the next. This time we're pursuing the pilferer that pinched our princess, and hoping that things turn out better than last time. Before heading out, some minor adjustments to our party are in order.  It occurs to me that I haven't shown much of Time Magic, so Prufrock will be donning the purple dress and conical hat for several fights this chapter.  Rad came with most of Precision unlocked, so Marksman is a natural fit. He's actually likely to spend a good deal of time in the job, the reason for which we'll see at the end of this episode.  Alicia, likewise, has a large number of Yin Yang spells (and not much else) learned. Since I need a controllable heavy, she stays in Knight. The Cross Helmet I stripped off of Gafgarion lets her equip a robe for MP (otherwise she'd get two or three casts tops) while maintaining high HP.  Astute viewers will note that Imogen here is not the first Cactuar caught. I ended up with some unscheduled free time (hooray for last minute shift changes!) so I went back and recruited one with better Brave and good compatibility with Agrias.   Entering Dorter, we come across two men engaged in some kind of business negotiations. I'm sure they're just bargaining over head of cattle or somesuch, certainly nothing sinister.   Okay, maybe slightly sinister.  You have no idea, friend.  So welcome to Dorter 2nd, our first fight in the new chapter. You're not actually given any warning that this battle will happen (the map still marks Dorter in blue) but it's not like there's anywhere to go from Orbonne but here.  Most first time players will still be in whatever setup they used for Fort Zeakden, so at least you're not likely to be caught with drawers down.   The pair of Thieves can be drat annoying. The one carrying the Mage Masher can't actually cause hit point damage, so he'll devote his entire day to breaking/stealing all your poo poo.  The Marksmen naturally start in a perfect sniping position. Just like the first Dorter fight, any backliners you bring had better be prepared for immediate fire.  Rounding out the enemy formation is a pair of Priests who, in my experience, are less threatening than they seem. Watch out for that flail though, it hits quite hard for this level.   As promised, an attempt at a Weapon Break starts things off. I didn't actually care all that much if it hit, seeing as how Rad brought Equip Change for lack of a better (or any other!) support skill.  That ninja knife also packs a surprising punch. Prufrock (packing Auto Potion) was supposed to be the big squishy target, dammit!  Gafgarion, by virtue of being high level, gets to move first for our side. Chain Lightning would have been a much better play if the Priest in the back didn't also have Auto Potion.   The Marksmen take to the rooftops and, as expected, rain down death on our backline.  The reason the two Priests aren't as threatening as they could be is that the AI seems to love to have them charge forward and begin casting big, slow spells.  Spells that should never go off.   Seventy five damage from Imogen (15 x 5) is drat impressive. 1000 Needles owns.   Gafgarion is actually a lot less helpful than one might expect, so having him consigned to the corner for a few rounds is no big loss.  Agrias surprises me by pulling out an X-Potion to undo all the damage Rad took. Of course, that's my only X-Potion, but I'd say it was used quite well.  I'll be using a lot of status attacks in Chapter 2.  While pretty much every fight for the rest of the game throws you up against overwhelming odds, this early on you don't have access to many unique abilities to help close the power gap.  And the level and equipment disparity makes it very hard (or next to impossible) to keep up in a simple damage race.  Status attacks temporarily circumvent damage and HP. A few well-placed shutdowns will greatly even the odds, for a while at least, and make fights much more manageable.  In addition to the Priests, one Thief and one Marksman pack Item secondary, so expect a lot of revival.  The AI still tries for the big showstoppers, however, leaving you plenty of time to keep them from going off.   Honestly these Priests would be a much bigger threat if they didn't have access to spells like Holy.    The new-and-improved Demi is infinitely more useful. It's now an excellent little spell for dropping fresh revivals or finishing off wounded targets, and the damage scaling is MA independent.   This fight is basically over, but the Thieves can still cause quite a bit of damage.  Lucky for me, I moved the Gold Armor to Lavian, so all I lose here is some Chain Mail.  Gafgarion continues to be an idiot.   The Tactics AI does not account for reaction skills, so guests can end up doing as much harm as good. I would be a bit pissed, except that it's really just preemptive payback for all the times I'm going to use that little quirk to my advantage (and believe me I will).    In fact, I do it in this very fight. That Marksman has been firing arrows into Prufrock's Auto Potion for the past three rounds. He'd be a lot scarier if he was doing more than twelve net damage a turn.    100+ instant, ranged damage? Don't mind if I do.  The guests finish off the other Thief while I move in on the last Marksman.   But first: treasure!  And crystals!  And Imogen gets the last K.O.   Good question. Our map didn't show any new locations.   Bethla is Duke Goltanna's stronghold in central Ivalice and, as Agrias suggests, is known to be nearly unassailable. If the kidnappers make it there the princess will be well beyond our reach, so we've obviously got to catch them before that happens.  Of course there's always time for loot. That Arbalest packs a whopping nine WP, making it far and away the strongest weapon we'll get for some time. Rad will be carrying it until pretty much the end of the chapter.  And here's our new destination. We're 1-1 on rescues, so here's hoping we're not too late for Ovelia. Next Time: Tooltips are Liars
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Dec 16, 2012 23:09
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Holy will one-shot pretty much everything in the middle of the game, but the AI isn't always smart about when they use it. Starting now I also stole almost everything I could use since some of the gear is at least half a chapter ahead of the shop. I've never used monsters, though, so I wasn't familiar with how awesome cactaurs are. Is LUCK+ a 100% chance (or close to) on high compatibility characters?
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Dec 17, 2012 01:29
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 00:01 |
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Jeez, the AI is really dumb about positioning. It's also pretty dumb about moving; it'll move all the time, even when there's no reason to. It'll also run away from the fight when hit with something like Don't Act, ensuring that the unit stays useless for longer than it needed to.
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Dec 17, 2012 02:02
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