praetarius5018

Then tell me how to reproduce it.
I tried - for 3 hours. No bug.

I'm afraid I need more info here before this turns into casttime 2.0 ...
Do those only appear in the armor tab? Any rough idea what actions happened before then?
Only Leather Visor and Silver Circlet or other too?
Do they get added or overwrite existing items?

Also, the hold X the skip animation patch also makes cutscene "spell animations" and boss explosions skippable just as normal spells, whoops?

Still don't see it..
You've noticed that each character has their own unique equipment inventory and the buy/sell system handles like crap?

You don't have any mandatory fights between Jewel Eater and the class change, so you only moved the grind from after him to before basically.
You also fight a boss almost right after getting the class change - I expect player to got back and get Lv19 before taking on that boss since they get their first spells from that and those help a ton.
Just a warning though.

9 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

Note that you won't be able to level up beyond level 18 until you've performed your first class change

you'll still gain the exp, so nothing is lost; same will happen later for lv38

bosses are generally 1-2 levels above their minions, mostly to give more exp for level rubber banding purposes.
also levels will matter less as time goes on, so don't stress over that too much. (de)buffs and equip will matter much more.

Those Golems are supposed to be "easy".
You've just fought a hard boss and are close to the next hard boss, 3 brick walls in a row is not ok.

Also, it doesn't matter who uses coins, their base damage is based on level, not stats.

It certainly sounds so but regular attacks are still the majority outside of boss fights.
I'd estimate about 70% are normal attacks there, so it is not entirely useless.

For bosses... rule of thumb:
if it is a human sized enemy evasion has a point otherwise evasion respecting moves are the minority.

Does that help?

Well, dodging in this game is a strange thing.

If it freezes the action, it can't be dodged (every spell, Lv2+ techs, etc.), it just hits.

If it is a projectile you may be able to negate it by using a well-timed Lv1 tech.
If you don't, it might check four your evade. Though several projectiles are spells in disguise which auto-hit.

If it is a melee attack, the sentiment with Lv1 tech still applies but that is more or less down to luck.
Some melee attacks are the same as your Lv1 tech, those always hit as well if you are in range.

In short, there's a ton of damage that is just unavoidable.

When dieing (and not reviving via Angel Grail) you get a penalty to HP and both defenses.
0 def at that stage might be possible, not sure.
The next chance you get sleep at an inn to remove that penalty and check if def becomes normal again.

Just as a hint, you'll want some VIT and PIE on everyone, especially on hard difficulty.

3 hours ago, zombero said:

Gotcha.  Well, with the limited total item quantity and proposed element system:  I can see why untyped slots would be highly desirable.  I'm currently deciding how many typed and untyped slots to include in a system, so the tangent was relevant to my own interests.

In doubt, 3 is always a good starting number.

3 hours ago, zombero said:

Sounds like the best choice from the options you listed.  Though some of what you're proposing for this hack (and some of what it appears you've done for SD3) seem like ASM hacks of a level that would make circumventing these restrictions trivial?  Unless it's all being done with rather clever data manipulations.

Well, yes, asm edits are always involved.
The thing with X-Fight is that it is a multilayered problem actually.
X-Fight itself only calls the weapons attack several times with additional flags.
Certain weapons use magic damage formulas which ignore those flags, like the HP-stealing Blood Sword or most Rods.

...

You know, yes, I should just remove the half damage flag from X-Fight and add a hardcoded check at the end of the damage application that checks for the ability being used to being X-Fight and then modify damage there.
That'd solve so many problems at once.

Also X-Fight is so slow, especially with dual wield. That makes me like 3 hits instead of 4 even more.
Queue 2 dual wielding characters with X-Fight and you can make and eat breakfast before it is done.

3 hours ago, zombero said:

How many defense items does it take to cover the basics with untyped slots?

Without counting shields 1/3 of what typed needs. And 3-4 elements in the first area should cover everything needed.

3 hours ago, zombero said:

X-Fight I don't think is sacred at all.  If anything, it sounds like it'd only hit twice.  Though you may as well just nerf it's power instead of its hit count so it can keep its flair?  Bonus points if the hits have more difficulty getting through high defenses.

I can change:

• hit count 1-4 (5+ will crash the game if dual wielded)
• defense ignoring or not; vanilla had that set, my version has not anymore
• evade ignoring or not; vanilla used this as well
• 1/2, normal or double attack power (value before defense); this one has normal
• 1/2, normal or double damage (value after defense); this one uses 1/2

I already have a "X-Fight" clone that hits twice with half attack and double damage; so it has a much harder time against defense but at best deals double damage total compared to Fight.
So the idea was to make X-Fight hit 3 times with half damage making it always 150% of Fight but either above or below the clone depending on defense.

1) Yeah I know; with certain other changes I made the normal MP system would be even more pointless:
minimal encounter rate to run back and forth between inn and dungeon almost unhindered and infinite ethers say hi.

5) To be fair, the Blue Mage teaches an ability to scan for elemental weaknesses.
And it just costs 10 ABP which is almost nothing compared to what you get over the entire game (2500+?).
Sidenote: in this hack you'll have it from the start and it'll use no turn - afterall it only gives the solution to a visible "math" problem of what does element1 + element2 have as a weakness.

6) Just look at SD3SOM, I rarely do things in moderation >.>

4) There are several items that are one of a kind, so to an extend the same sentiment still applies. It just extends the options for classes that are usually worse off.
And it is kinda required because I otherwise have not many options to give several items per element in each slot.
The game can only have a max of 95 defense items, spread over shield, helm, armor and accessoires.
Here now thanks to element changes also spread over 8 elements.
Also availability is a problem. I can hardly have 12 defense items before the first boss just to cover the basics (3 elements per item category).

I stand by my decision here.

I haven't played either game but I could imagine that a straight forward step by step choice in that system would lead to a seemingly good couple wise pairing of
char a1 marries a2, b1 marries b2, etc.
while a more optimal setup for the whole team would have
a1 marries a2, b1 marries c2, c1 marries b1
maybe because b2 is only 1% better than c2 for b1 but b2 is 80% better for c1 than c2

err what was that about again?...

hmmm ... would I break any "sacred FF rule" by NOT having tiered magic? Or cutting X-Fight to 3 hits instead of 4?

1) As said somewhere above, originally I wanted to remove MP altogether.
But that is kinda difficult if you have tiered spells. I mean sure, I could change it to Fire1 hits one target, Fire2 hits all with the multitarget penalty but what should Fire3 do then?
Or replace tier3 entirely, that'd work too.
Or scratch Fire2 AND 3, then keep Fire"1" as toggleable single/multitarget.
Ok, there probably aren't that many staples in the series we're missing AND can recreate.
Plus, certain classes would become overpowered just on the basis of sheer choices.
A Black Mage with 18 answers per problem instead of 5 would be terrifying.

And how'd you balance Fire1 against Fight AND X-Fight at the same time..
problems, problems..

And what to do with MP damage/stealing/regenating effects then.

3) This would just be a name change then.
I don't think that is really necessary when magic is so freely available that you can file it under "a mage was bored between battles".

4) Overall it increases the complexity of choice together with element changes.
Every item modifies elemental weakness and strength so on the open sea where water will be more present you'd rather not take fire items unless the side effects are really, really good.

5) "Many elements" is imo only a problem when ways to inflcit damage of that type barely exists.
At the moment I only recall one way outside of Gaia (I exclude it because of region lock) to inflict poison (Bio) and water damage (Leviatan; Aqua Rake is non-elemental).

6) Don't give me ideas.
Else I remember what the lowest difficulty was you used and then deny the final battle on difficulty 4 or easier.
And on a pure difficulty 1 playthrough you get a third phase on the final boss.

7) BD had the most hilarious version honestly.
By default you could turn encounters off or increase it up to almost every step.
BUT!
If you grind your starting class a whole lot you get "enemy lure" ability which increases the encounter rate as well.
Pointless.

Overall I don't have much problem with random encounters themselves.

I'd give the official remake minus points for screwing with her "character" gameplay wise.
In every other game she blasts enemies with her beams and pumps them full of (Super) Missiles.
In this one she gains a melee attack that also functions as a counter of sorts, and is imo a tad overpowered.
Dunno, it just feels wrong somehow.

over lv 36, poison smoke trap, at least tough difficulty?
if so -> feature

I evaluated traps past 2nd class change to be a non-issue since every party should have heal light by then, so I added some side effects that last until the next victory.
Those effects require lv36 before they start appearing, something like a noob protection.
Also they currently only apply on tough and hard difficulty.

On 20.9.2017 at 1:29 AM, Serafie1999AD said:

I was wondering if you can create an optional patch where you can access the save menu on any screen via a hotkey, as long as there are no enemies or treasure chests left on that screen? I know you can use save states if you're playing on an emulator, but I've now had to restart the Labyrinth of the Ice Walls 4 times in a row. Once because of dying just a couple of screens before the save point, and 3 times I've had to restart because of an incurable Snowman bug. Occasionally if a character is turned into a Snowman at the end of a battle, the status becomes unhealable. Tinkle Rain won't heal it, neither will moving to another screen, or even touching a Gold Statue. I'm getting tired of playing through the same 20-30 minutes again and again because of a glitchy game, and I'd prefer to be able to save more frequently.

Was the character "dead" when the snowman was inflicted? That makes you unable to be "hit" by spells and item effects.
Or anything else special?
I'm quite against save anywhere, for the simple reason that it will cause situations like the ghost ship bug (corrupt save).

25 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

So no changes for the Dragon Emperor?

I knew I forgot something in that list...
yes he's done from my point of view.

24 minutes ago, Serafie1999AD said:

What does this mean? Does it mean that whenever an enemy (or you) casts an elemental spell on your characters, the characters receive additional damage, as if the caster had a Saber buff? If so, that sounds like the weapon has very limited uses.  (well, you can make all characters resistant to some element, then the saber effect will make spells of that element deal even less damage, but it's a very specialized strategy) Or did you mean this: if Angela casts an elemental spell on your own characters, they receive the damage from the spell, but they also gain the saber of that element?

It means that if the Grand Divina casts fireball at your party they take some damage (greatly reduced compared to normal but still some) and they get the effect as if she had used fire saber on them.
With this she has basically 18 spells - her regular 12 plus 6 saber replacements.

It is now official, there'll never be a public release of a 1.0 for this hack.

v1.029

• added optional patch "skippable_spell_animation": skip spell animations via holding X before the animation starts
• adjusted Xan Bie's stats
• adjusted Lightgazer's stats
• adjusted Landumber's stats and specials
• adjusted Fiegmund's stats and specials
• Ninja Master's final weapon "Kongo Rakan" now forces targets into counterable state if a spell hits a weakness
• Nightblade's final weapon "Deathstroke" now increases Lv2/3 tech damage while below 300 HP
• Grand Divina's final weapon "Ganvantein" now adds saber effect for elemental spells cast at allies
• altered maxMP by level slightly
• added diminishing returns for maxMP, values below 20 stay as is, former 38 max MP gets reduced to 25
• reduced handaxe item from Lv2.5 to Lv1.5; same as cost-identical darts
• fixed a bug that made Lv2/3 techs drain all MP if a Sage Stone is equipped
• on easy difficulty and below enemies have halved chance to land status effects with their regular attacks

My oldest backup of anything related to this hack is dated 2014/07/22, so 3 years and 2 months total.
Thought it was longer.

I'll go with hold X (menu which is at that point blocked anyway) on any of the 3 controllers before the animation starts (while the spell name is displayed on top) to skip it completely.
That way you can choose yourself what you want to skip and what not.

Which ones? All? Non-boss-special ones? Only (de)buffs?
Should that happen always/automatically? Or just when you hold e.g. X when the top-messages appears and it would transition to an animation?

In short, no idea.

Retry is already renamed to "hard".
I'd like to keep "gift" though; that way people new to Lufia 2 in general have a chance to research on their own what made this game mode is like, what they should expect.

I don't understand the problem.

Attack and defense do not depend on "tier" of items.
Use what fits, not necessarily what is new.

54 minutes ago, saryakan said:

I have a question about the hate/revamped counter mechanic:

Does everything now add hate or is it like the old system, where every boss had a list of stuff that triggered counters?

For example Tzenker used to always counter earth coins, but never countered if Angela casted Earth Missile.

Basically, is knowledge of the old counter mechanics still worth a damn, or can I forget them?

Forget about the old system.
Every enemy uses the same "list"; regular attacks (+critical), lv1 techs (except counters), lv2/3 techs, all spells count, doesn't matter what enemy type it is.

Most regular enemies don't live long enough to where it is relevant.
Also most regular enemies don't even have a "counter", neither do several bosses.

55 minutes ago, saryakan said:

Also don't forget to change HandAxe/Darts. Currently they cost the same to buy in black market, but Handaxe is lvl 2.5 damage, while Darts are lvl 1.5, making Darts completely useless aside from a scenario where you want to throw more than 20 physical damage Items in one battle. So either nerf Axes, or make them more expensive.

Thanks, I again forgot about that..

v7 update:

• changed logic of buff effects
• old: half distance between current value and +2x buff rate (e.g. 40% buff on a current 120% state increases by [100%+2x40% - 120%]/2 = 30%)
• new: buff applies buff rate to the distance between current and 200% (e.g. 40% buff on a current 120% state increases by [200% - 120%]*40% = 32%)
• changed logic of debuff effects:
• old: half distance between current value and +2x debuff rate (e.g. 20% debuff on a current 120% state decreases by [100%-2x20% + 120%]/2 = 30%)
• new: debuff applies debuff rate to the distance between current and 0% (e.g. 20% debuff on a current 120% state decreases by 120%*20% = 24%)
• debuffs can no longer reduce a stat below 50% of its base value
• fixed Salamander's Sizzle Breath related game crash
• reduced chance in Ancient Cave to get consumables from ~37% to ~20%
• increased chance in Ancient Cave to get spells from ~11% to ~18%
• increased chance in Ancient Cave to get armors and accessoires from ~17% to ~25%
• increased chance in Ancient Cave to get blue chests from ~2% to ~5%
• chance in Ancient Cave to get weapons was kept at ~31%
• HeroSong and Resolve are no longer affected by mirror state
• increased HP, MP, AGL of Lexis
• increased general stat growth of Tia at high levels
• Ruse armor can now be equipped by everyone, protects against death
• Mirak plate can now be equipped by everyone, protects against paralysis and confusion
• increased DFP of Mirak plate from 120 to 160
• edited descriptions of most items that provide status protection
• renamed IP "Ice...." to "Ice Valk"
• IP "Combo attack" damage increased from 2*INT+450 to 2*INT+500
• IP "Diamond dust" damage increased from STR+700 to 2*STR+350
• IP "Do-Re-Mi" confusion chance increased from 50% to 100%
• IP "Flash" damage increased from 2*INT+600 to 3*INT+300; cost increased from 96 (37%) to 164 (65%)
• IP "Frost" damage increased from 2*INT+140 to 3*INT+360
• IP "Gloomsplash" damage increased from STR+800 to 2.5*STR+400
• IP "Gloomy" damage increased from 2*INT+160 to 4*INT+60
• IP "Groundshock" damage increased from 2*INT+240 to (INT+STR)*1.75
• IP "Head attack" cost reduced from 164 (65%) to 100 (40%)
• IP "Incendiary" damage increased from 2*INT+120 to 3*INT+70
• IP "Iron kick" damage increased from 400 to 700
• IP "Magic cure" cost reduced from 128 (50%) to 85 (33%)
• IP "Magic healing" cost reduced from 192 (75%) to 153 (60%)
• IP "Magma blast" damage increased from 2*INT+400 to 3*INT+100
• IP "Mega quake" damage increased from 2*INT+140 to 2.5*INT+30; cost increased from 20 (8%) to 50 (20%)
• IP "Samurai" critical chance increased from 20% to 35%
• IP "Stardust blow" damage increased from STR+1000 to 2.5*STR+450
• IP "Tail attack" damage increased from 2*INT+200 to 2.5*INT+100
• IP "Tidal wave" damage increased from 2*INT+140 to 3*INT+60
• IP "Twister" damage increased from 2*INT+140 to 3*INT+360
• IP "Voltage bolt" damage increased from 2*INT+160 to 3*INT+70

Holy Ball is right, Heal Light is not supposed to be known to her until she goes to a light class.

14 hours ago, Lancalot said:

Hi Praetarius, do you still have plans to redo/update the current start menu screen? Even if you could just make it perform faster than it does now would be sufficient.

I've currently no plans beyond 1.0, that is the 3rd final boss and 3 weapons.

Most likely both for an inevitable case of schizophrenic difficulty.
The odds of me getting numbers right on the first try is 0.

I'd honestly say that FF5 experts won't have it easy either; it looks the same but fundamentals changed.
Where battle speed was is now a difficulty slider; those that set it to max will have quite an experience.