Well i have seen plenty of peopel saying that the slowdown problem on the PSP version is really bad. There's a fix though if you have CWF.
You can get a patch from the site bellow or download t he update version from Nicoblog.
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8490.0
I might actually join on this and try out the PS1 version. I don't want to play the PSP version because all the exploits were fixed on it.
Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
Who likes mechanics? I like mechanics, and FFT has a lot of them.
Speed is life; you go slow you die
If you read nothing else here, read this. Understanding how turn order works in FFT is vital. Most tactics games have everyone take a turn ordered based on some sort of initiative value. FFT is different. When you look at a unit you'll see three bars; HP, MP, and CT. HP and MP are what you'd expect, but CT is what drives turn order. The way it works is that when someone's CT fills to 100 they get their turn. The way CT builds up is based on speed. When it's not someone's turn the game goes through a loop.
1. Increment everyone's CT by their speed
2. If anyone is at 100, give them their turn
3. If multiple people are at 100, break the tie (not sure exactly how that works)
4. Go back to 1
This loop can be thought of as 1 tick. So given a unit's speed you can figure out how many of these ticks it takes before someone gets a turn.
So as you can see, someone with speed 2 will get two turns for every single turn that someone of speed 1 gets. Or to use more real world values, if you have speed 10 you will get two turns for every single turn someone of speed 5 gets. Someone with speed 20 will get four turns for every single turn someone of speed 5 gets. Speed is vital. Speed gives you flexibility.
One other note about speed; there are certain abilities which require charge time. Most magic spells require you to charge before they go off, as well as the Charge skills from the Archer class. The way charge stuff works is that after you select the ability and your target location you go into a charge state. At this point your speed is replaced with the charge speed of the skill. Once your turn comes up again the charged skill will go off and end that turn. You'll notice that lower level skills have a faster charge rate than higher level skills as a balancing mechanism. Understanding how turn order works means you can still effectively use slow charge skills on the targets you want to.
Other stats
It's not just speed that makes a big difference. Like Paper Mario your stats tend to be low, so a minor change in stats can have big payoffs. As an example, in his current class my Ramza has 4 Physical Attack. With his 4 power weapon he could hit the enemies for ~20 damage. I then used the Accumulate ability 6 times, to give me 10 Physical Attack. Now I was hitting the same enemies for ~90 damage. Physical Attack and Magic Attack have a huge effect on your end damage, so it's important to get gear that boosts them.
There are two stats that are unique to FFT and have interesting effects: Bravery and Faith. Bravery has the following effects:
1. Acts as the trigger rate for most reactions (e.g. Blade Catch triggers Bravery% of the time)
2. Acts as the chance Move-Find-Item gives you the common item instead of the rare item
3. Damage of certain attacks and skills
4. If your Bravery is too low you lose control of the unit in battle, and if it's too low out of battle the unit flees your army
Faith has the following effects:
1. Higher faith means you do more damage with magic
2. Higher faith means you take more damage from magic
3. Higher faith means you are more likely to inflict status effects
4. Higher faith means you are more likely to succumb to status effects
5. Having extremely high faith outside of battle causes the unit to leave the army to pursue religion
Both of these stats can be affected in battle. There are a variety of skills that will increase or decrease Bravery and Faith. One point out of every four points of modification in battle are permanent; if you gain 10 Bravery in a battle, taking you from 70 to 80 Bravery, then in the next battle you would start with 72 Bravery. Faith additionally has two status effects that do not modify the Faith number but instead have the game treat it as if you had either 0 or 100 Faith.
Speed is life; you go slow you die
If you read nothing else here, read this. Understanding how turn order works in FFT is vital. Most tactics games have everyone take a turn ordered based on some sort of initiative value. FFT is different. When you look at a unit you'll see three bars; HP, MP, and CT. HP and MP are what you'd expect, but CT is what drives turn order. The way it works is that when someone's CT fills to 100 they get their turn. The way CT builds up is based on speed. When it's not someone's turn the game goes through a loop.
1. Increment everyone's CT by their speed
2. If anyone is at 100, give them their turn
3. If multiple people are at 100, break the tie (not sure exactly how that works)
4. Go back to 1
This loop can be thought of as 1 tick. So given a unit's speed you can figure out how many of these ticks it takes before someone gets a turn.
Code: Select all
Speed Ticks
1 100
2 50
3 34
4 25
5 20
6 17
7 15
8 13
9 12
10 10
12 9
13 8
15 7
17 6
20 5
25 4
34 3
50 2So as you can see, someone with speed 2 will get two turns for every single turn that someone of speed 1 gets. Or to use more real world values, if you have speed 10 you will get two turns for every single turn someone of speed 5 gets. Someone with speed 20 will get four turns for every single turn someone of speed 5 gets. Speed is vital. Speed gives you flexibility.
One other note about speed; there are certain abilities which require charge time. Most magic spells require you to charge before they go off, as well as the Charge skills from the Archer class. The way charge stuff works is that after you select the ability and your target location you go into a charge state. At this point your speed is replaced with the charge speed of the skill. Once your turn comes up again the charged skill will go off and end that turn. You'll notice that lower level skills have a faster charge rate than higher level skills as a balancing mechanism. Understanding how turn order works means you can still effectively use slow charge skills on the targets you want to.
Other stats
It's not just speed that makes a big difference. Like Paper Mario your stats tend to be low, so a minor change in stats can have big payoffs. As an example, in his current class my Ramza has 4 Physical Attack. With his 4 power weapon he could hit the enemies for ~20 damage. I then used the Accumulate ability 6 times, to give me 10 Physical Attack. Now I was hitting the same enemies for ~90 damage. Physical Attack and Magic Attack have a huge effect on your end damage, so it's important to get gear that boosts them.
There are two stats that are unique to FFT and have interesting effects: Bravery and Faith. Bravery has the following effects:
1. Acts as the trigger rate for most reactions (e.g. Blade Catch triggers Bravery% of the time)
2. Acts as the chance Move-Find-Item gives you the common item instead of the rare item
3. Damage of certain attacks and skills
4. If your Bravery is too low you lose control of the unit in battle, and if it's too low out of battle the unit flees your army
Faith has the following effects:
1. Higher faith means you do more damage with magic
2. Higher faith means you take more damage from magic
3. Higher faith means you are more likely to inflict status effects
4. Higher faith means you are more likely to succumb to status effects
5. Having extremely high faith outside of battle causes the unit to leave the army to pursue religion
Both of these stats can be affected in battle. There are a variety of skills that will increase or decrease Bravery and Faith. One point out of every four points of modification in battle are permanent; if you gain 10 Bravery in a battle, taking you from 70 to 80 Bravery, then in the next battle you would start with 72 Bravery. Faith additionally has two status effects that do not modify the Faith number but instead have the game treat it as if you had either 0 or 100 Faith.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
There are also a small handful of abilities in the game that affect speed for individual battles, such as the knight's Speed Break or Rend Speed ability(the name changes depending on which version you play), the dancer's Slow Dance, the bard's Cheer Song or Rousing Melody, or Ramza's special squire ability, Yell or Tailwind.
Speed can be changed by certain kinds of equipment, and Ninjas have the best speed growth when leveling, though it's not so great that it will make a huge difference in the long run.
Depending on what your goal in a fight is, it can be worthwhile to enter a battle with a team of knights, thieves, dancers, bards, and Ramza as a squire specifically for the capability to influence unit speed. I typically use this sort of setup(or run a squad where team members have abilities from these classes) if I am interested in stealing specific kinds of equipment off the enemy. I will then go in, use the dancer to start draining the speed of my opponents, use Ramza's Yell/Tailwind to pump up the speed of my thieves so they get more attempts to steal, and then use the knights to break speed as well as other stats of the enemy so they are no longer threats while I pick them clean.
Speed can be changed by certain kinds of equipment, and Ninjas have the best speed growth when leveling, though it's not so great that it will make a huge difference in the long run.
Depending on what your goal in a fight is, it can be worthwhile to enter a battle with a team of knights, thieves, dancers, bards, and Ramza as a squire specifically for the capability to influence unit speed. I typically use this sort of setup(or run a squad where team members have abilities from these classes) if I am interested in stealing specific kinds of equipment off the enemy. I will then go in, use the dancer to start draining the speed of my opponents, use Ramza's Yell/Tailwind to pump up the speed of my thieves so they get more attempts to steal, and then use the knights to break speed as well as other stats of the enemy so they are no longer threats while I pick them clean.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
How about a description of how character building works?
FFT draws heavily from the job system of FFV. As you perform actions in a job you will gain JP. Once you reach enough JP you will level up in that JP. However, unlike FFV the level of your job is only used to determine unlocking requirements for other jobs (advanced jobs require a minimum level in one or more other jobs). Instead of learning abilities at a given job level you instead get to directly spend JP on the skills you want. When you unlock a job you will start with ~100 JP, to let you potentially grab a skill or two (most likely for the casting jobs to get some low level magic). Everything else is simply purchased. So if you want to save you can go from a Black Mage who only knows Thunder and have your first skill purchase be Flare.
Job skills are divided into several categories. Every job has action skills, which are like the magic menu for a caster or the break menu for the knight. You can equip the action skills of another job in addition to the one of the job you are on, so you can have a knight that casts white magic. The other three categories are passive skills; you can equip one per category. Support skills are passive benefits to the character, such as Magic Defense Up. React skills are things that will trigger on certain conditions, most of which are being attacked. Examples of react skills are Auto Potion and Counterattack. Move skills either passively improve your movement (Move +1, Teleport) or trigger as part of movement (Move-Find-Item, Move-Gain-JP).
Building up awesome characters comes down to picking a final job you want (based on its stats and its action commands), picking a supplementary job for action commands, and then the three passives you want.
FFT draws heavily from the job system of FFV. As you perform actions in a job you will gain JP. Once you reach enough JP you will level up in that JP. However, unlike FFV the level of your job is only used to determine unlocking requirements for other jobs (advanced jobs require a minimum level in one or more other jobs). Instead of learning abilities at a given job level you instead get to directly spend JP on the skills you want. When you unlock a job you will start with ~100 JP, to let you potentially grab a skill or two (most likely for the casting jobs to get some low level magic). Everything else is simply purchased. So if you want to save you can go from a Black Mage who only knows Thunder and have your first skill purchase be Flare.
Job skills are divided into several categories. Every job has action skills, which are like the magic menu for a caster or the break menu for the knight. You can equip the action skills of another job in addition to the one of the job you are on, so you can have a knight that casts white magic. The other three categories are passive skills; you can equip one per category. Support skills are passive benefits to the character, such as Magic Defense Up. React skills are things that will trigger on certain conditions, most of which are being attacked. Examples of react skills are Auto Potion and Counterattack. Move skills either passively improve your movement (Move +1, Teleport) or trigger as part of movement (Move-Find-Item, Move-Gain-JP).
Building up awesome characters comes down to picking a final job you want (based on its stats and its action commands), picking a supplementary job for action commands, and then the three passives you want.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
I have another tip for you all. If you want the game to maintain any semblance of difficulty do NOT train a Calculator. I'm a handful of fights from the end and I'll be coming under the 15 hour mark.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
A winner is me. Now you guys still have a month and a half to catch up, so hop to it.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
Good job, now that you've completed the training tutorial, you might be ready for Tactics Ogre Let Us Cling Together (SNES or PSX version).
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
When I get around to TO it'll probably be the PSP port for the translation.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
Tactics Ogre isn't a particularly difficult game, it's just really long, and notably tedious at times. It also likes to start a map by putting Denim, and/or a computer controlled ally unit in the center of enemy chaos, three or so turns away from party intervention, almost assuring a unit's death. (Especially when it's a warlock at half health that thinks it should continue to melee attack things that could kill it on a successful counter hit.) The random battles are extra dumb, also, and can't be avoided without save scumming. If I couldn't use the Saturn's software reset, I might have completely given up on the game months ago. Story's great, though; The game just doesn't respect my time.
The PSP version looks almost completely different. Seems like almost all challenge would be completely removed by the ability to jump back to decision points, and retreat from battles.
The PSP version looks almost completely different. Seems like almost all challenge would be completely removed by the ability to jump back to decision points, and retreat from battles.
Re: Together RPG - Final Fantasy Tactics - 10/1-12/1
They changed a lot more than just that in the PSP version. The class system sounds completely retooled. Sounds like a different game. I thought the translation for the PSX version was good. Basically people took a text dump of that and put it in the SNES rom, so it's still official.