SuperHario

Did you pay close attention to the text before you jumped back onto the airship at the end of the Floating Continent? Hopefully you’ve got a save state.

My guess is no, but I’m not the guy to ask. Seems like a fatal flaw for the randomizer in this form (I.e, skills also random), unless a Jerry-rig is made to always give Locke steal, at least through the scenarios. if Celes doesn’t have ??? For the FC, that would also be game breaking. Howd you get past Vargas without blitz, just killed him normally?

Seems like wanting a counter/cover dancing Mog is a bit greedy. If this, why not rage or berserk? In the cover/counter discussions, it was explicitly stated that there are certain conditions (e.g. status restrictions) and nerfs (e.g. evasion halved) put on them to ensure these mechanisms were only suited to specific builds. This ties in with spears having auto-cover, so if you want a cover/counter dancing Mog, you need a spear, black belt, and the Moogle charm (thus not officially in the dance trance) and you don’t get the punisher procs. Edit: Note that spear, moogle charm Mog is still an excellent cover choice, with an extra relic slot to boost HP, defense, evasion, or stam further. Could also jump with this set up, so offensively he still hits things pretty hard. Thus, it would probably be a bit OP to give him the chance for frequent autocrit rod procs if cover/counter were allowed while dancing sans charm.

Too catch up faster, start with all 4 party members alive, kill off all but one enemy, then have your higher level characters run away (or die) so the lower level members get more exp. per battle. Best to leave a weakened, status-inflicted enemy, defend with low level members (so their ATB resets), then run with high level members while their ATB is full.

Everyone in zozo lies, so you have to use process of elimination. Even if you talk to everyone, I’m not sure you get enough info to know the time exactly, and you might need to guess a few times. If you don’t want the hassle, you can probably find a YouTube vid of someone going thru zozo in vanilla. I don’t think the time has changed, just BNW uses Roman numerals instead of Arabic digits.

Huh, makes me wonder if morphed Terra will cure 2 HP with a Phoenix down. Again, doesn’t change anything, but you gotta love those little quirks.

Could warping in the ancient castle bring you to the jail instead of the overworld? Obviously, it’d be code specific to just that dungeon, and with limited space, who knows if it’s possible, but just putting it out there for consideration.

As to multi-party floating continent, storyline would need to be amended somewhat. I forget if any justification is given to why only 3 members fight the IAF, but obviously this is done to allow Shadow to join the party upon reaching the FC. Would the storyline say the first group is being sent in to clear the path, then the 2nd drop team will join after? Then you could have the IAF group be 4 members (making those battles easier, but could strengthen the enemies) and the 2nd drop team could be 3 members and they encounter Shadow.

Thematically, it kind of makes sense for Maduin to be Stamina +2 since stamina helps Terra survive in her Esper form. An added benefit is it might help the Atma Weapon get some use in the WoB. As to how this affects Mog, the two dances where it makes a big difference are wind song and forest suite. But wind song is just the hold A for randoms dance, so who really cares about that. Where it matters more is Harvester; since this also clears statuses, maybe it has to be nerfed a bit. Separate thought on the topic of item names, what if the Mithril and Diamond Vest became 'Sash'. The vanilla Power Sash is now the Power Armor, so Sash is unused, and this would make the Mirage Vest the only item using that name. Edit: The entire 'light' armor line could have unique names: Karate Gi, Dark Shroud, Ninja Gear, Mirage Vest. If you want to be consistent in this regard, Mask should not be used by both Tiger and Ninja, nor should Hood be shared by Dark and Cat. Tiger Mask could become Tiger Turban. Cat Hood could become Cat Bonnet, giving it a bit more of a feminine and juvenile quality, which then justifies why only Relm and Gau are able to equip it.

Mirage gear is fine, none of the other proposals seem great and no reason to change the rest of the names. Ninja suit sounds terrible, like a Halloween costume. A bigger item name issue for me is the Magic Brush, which doesn't follow the other two named brushes of famous artists (Dali and Ross). Dali should be the magic brush, since his paintings have a magical quality to them, Ross is fine for the haste brush since he did his paintings in 30 min. A older painter, preferably renaissance, should provide the name for +5 stamina brush since you want an artist whose work has stood the test of time, but there aren't many good options considering only 6 letters will fit. Vinci brush ain't bad, but that's his birth city, not really his name. Monet brush could work, plus his work feels rather 'safe', with peaceful landscapes frequently being depicted.

You're right, but could still have a few be inherent cover for some variety. Also, he was the retainer to the king of Doma, so being a bodyguard was his job.

Re Cover Spears Cutting to the chase, it seems you agree inherent cover on spears has little utility if cover is front row only. As I said, might make more sense to just nix this. But if inherent cover is removed from spears, it might make sense to add it to some (all?) of Cyan's katanas instead of them having inherent counter. This has the benefit of discouraging Shadow from equipping them and it encourages Cyan to equip the Black Belt, helping his speed. I guess a problem could be that if katanas have inherent cover, then Shadow can cover/counter while using no relic slots. But as we said, the evade reduction makes Shadow a less appealing cover choice, so maybe this isn't a big deal if Shadow gets killed before he has a chance to counter. Maybe this build should be called 'Death Wish' Shadow, and would portend his credits scene.

thzfunnyman, you make some good points. Many cover builds couple with counter (Leo's Crest) and/or have non-relic counter capability (Cyan's katanas, Locke/Shadow with Ninja Mask), so you can legitimately argue that they should be in the front. However, these traits are not the case for spears. Firstly, Edgar and Mog cannot counter without using up a relic slot. Second, looking at each of the other cover-likely characters, Celes' blade will often have a proc, Cyan is always 2-handed, and Locke/Shadow are likely dual-wielding, so the counter will be pretty powerful. Spears are primarily equipped for dragooning (no shield from back row, possibly in the air a fair bit of the time) or the HP boost (with shield), so the counters will be non-existent or not be as strong (while using up a relic slot). Thus, if spears are given inherent cover, it makes much more sense for them to be able to cover from the back row (only vigor Edgar might equip a spear in the front; dancing Mog should be in the back since all of his dance steps ignore row, the limited utility of cover is hardly a reason to move him up). So the compromise seems to be that cover relics are front row only, while spears can cover from the back row (if this can be coded, of course). That or take away the inherent cover on spears since they already have a 'bonus' trait with the HP boost.

It's not just Dragoons, it's magic/support Edgar and dancing Mog. I feel like the entire reason for putting cover on spears is so they can cover from the back. If you need an excuse, just say the long spear allows them to reach in front of an ally to deflect the attacker hit towards them. Totally separate thought coming from this conversation: is it possible to only cover adjacent allies, i.e, position 1, 2 cannot cover position 4, and you can't cross the screen to cover during, for example, the tentacles fight? If we're really worried about covering from back row to front row, these should be equivalent concerns.

I think changing the mechanics for cover should be as minimal as possible. So for Defend, it should be the compromise option where you get the defensive reduction for the hit taken, but it is dropped afterward. This means you could try a strategy of always defending with a cover bot, but cover is not 100% (unless allies are critical) so it might not be as successful as desired. Keeping all allies critical for a 100% defending cover bot is a risky strategy, but one a player should be able to try. For image, I'd say selfish. Basically, any status that changes the sprite should not cover. Sleep, muddle, zombie, berserk all don't allow the character to cover for obvious reasons, might as well extend this to all statuses. A separate question is Slow, should a slowed character be able to cover? (Stop should and does not I believe.) For row, I'm inclined to say the compromise (front row damage, return to back row). It'd just be a nuisance to have to constantly change row for a Dragoon or magic Edgar in the back row who's using the spear for the HP boost.

This is sorta a follow-up to some of the discussion in the Stamina thread, but makes more sense to put it here. When covering, reducing evade seems like it makes sense, both thematically and gameplay-wise This wouldn't greatly affect the characters with poor evade stats who are likely cover candidates (Cyan, Umaro, Edgar), but it would give some pause to having Shadow be a prime cover choice. He's already offensively powerful, plus with the ninja mask he can counter without using up a relic slot, so he probably needs to be restrained a bit. Plus, covering doesn't really fit his aloof personality. Oh, and can Interceptor cover Shadow when he's covering someone else? If so, should probably nix that too, if possible.

Does stamina affect sketch success? That's a pretty simple way to pigeonhole more stamina applicabilty to Relm. It could also change the rate to increase the likelihood of the rare sketch. Strago is trickier, though my proposal to have status setting attacks check the caster's stamina has gone unaddressed.

Like I said, I'm fine with physical damage mitigation keying off either vigor or stamina, it just seems like whichever one it is should be the driver for cover, especially since covered hits will always be front row damage.

Stamina also mitigating physical damage would be fine with me too, and then stamina affecting cover fits with my rationale above (higher cover->counter rate is a nice bonus of this). However, I think the problem arising is that if stamina is meant to be viewed as the 'defensive' stat, then it shouldn't influence offensive attacks that strongly (if at all). Maybe the attacks currently using stamina should instead use some combination of stamina and magic so their power doesn't escalate quite as quickly (and would give stam Cyan additional incentive to equip Kirin for the magic boost). This could also make Sabin's non-physical blitzes more consistent if they all followed this approach. Another big loophole to the stamina=defense concept is the Omega weapon. Maybe this is just the exception, though, as trying to use some combination of stamina and vigor could make Ramuh Locke pretty powerful. Separate idea (not sure how hard to code): What if attacks that have a chance of setting statuses are dependent on the caster's stamina when determining if the status is set? Then Bad Breath essentially becomes the stamina based attack that some want for Strago (maybe all Lores that have associated statuses could work this way). This might also give stam Gau a few more legitimate rage options, particularly if the current stamina rages are nerfed as described above.

I kind of agree with the sentiment of stamina becoming a bit of a catch all stat. What if cover is determined by vigor instead? It pairs well with vigor mitigating physical damage as a character 'knowing' they'll take less damage would be more willing to jump in front of an ally. Counter being based on stamina seems logical though, as higher stamina indicates better recovery in responding to an enemy attack; it also provides a smidge of balance because either you'll counter more often, but with lower damage, or vice versa. Furthermore, having cover and counter key off different stats means that countering off covered hits isn't as likely.

You should be able to cover from the back row; taking front row damage makes sense though.

What statuses does cover check for? Image and clear should not be covered, probably muddle too (since the muddled character could end up killing your own team, or you might want to attack the character with a brush or shiv to break muddle). Another thought, could an attack with a spear against a teammate be covered by the attacker (a rather impressive maneuver)? That should probably be nixed too. Thinking a bit more on it, maybe all attacks from teammates should be ignored for cover purposes. You could have an odd strategy of e.g., flameguard and flametongue to heal. Also makes muddle a bit more detrimental as a status ailment.

Found this link regarding battle backgrounds: http://www.ff6hacking.com/wiki/doku.php?id=sprite:bgs A different idea is to put a few tiles in the Cave to the Ancient Castle that battle on Serpent Trench backgrounds; maybe around the treasure chests in the second room or around the save point in the third room (can battles happen here?). Could also have the first part of Cyan's Dream be a water background. It has a bit of an Escherian waterfall aspect to it. It's still missable, but no reason not to just to throw a twist in.

Spears getting cover pairs with Mogoon well. Moogle charm and the +50% HP spear in the back row makes him a decent defensive asset while losing nothing on offense. Inherent haste from Palidor makes him damn potent too.

I'm not familiar with exactly what makes a 'battle background', but at least that background to which I refer is coded into the software already. What type of changes have to be made to convert it to be battle compatible? Q2: And if Ultros is a battle, why not have Siegfried sell you the EL respec? Lends a bit more prestige to it. Could nix the 1st time discount for a lower flat rate from $50-75K. For Colosseum in general, could have Ultros just be a vendor who takes a fee for the transaction, maybe $10K per trade. He could also just sell water rondo for $10K too, as well as a new unique item - Octopus Ink. It's like using a rod as an item, where it gives a free cast of a water elemental spell, as well as setting Blind status. Other NPCs could sell other rare items, Slim Jims and Snake Oils, particularly, giving you reason to have to explore the environs.