Insane Difficulty: FFT 1.4: Awesome Difficulty, The Official Development Thread - Insane Difficulty

Man, I'm flattered that you guys all think I am OP. Y'all must have been reading the Adventures of Ansehelm. I'll consider nerfing myself in the next update...

But hey, thanks to all for the input. The massive interest and participation in this thread already shows that there is certainly a market for this mod. I'll do the best I can. So, onto the specifics:

To Augestein:
Yeah. All of the changes I refer to are relative to 1.3 since that will be the basis for this mod in many ways. Hence, 1.4.

To Emmy,

Quote

1. This sounds like the best option to me since I'd rather not cap levels. I'd love further insight on how to accomplish this.


2. I'll likely make all formulas quadratic.

3. A lot to that. But I'll see what I can do.

4. One of the ways in which this will follow 1.3 is that most of the abilities will be the same. Others have pointed out that the classes have useful and unique abilities, for the most part.

5. With gusto.

1. I don't recall most of these bothering me much, but I'll take a look.

2. Exactly what I'd intended to do.

3. Broad, but I'll see what I can do.

4. It'll be used minimally.


To Hart:

Quote

1. This seems interesting, but perhaps a little extreme, and would definitely alter gameplay a lot. I'll think about this one, as it, combined with giving chocobos +1 move, could make riding chocos a lot more viable for transportation reasons, which I have always wanted.

2. Good point, I'll probably lower the evasion of mantles and shields somewhat.

3. The speed differentials have never bothered me that much, but I will consider modifying them. Below 10 definitely seems extreme though. Ideally I'll nerf speed gear and find a way to make spells consistently good.

4. An interesting point. I've never paid too much attention to this, or seen it as a huge pro/con, but I will lower MP growths somewhat.

Quote

Fair. This will be removed for general purposes, although there might be, as you suggest, 1 or 2 bosses that can do this, and no more.

To Bish:

Quote

1. I appreciate the moderation and realistic wisdom here.

2. So just to be clear, while I intend to include more WOTL content, I have no plans to make a WoTL/PSP version of this. Granted, the script could be freshened up or even properly medievalized, but I'm curious as to how involved of a project that would become – I can't dedicate much time to this particular aspect.

Quote

I think one thing that Bishop was getting it (at least what I read into it) was that “perfection” means different things to different people, and, to say nothing of the fact that I am an individual and not a large movie company with enormous resources. Logistically, my mod cannot perfectly please everyone who offers an opinion here. While there are some common points, everyone has a different vision. On that point, and speaking of movies, I actually enjoyed the 2002 Spiderman more than some of the more recent versions. Why? Because the first one, while cheesy, seemed to have more heart, and appealed to me more than its more technically polished successors. Same is true of the Star Wars saga: the first two films were classic, and despite the fact that the modern prequels benefited from bigger budgets, better technology, better special effects, and a larger pool of collective experience to draw from, their impact on me (and on our culture) is much less substantial and less positive than the originals. Something to keep in mind too, considering the game in question is rather old. It can only be “updated” or “balanced” so much without becoming something completely different, but there's a reason that I'm still playing this game and almost no games made within the past 10 years. You feel me? Some of the changes I've suggested are considered radical, but so are some of the suggestions made in the name of balance (e.g. cutting the max level down to 50). So even the two concepts of what we've come to think of as “balance” and “being true to the original” must compete with each other at times.

So, I think it's best to say now, that while I will make a reasonable effort to accommodate the ideas presented here, especially those shared by multiple people, there is a good chance, nay a guarantee that this mod will not be as technically superior, as balanced, as some would like. But I will fix what I can, add variety, and try to make it fun, without neutering the difficulty. You may consider that last sentence my mission statement, and I regard it as more important than how my mod comes to compare with a perfectly balanced and bland game such as “rock, paper scissors”.

One other reason for this inevitable gap is that the vision I have for the mod is somewhat different than that of many on this forum. I have never made a post or thread about how unfair/hard any aspect of the game is, because it's never bothered me for long. Sure, I can intellectually understand the frustration of having enemies use elixirs when you're not allowed to, or fighting bosses with insane stats, and can even feel a little of that frustration, but I know I'm going to beat them, and it's that much more satisfying when I do. By nature I'm kind of an adrenaline junkie & I tend to enjoy somewhat edgier, more challenging things than your average joe. In order for a game to provide this level of challenge, enemies need unfair advantages (and psychologically, the uncertain rewards system provided sometimes by mid to low-chance, uncertain wins can be fun, or dare I say, addictive). But I realize that this type of attitude is a minority here, so I have to try to strike a balance between the mod Gotham deserves versus the mod Gotham needs. Early on, in one of my other threads, I realized I would probably have to make a hard version and a normal version, much like 1.3 and 1.3 content. So I will probably do that. But first I will work on the things we can agree on.

Quote

0. So, I agree that it's difficult when the AI has access to things that the player does not, but this is kind of a staple when you think about it (e.g. zodiac bosses). Even a fantastic AI (which Tactics does not have) is not really a fair match against a human. But if there are any dual-wielders outside of the colliery or Balk, I'll probably remove them. Or at least give Mustadio the option to wield 2 guns.
1. I will likely reduce the number of ranged units with Battle Skill
a. Will be made easier. There's no reason to have a hard battle before you can save.
b. Tis a bummer. Elmdor's a beast, and the Elmdor steal is rightly difficult, because it's an extra, and he's kind of a major boss. Setting all enemy levels to party level instead of party level +. might be the only change I make here, and it would make this battle slightly easier.
c. Fair. I likely will do something about Altima II.

Quote

1. Not bad ideas, I'll consider them, although if status is to become more important, multi-status cures may not be the way to go.

2. I actually think lancers are pretty good. Simple and effective, like spears. What did you have in mind?

3. I can certainly nerf the damage of speed weapons/ the hp of speed armor/clothes, but the MT butter knife isn't really part of my vision. Mixing up items is a good idea, and I'll probably go for a system that's a hybrid between progressively better gear and varied endgame gear.
To Tamagoyaki:

Quote

1. Understood. And when I say “adding classes,” I refer mostly to special classes, in the same way that 1.3 added rift travelers, death knights, and others, that add more variety to the game. That's my intention.

2. So this is a really, really good point that nobody else has brought up yet, and it's the secret to my reluctance to immediately acquiesce to every request made in the name of balance. I think a majority of the changes that are being suggested, while they would make the game more balanced, would also make it easier overall. Frankly, I'm impressed that, despite how hard 1.3 can be, people have beaten it with some really interesting and difficult challenges. So the struggle of my mod is the tradeoff, wanting to maintain that difficult dynamic, while making some changes that bring more balance to the force. My nature tends towards favoring the former, while the push here in the community is clearly towards the latter. Obviously there are some easy fixes that add a lot to balance while only taking a little from the difficulty, but not all of the changes can be this way.

3. I tend to agree with the minimalistic approach, although many characters (e.g. Balmafula) leave so little impact on me that I wouldn't mind replacing them. Other examples of forgettable characters are Rad, Alicia, and Lavian. I think they'd benefit from being new classes. As is, they're just generics without even the advantage of being named by the player. Also, regarding new characters from other worlds, I don't think it's a bad idea to expand the (unfinished) vision of tactics Ivalice, and I don't think it's necessary to put a cap on creativity. Does Cloud belong in Ivalice? No, but he's there for the seeking. I'm thinking of adding some Rurouni Kenshin characters in a completely optional sidequest, but I'd have to figure out how to make room for that. Besides, for how long this game has been around (almost 20 years!), I think it's not enough to finally make it simply a balanced version of vanilla. Within reason, I'm thinking more along the lines of an expansion pack (kind of like what WoTL tried to do) with more variety, but in a similar spirit.

To Stann, about Rafa and Malak
As they currently exist. My plan was to keep their names and roles in the story, but I wanted to make them both death knights (or a death knight and an onion knight) instead of Hitoshi and give them different sprites, since I never find much use for the heaven/heck knight classes (and honesty, who uses Rafa when you can get Reis). Then I'd make Hitoshi a ronin or something.

Quote

Like the plague...good one.

Quote

Have some faith in me now. TBH a fairly low effort project could be made that would address most of the concerns expressed in this thread. I'm marginally surprised it hasn't happened already. I could show you some flashy sprites right now, but I'd rather get more of the heavy lifting done first.

I'm just lurking the thread when it gets a new post, I don't intend to chime in just yet as I don't really have anything to add to what's already been said, but...

FFT actually seems to have a pretty good AI, or that's the impression I've gotten from playing Monster Tactics, which has added a lot of other elements to consider, from abilities to status effects, and the AI uses most of it effectively.

Quote

I actually have an idea: A tanky front unit who can sustain and avoid damage while ditching out good numbers (but not as high as the knight or as fast as the thief). Three skills comes to mind when I think of something fresh to him:

- and attack with 4 range, single target and linear AoE that inflicts don't move to the target. This is useful when you need to impale someone with jump/lance attack and the pesky little bugger goes out the way constantly

- a skill which applies protect or regen on the user: this would synergy pretty well alongside dragon spirit

- And of couse, jump. rather than unlock heights and ranges, just set it to 5 range and 7 height (besides, that would save you some space to more things in the future)

These things are to address that little detail about the class that buggers me: Dragoons needs other skills to be worth using because you can't solve all your troubles by using jump, and besides that would give them something else to do

Quote

Probably the best way to go about it. Some people don't enjoy staring at an abyss of white filled with nothing but numbers and character portraits without noses, and 1.3 is a pretty big mess to clean up as is.

Quote

Zodiacs (Or Bosses in General) are special exceptions. For all intensive purposes, we are talking about generics. Bosses are in their own category. A Few of the end game Time Mages have All-Magic. Ultima is suppose to be the final boss and test your abilities, so it makes sense for her to have it. But giving a Random Time Mage the ability to cast Exclusive Skills to the Final Boss, just doesn't make sense at all. It also doesn't make sense to give them Ribbons as an ACCESSORY SLOT whenever it is a HELMET SLOT for me. Unless the enemy has a siamese twin, it just doesn't make sense.

I'm a big Mustadio fan, but he doesn't really have much going on for him. But, Two Guns, could break the game pretty easily with Summon Gun & Magic Gun. I think he just needs more added to his kit. More abilities like Mosfungous Bomb and reduce the about of Status Immunities.

Quote

Elmdor's Problem is his stats, which is a common theme through out the whole mod. For Bosses, I personally don't care for Party Level +. Bosses are suppose to test your abilities, so they need to be slightly stronger then the player. Something like Party Level + 5 would be fine, but something completely absurd, like Party Level +25 is just stupid. Having the ability to deal 500 - 600 Damage to your whole party, before you even get a chance to spread out or prepare for it, is just bad game design.

Quote

Oh boy... Where do I even start...
You can't just add in characters from your favorite manga or anime. Sure, it would be cool to add in Guts, watch him swing Dragon Slayer all over the place, have him equip Bow Guns as a secondary, give him a Critical: Berserker that gives him buffed stats. And then I can do Guts Solo challenges, playing "Brother Come Join Me" in the background, and have a grand old time.

The name of the game is "Final Fantasy Tactics", not "Final Fantasy Tactics: Berserk". If you want to do something like that, then I would suggest looking into a mod like Journey of the Five. But as for 1.3, it just wouldn't work.

And as prominent as special's are, why would you add more?
Cloud was added in because of the FF7 Hype back in the day, so he got a free pass. His limits are cool, and he still makes the game feel like an FF Game. Violet and Hitoshi, where added to Catch up FFT with WOTL. There isn't any reason to add in anymore Units, or even Jobs for that matter.

Quote

Rafa and Malak are lack luster. They need a buff or maybe even a new skillset in general. Giving them a class change doesn't really make sense. We already have a Dark Knight and Onion Knight, and we already have Samurais so Ronin would be redundant. It wouldn't add anything.

Patch this code. Change the C values for speed to 0 for all classes in patcher. Now, only the multipliers will affect speed. A pre-raw value of 6 for speed (iirc this was vanilla's) will produce a speed range of up to 15.



The main problem with enemies being excessively high level compared to the player (such as party +25) is that it's a problem of scale. It creates a dynamic where players will either artificially underlevel or be lv 99, because the game is punishing you for being lv 75. This can be fixed by editing the enemies' stats to numbers that make sense, so that you don't need to do this to make battles challenging.

By the use of RNG, I mean don't just make everything always 100%, but also don't make it so that resetting until every character's damage split goes off is a more efficient way to win a battle than taking actions is.

Please don't give elixirs to a boss. Also, abilities such as HP Restore, and innate Regen should be off limits in boss fights. These make a boss battle slog on way more than what should be happening and aren't exactly fun to fight against either.

Below 10 speed is not extreme. In fact, the game starts to get issues related to speed being too high at >10 speed, such as characters outspeeding spells if you want there to be any amount of spell CT variety. Speed levels from 6-8 are pretty much ideal for CT balancing, and leave a lot of higher numbers available for bosses to have.

AI doesn't need to be "fair" in the sense of having the same exact things that the player has access to. People who argue that it does forget the facts that the human has a human brain and can adapt to situations, and that the player is also able to change their setup if their first one loses to the ai. Battles where you're fighting large numbers of enemies, enemies that have "broken" moves or setups, smaller numbers of enemies with insane speed, etc. are fun. The problem most people have with the way that 1.3 creates its difficulty is the lack of variety in battle gimmicks and the lack of useful and interesting setups that the player has access to, which creates a dynamic where people are using the same hamedo/meltdown setup for most of the game past a certain point and not actually having to think as hard as they want to about actual execution of strategies. Also with battles like Altima 2, which as Archael said, was specifically designed in such a way that even good ideas have a decent chance to fail to the RNG.

In short, people are looking for a game with similar amount of difficulty and more depth. Difficulty and fairness don't have to be, and shouldn't be, mutually exclusive. Players want to be able to use status effects. Players want to be fighting different things in different battles and not the same thing over and over again. Players want to have a variety of skills to use that actually serve a purpose, instead of things that look balanced on paper but actually aren't due to underlying issues such as overused immortal flags and the overemphasis on hyper offensive playstyles. Players don't like beginners traps, or to have to dig through Patcher and/or source code for basic information.

AI in this game is actually really good if you give it the tools it needs to succeed. There's a few places where it just derps, but compared to other games, there's no issues such as ai not recognizing units past its own attack range and just stands there and does nothing if you outrange its options; or ai repeatedly spamming a buff move on itself because it thinks it's hitting you with a weakness. If you do things such as alter its stats to more normal numbers, give it movesets that give it a variety of options in any given situation, and play to its strengths with good party compositions; it'll seem amazing.

If you're looking to add characters from animes, why make a 1.4? Why not just make your own project? That way you'll have every excuse to get rid of things that are just badly done, and won't feel married to any poor decisions made by 1.3 for the sake of making a "proper" sequel. It'll also mean you'll have more leeway in terms of creativity in terms of creating new battles and abilities in the game.

Regarding Rafa and Malak: Maybe they can be nerfed and buffed at the same time with this little change:

-Make their Truth/Un-truth skills be single target but with only 1-3 hits in total. They are supposed to be good and assassinations and I found way more simple to just smack the target until it stops moving (If you wanna make a greater impact, let Reis fire/ice/thunder/holy bracelet with the AoE and 3-5 hits, so it has more raw power at the cost of rely heavily on luck)

Ansehelm, on 21 March 2017 - 10:07 AM, said:

I don't like the idea of a whole bunch of specials being added.

1.X's appeal to me was its stylistic similarity to vanilla. Possibly one of the most disturbing things in 1.3 for me was the addition of Marche. I'd rather see spice added to pre-existing specials: make Rad, Alicia and Lavian special. Give Agrias some white magic, improve Orlandu's stats, tweak Malak and Rafa, etc.

ronlyn, on 22 March 2017 - 09:07 AM, said:

Why? This would just be switching their roles and wouldn't accomplish anything. All you would be doing is turning Reis into a Heaven/Hell Knight instead of Malak and Rafa.

Reis isn't used for her Special Abilities. She is used because she has insane stat growths that makes her a auto include 90% of the time.

If Truth/Untruth was Single Target and not Random, then they would be broken as all hell. A single target multi hit attack that would do 500 Dmg each hit. You might as well give them Double Cast or something. Rafa is useless in every way possible. Her stats suck, her class sucks, and there are much better options then her. She needs to be buffed in both her Stats and Moveset. Malak has decent speed growth, so he could be a decent Chemist, but thats about it.

Also, while I'm on the subject, why does Untruth have the chance to hit MORE then Truth? Untruth is suppose to be a Front Line Killer, since its based on how LOW your faith is and ideally you WANT your front line to have low faith so they can soak up Magic Damage, while Truth has the ability to nuke Casters, who ideally have HIGH faith. It just doesn't make sense for Malak to get a special treatment.

Late Game, Magic is just completely lack luster, making these two useless. On top of that, there are better units to use Stat Wise and Job Wise. They need a "Remake" like Calculator changed into Sage.

ShadowCrimson, on 22 March 2017 - 03:41 PM, said:

If my memory serves right, speed would we toned down and CT/magic formulas of spells would be revisited and changed, so why scrap two classes who gets benefits from it? They also tried to be some kind of hybrids between Mage knight/Ninja and Mage knight/Sage: elemental coverage and good damage output at the expense of have tissue defenses, so I say we should at least give it a try at maybe tweak their tools rather than completely scratch them and make new ones (which takes longer and not everyone would agree since we're trying to keep 1.3 vision of vanilla FFT)

ronlyn, on 22 March 2017 - 05:40 PM, said:

This is essential what I was getting at. They need EITHER buffed tools OR new ones like Mustadio. Sage was probably a bad example.

Truth/Untruth is to unreliable as a skill to use. It's either going to hit all 6/10 times, and nuke your target(s), or your going to miss every single hit, and someones going to tear through your tissue paper defense. They're inconsistent, making them not worth using. Magic Formulas are probably the fix. Making it so when it does land, its impactful. But, these are multi hit abilities. On Average, it hits 3/5 times. Giving it the possibility to hit for 500 Dmg 3/5 Times. And if their Units are clumped up, your going to slaughter them. That is what makes them a hard Duo to balance.

Hey everyone,
Long time lurker and avid player of FFT/1.3. Love to see other people still share the same enthusiasm for the game as me and that plans to update 1.3 seem to be coming together nicely.

I suggest changing evasion to follow a calculation of multiplicative diminishing returns rather than the current additive method. Using jobs' innate evasion as the calculation's core would allow classes to maintain evasiveness as a part of their identity, while opening up space for simpler re-balancing of existing items and other evasion related mechanics. Shields could provide a flat+percent bonus so they still feel like shields.

I've gone through the first chapter, and there's a few things that bother me as well on 1.3

1. If you happen to level up a little bit outside of the story (or even during to gather crystals), you are basically screwing yourself over. Since the enemies level up as you do, their equipment gets better. Yours does not. They have equipment that you won't see for at least a few battles yourself. It makes tackling the last few battles in chapter one really tough. Really amplified when some of the fights you're at a positional disadvantage (low ground). Due to that, I resorted to enabling a GS code for 0 experience gain at least for now, until shop equipment catches up.

2. The general disdain it seems people have for much of 1.3 is causing me to reevaluate my decision to play. Elmdor is +25? Seriously? Is stealing his equipment even possible in this game? And later game is basically a race to cause damage the fastest? That doesn't sound like fun.

3. I would have hoped that the Cachusha/Barette as an accessory would have been fixed for the enemy, but I see it has not. Sounds like the Celia/Lede battles are even worse now.

4. Battles where you lose Brave, but no way to gain them back? Sounds like reset battles. Especially the final boss? Gee, that just sounds...glorious...

5. Dual-wield guns? Come on, man...

6. Status immunity, An already prevailing amount of Maintenance. I can't even put Slow on Algus. I already checked the first battle in chapter 2. Both thieves have maintenance. So the two I could possibly Break/Steal quickly, I actually cannot.

7. The sandbagging...good Lord the sandbagging by the enemy. Way too many have Item. Wiegraf throwing out Mega Potions at the Windmill Shed.

I could probably list more but most of this and what I could say have already been said.

With all that said, it really sounds like I'd be better off shelving this for now. Maybe even start Monster Tactics instead. That seems to have much more positive reception. I suppose the question here now is, until 1.4 is created, evaluated, and tweaked, would my time be better spent on MT? Would you recommend MT over 1.3 for now? While my younger brother used monsters somewhat back in the day, I don't recall if I *ever* did, outside of just screwing around with them. It would definitely be a new experience for me.

Quote

Evasion is already calculated multiplicatively. Relative routine in FFT's code: http://ffhacktics.co...e_Final_Hit_%25

What this means, it will multiply chance to hit from accessory * shield * class to find the final hit % chance. What should happen regarding evasion items is the amount of evasion possible should be nerfed. A 75/50 shield just plain shouldn't exist. Unfortunately, there aren't enough item attributes to go around to make them truly unique from each other and still useful, and item evasion is something that doesn't take an attribute to accomplish, but this is a problem i plan to fix eventually.

Quote

1 and 2. Main issue I have with Algus is that it's a beginner's trap. It's the start of the "gain jp but not xp" or "level to 99 right away" metagame. Levels scaling with the party is a positive thing if it's handled right (such as by lv = party lv, not party + something stupid). Enemies were generally created with such high growths that the AI will rarely consider non damaging moves, which is further compounded by higher levels.

3. Not really a huge deal since it was in vanilla. Enemies can be force equipped with anything, regardless of whether or not the class allows it or the item slot matches properly. However, the main issues with these enemies is their innate immunity to almost everything and ridiculous growths.

4. Extremely rare, unless you count the plot brave gain/loss. Final boss is all sorts of terrible though. 0/10 don't recommend that fight.

5. Along with #3, I think this would actually be cool if done in a way that allows the player to use these setups. Such as by hardcoding weapons to only be equippable in a 2 swords setup if they're the same range as each other. The main reason the player can't be given this in vanilla's code, even if you check the right boxes, is the game bugs out if the player has for example a gun and a sword. This is interesting enough I might actually pursue it asm wise, but it's low priority unless it ends up being super easy to code. The main issue with these enemies is the same as most of the other ones (innate maintenance, def/mdef up, absurd growths).

6. Yep...

7. Main issue with sandbagging isn't its presence, but prevalence. Sandbagging can be interesting if the amount and type of enemies actually capable of doing it is varied, both in number and types of enemies (speed, survivability, etc).

Quote

Yes! 100%! Though my opinion as the creator is biased. Even pushing aside all of 1.3's flaws and what everyone else has already said in this topic, there's also the fact that I'm actively working on MT and 1.3 hasn't been updated in several years. Monsters there are not the same as vanilla's monsters. It'll definitely be a new experience for you.

Change Malak outfit to black color with black cape. His hair style like Marquis Elmdor in black color. Since his low ma change untruth to a combination of throw knifes and if the knife hit the target cast space storage back on target 3 times.

HellKnight, on 24 March 2017 - 07:56 AM, said:

I don't even.

We should even bother to call him out at this point?

Quote

Thanks for linking that. I'm not too familiar with MIPS (think that's the language used), but from snippet it appears possible to reduce evasion's scaling. Is that this what you meant by nerfing the amount of evasion possible?

I would like to get involved somehow, really with anything the current members of FFT 1.4 are willing to delegate to board users. Artwork for new items and their design is what I'd be most comfortable with.

Quote

I just thought I should mention this, but Rafa's damage is not lack luster. It's actually good. The problem is that Rafa as a unit sucks because :
1) She has shitty brave which means that she's stuck using weapon guard and abandon.
2) She has not the best faith so she can't even be a decent gunner with Truth for mopping up.
3) Truth has stupidly high vertical tolerance making it very difficult to hit in 1 square.
4) The damage is all over the freaking place. You can do as little as 0 or as much as 2000 in a single attack with Rafa. That type of variance is unacceptable. I'd rather do 300-500 per turn and be able to rely on it rather than use Rafa. Unless you're planning on getting Rafa to go first and then going for a hail mary, it's just not worth your time.

The big problem is that ALL of her moves suffer from this hot garbage, and in addition to that, there isn't much for her to be good. Rafa has 6 moves, so instead of just going "get rid of her," let's fix it.

Heaven Thunder - Single Target 1-3 hits lower damage, but has a chance to proc statuses. Reliable but "weak."

Asura - Fire - Single Target 1-3 hits medium damage, no procs, but instead has a charge time.

Diamond Sword - Wind no change from the original 1.3 version.

Hydragon Pit - Make it have 255 range, and behave like Dance except it's random on the person it's targeting and it's magical, of which there's no other version of this in the game.

Space Storage - Same as before, but make it a straight line. This would be great, because between Diamond Sword and Space Storage, you could have a straight line and a + to play around with.

Sky Demon - The spell actually comes from the caster themselves. Like Vanilla's spin fist. With it being magical instead. (Still kinda random, but it's easier to get surrounded than it is anything else, and might in a world with better defense, give you a reason to get surrounded with armor and then do this instead of ... You know, meltdown?)

There. See? You can fix Rafa without completely taking away Rafa's "I'm not Draw Out but ignoring Faith" magical attacks.

Malak kinda sucks because Malak's gimmick sucks. He just needs better stats honestly, as when you run into the occasional 40 faith loser... He's gone if you hit.

By nerfing the amount of evasion possible, I mean characters shouldn't be having 75%ish + evade to both evasion types, thus requiring Concentrate/Transparent or attacks that ignore evasion in every battle. Unfortunately, it's hard to make shields that are unique from each other outside of changing evasion amounts, unless you are willing to spend attributes on them or write shields to grant defense via asm. And yes, that's MIPS.

The gimmick of attacks that hit random panels is workable, potentially with any/all of these fixes for variety:

1. Change vertical tolerance. Vertical 0 or 1 will make positioning more important, such that on bumpy maps you can guarantee hits on more panels. I did this in MT with Requiem = 1-7 hits, Holy Damage, 0 vertical. This attack pretty much just destroys undead if you can get them on a good panel, but is too much of a gamble for its damage chances if the map is too flat and/or your enemy isn't weak to holy.

2. Change guaranteed number of hits. If a move always will hit, say 6 times, there's more chances for non-zero amounts of damage than if it randoms from 1-6. I did this with Prismatic Spray = always 6 hits, vertical 3.

3. Change the move to only target enemies/allies. This allows for the player to create positioning opportunities with other units of theirs.

4. Change the move's shape - single target, linear, cone (requires asm), etc. This is nice combined with changes to vertical tolerance - something with large aoe centered on self and doesn't hit self but vertical 0, or cone/linear shaped is situational enough to be interesting.

5. There's also an ASM hack that allows for these moves to only target panels that have units in them. I haven't personally tried it out (it's incompatible with some of my stuff, in its current state), but something like this could be interesting on a move whose hits are lower damaging than moves that don't have this guarantee.

Malak's gimmick could work out with a bit of number crunching and a new formula, along with the types of changes I suggested above. Ideally, if using quadratics and assuming 95% of enemies have randomly generated br/fa, it should outpace MA * (MA+Y) at target fa < 59 (which is the average for randomly generated units). I can see something similar to my CT Burst formula (which outpaces ma^2 at CT < 64) working and being easy to code since I already have the framework for it. If you want to use linear formulas, you need to figure out these exact values yourself, but it should outpace a "normal" formula frequently enough to be usable.