Insane Difficulty: Emmy - Viewing Profile - Insane Difficulty

This is info that I could gather specific to abilities and mechanics I have added to the game. More will be added as I figure them out, however things that are well known and not specific to MT (such as DS abuse strategies) will not be mentioned here. The purpose of this is to clear up some misconceptions and to give more information to the player! It is a common misconception that r/s/m are invisible to the AI, when in practice maybe about 1/3-1/2 of the routines used by these abilities are actually invisible to AI.

General mechanics:

1. Defense/Mdef by class - AI recognizes this mechanic, probably because it reduces the expected damage dealt. For example, it'll choose magical attacks/defense ignoring over physical attacks vs. a tree (which have 90/10 defenses), and chooses physical/defense ignoring over magical attacks vs. a bomb (which have 20/80 defenses).
2. M-ev by class - AI recognizes attacks as evadable even if the only m-ev comes from class, thus using unevadable stuff more frequently the way it does in vanilla.
3. Immortal check - AI will never use immortal immune abilities on an immortal target, unless confused.
4. Full/multiple skillsets on regular monsters - AI recognize these additional attacks the same way as it would on humans.
5. Cone AOE, Arc AOE/Range - AI uses these attacks perfectly, assuming that the cone moves have 0 CT.
6. Reflect - While it is well known that AI loves to/knows how to abuse reflect perfectly, it is not as well known that Reflect is coded in a way that it transfers the caster as the reflecting target, for the purpose of figuring out targets for secondary effects that affect the caster. This is important because abilities such as Static and Rough Skin, the AI recognizes, and will abuse their existence to land damage/status on you instead of them.
7. ENTD flags - While not specific to MT, I make some use out of these flags, for example to make some units behave more defensively than they would usually do; and not a lot of people know about them. AI such as vanilla Zalbag's tendency to go after Ramza above all other units is not hardcoded/unchangeable, but controlled by these flags.

Unique Formulas:

1. Ignite (does damage equal to target MP to both MP/HP) - AI seems to prioritize this attack on units that have more current MP than current HP. Also will occasionally use it to intercept a spell or on a character who has just been revived at lower HP than MP.
2. Endeavor (Target HP = caster HP, will heal or do damage equal to this difference), Pain Split (Averages HP with that of target, healing/dealing damage where appropriate) - AI seems to use this attack the same way it would use any other 100% hit rate ability, except when it is poisoned and low on HP. In that case, it would start charging the move on one of its friends (perhaps, thinking that it would heal the friend to full, but without realizing that it can't have negative HP - it'll just die).
3. Psycho Shift (Faith based Inflict active status on target, cancel on self), Snatch (Faith based Cancel active status on target, inflict on self), Power Split (averages PA/MA with self/target, dealing damage/buff to stat where appropriate) - I have never seen the AI use these moves at all, unless under confusion. Maybe it doesn't recognize them?
4. Baleful Polymorph/Shriek (Faith based drop HP to 1, inflict indexed status at 100% if move hits) - AI seems to prioritize this exactly the same way as it would the status effect. For example if it's set to inflict Dispel, it will only cast this on targets with active positive status effects.
5. Firey dance/Exorcise (MA^2 damage to target, fa% stat buff/status to self), Fell Stinger (PA * (PA+Y) to target, indexed effect to self if unit kills with the move) - AI seems to use these slightly more frequently than other damaging moves, but only where appropriate.
6. Universal Stat Change formula (deals with everything from Quick to Foxbird, Songs/Dances, Circle/Square, etc). AI recognizes this formula and uses it appropriately. It will not try to stat drain Finger Guard (immune) targets. AI uses Quick rather poorly unless the ability to cast on self is removed, in which case it uses it exceptionally well!

R/S/M:

1. Sicken (all physical attacks will inflict Poison 100% in addition to its regular effects, String Shot (all magical attacks will inflict Don't Move 100% in addition to its regular effects) - AI recognizes the presence of these abilities. I've occasionally seen a unit with Sicken use a physical attack dealing 1 damage for the sole purpose of inflicting poison, when the same unit will not consider a physical move on the same target unit.
2. Runic (Works as blade grasp for Math Skill flag), Bulletproof (expands arrow guard to include guns and specific formulas) - I'm unsure if the AI considers these or not. AI will seem to use moves that aren't affected by these abilities above ones that do, but will consider for example, a 33% chance to do 90 damage above a 70% chance to do 10 damage (keeping in mind that defense and m-ev mechanics have been added that the AI do recognize).
3. Anger Point (AI does double damage if it is Critical) - AI recognizes this ability, and will be more likely to choose damaging moves over status effects.
4. Bane (Bonus accuracy/damage to unit with Haste/reraise active) - AI recognizes this ability, will target units with Haste/reraise (assuming they don't have other buffs like Protect/Shell that will reduce the damage enough that another target becomes a better one).
5. Synchronize (Reacts with all new/current status effects on the caster) - AI will prioritize casting buffs on a unit with this ability, which can cause a chain of buffs!
6. Aftermath (Deals damage equal to max HP to caster if unit dies from the attack) - AI will prioritize non-damaging moves/deprioritize attacking to a unit with this ability if it's low on HP. I've seen units ignore a unit with Aftermath for several turns.
7. Rivalry (Increases effects of compatibility to 1.5/1.75/.5/.25) - Not 100% sure if AI recognizes it more than it would for regular compatibility mechanics.
8. Sheer Force (Unit does 1/3 more damage, loses all status procs) - AI will no longer use attacks for the sole purpose of inflicting a (normally 100%, but 0% with Sheer Force) proc, for example.
9. Concealment (immunity to evadable attacks) - AI recognizes this ability, will prioritize status effects on this unit since they're likely to be the only non-evadable effects that it has!
10. Mold Breaker (Ignores Reflect, Blade Grasp, Runic, Bulletproof, Concealment) - AI recognizes the effect of this ability. Will, for example, cast a reflectable spell on something that has Reflect for the purpose of killing it because it knows that it can pierce Reflect. Doesn't change priorities vs. Concealment units, etc.
11. Shed Skin (fa/200 chance to remove all active negative effects from unit at the end of each turn) - AI sees this ability as the statuses being removed each turn. For example will use an attack that is affected by Silence when it is Silenced, under the assumption of a ~33% chance that its Silence will be cured before the spell goes off.
12. Marvel Scale (50% damage taken if under a negative status effect), Guts (50% extra damage if unit has an active negative status effect) - AI recognizes these damage differences, as far as I can tell.
13. Poison Heal (a poisoned unit will heal 1/4 instead of taking damage by poison) - Completely blind to the AI as far as I can tell. AI will not Poison itself (even if bundled with Haste/Transparent/other buffs in general!), will actively try to inflict Poison vs. enemies that have Poison Heal, will remedy itself to remove poison. The only way to get the AI to actively use this ability is via event poisoning or Shit's Creek (poison water maps).
14. Arcane Quickening (Reacts with Quick upon MP cost trigger) - Seems to be blind to the AI (as in, it won't actively try to trigger this ability with no other benefit, and will still use MP cost moves on enemies the same), however some clever moveset manipulation (such as by giving other units in the formation moves that will trigger it with a benefit that the AI loves to use) will create a world of pain for the player.
15. Barrier/CT Save/Dragon Spirit/Hayai (Grasp trigger buffs) - Again, seems to be blind to the AI/can be taken advantage of the same way as Arcane Quickening if you want the AI to actively trigger it on each other.
16. Rough Skin (PA * 4 residual damage upon damaging a target with this ability), Decay (Undead/Innocent upon dealing damage to a target with this ability), Static (Slow/DA upon dealing damage to a target with this ability) - These abilities are passive, and the AI recognizes them. While the AI won't refrain from attacking units with these abilities, it will whenever possible set up ways to transfer a target for these abilities other than themselves via reflect.

Status effects:

1. Cursed (Permanent dispel unless lifted, is on Dark/Evil looking slot) - AI will use this exactly as it would use Dispel, will never prioritize it as something to lift from itself.
2. Mist (Regens MP 1/4 per turn, on Wall slot) - AI seems to have a high priority for using this, even on non-casting/non MP Switch units.
3. Rasp (Loses MP 1/4 per turn, on Blank slot) - I don't think I've ever seen the AI inflict this/heal itself of this on its own at all, except if it can heal itself via inflicting Mist.

Short term goals:

1. Consolidate class slots that no longer actually serve a purpose. This will make room for more types of enemies.

2. Change recruitment. Current recruitment system was created in a very early version (0.06 or so). New idea is to change it for better variety of recruits throughout the game, and make the game slightly easier by virtue of the player having more options. The smaller movesets on the ch 1 monsters will be kept - it is easier for the beginner player to learn the ai when the ai could only do 4 things, and some of the later things that monsters could do (like Trap the Soul) could be overwhelming for new players. Proposed idea:

a. Consolidate locations such that every monster group can be found in ch 1 or 2.

b. For example, if Sweegy West contains Chocobos, randoms #1 and 2 (available in ch 1 and 2) will contain the Chocobo with the "Medic" or "Mystic" moveset. Random 3 and 4 will contain the full moveset (current War Chocobo).

c. Locations exclusive to ch 4 (such as Bed Desert) will only contain full moveset monsters. These locations will also include monsters that have additional bonuses (additional skills/movesets), but still nothing as good as what you can get in the DD. This means you can find replacement monsters with a bit more variety. For example - finding a Chocobo with Elemental, or Anger Point, or any number of abilities. Nothing obviously imbalanced will appear (such as something with both Runic and Blade Grasp, Flotiball with offensive magic, or something with Hashmalum's moveset).

3. Finishing restructuring the game so that I know exactly how much space I have left for battles.

This is similar to Jot5's Mark Ideas thread. I have plenty of room for extra battles, so might as well ask if anyone has an idea they like to see tested. Please give:

1. Type and number of units. Please keep within the sprite/unit limit (9 sprite sheets/16 units including the party. This means 4 sheets/11 units if 5 party members, 5/12 if 4 party, etc. max). Different classes within the same sprite sheet (for example Holy Dragon and Prismatic Dragon) count as 1 for this purpose.

2. Additional abilities (if any). Keep in mind things like reaction priority (only 1 reaction per priority level), unit must be able to use the abilities you give it (No yin yang magic on a steel giant, for example).

3. Possible maps for the battle. Any map that you've seen in battle is possible! Some cutscene maps too.

4. Possible themes/gimmicks. For example, arena battle, reflect formation, etc.


Difficulty will be determined when I test them. Anything below a "4" (ch 2 average) will probably be buffed, and must be a minimum "8" to drop a rare item. Anything deemed insane (10+) will probably be moved to DD instead of Extra Battles until that fills up.

I hate naming/describing things too, so any help here would be appreciated.