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Total Members Voted: 3

Voting closed: July 06, 2013, 12:53:29 am

[Shoruke]

Possible speed fixes: 1. number of actions, like the fast classes can do three actions, med classes do two and slows do one(numbers are for example and are simplified)

or 2. modify the move stats with it?

High-speed classes usually already have a high movement rating... and just doubling their actions seems a little bit heavy-handed. Thanks for the input, though. Food for thought and all that. NEED MOAR INPUT

Better question: if we went for FFT, would I be able to play Mediator and cast recruit on the enemies over and over until we have a veritable NPC ally army?

I loved doing that in FFT.

Umm... Yes. BUT, after that battle ends you'd have to pick between your self-made character or one of your recruits for each engagement.

Make them capable of doing more actions, but actually REDUCE their movement rating per action. That also means higher chances of slipping through ZOC traps.

So in other words, give each character speed points each turn that they divy up between actions and moving? I kinda like it. Then I can make stronger stuff cost more points so that the calculators and such don't godmode quite so hard...
EDIT: On reflection, I realize that was totally not what you were trying to say. Whoops     </EDIT>

Maybe I'll give Oracles a Speed Cost Increase spell to make them worth using. Mix with a Time Mage's slow for completely incapacitated enemies 

Also, I'm trying to replace the word Faith with something else.
For the uninitiated, the Faith stat in FFT determines how much magic affects you; 100 faith means spells are highly effective, 0 makes you immune to magic. Note that it determines the usefulness of helpful spells (i.e. Cure) as well as harmful spells, and affect hit rate too.
So. I'm trying to come up with a word to replace it with.
Not Mana, that would be confusing with MP and is supposed to be one's inner power.
Not Anima, that basically just means "soul".
"Connectedness" is too long, and not concise enough...
Mysticism is the best I got so far, with paltry bonus points for abbreviating to Myst, because Mist is the source of magic in FFXII, which is set in the same universe (albeit 1,200+ years previous).

[Shoruke]

So, it's decided (by me). We're playing Final Fantasy Tactics.

I'm not gonna bother bringing any of the non-hume races in right now...

Inspired by Evilcherry and yet quite different from his idea, the Speed stat no longer influences how soon your turn comes up. Instead, your speed stat is basically action points; you can spend them on moving, or actions, as you see fit. To fit with a mechanic I really like from the original game, some fraction of speed points you don't use in a round will carry over to the next one (up to a point). This gives some semblance of the ability to wait just a little bit for an enemy to be where you want them to be.
You can also set up contingency actions (i.e. when an enemy passes through tile (9,3), cast Fire on him) given that you have enough speed left that round to perform the action, but it will take some speed points off your next turn.

I'm currently re-reading the plot, so that I can figure out who's dead, who's implied to be dead, who among the living is where, and who gives/gave a f**k about what.

I'm also gonna mess with the job tree a little bit, and add some new jobs. I'm thinking of adding a third job tree (possibly with Archer or Thief as a base), which would divide the job tree into warrior, mage and "specialist". I'm also kinda considering making the player characters' special classes distinct from Squire, as a fourth base class; a class with decent growths and abilities, but does not contribute one bit towards accessing other classes.
Everyone's unique class is going to grow and get more abilities as the plot moves on, similar to Ramza's skillset in FFT.
The skills that get added to your job will be influenced by two things: the character's birthsign, and a roleplaying choice.
-your starsign is basically your specialty; I'll likely be basing them loosely on the themes of the 12 zodiac boss-fights from Final Fantasy XII (I haven't fought them all in that game, but I DO have access to GameFaqs  ). Interestingly, this makes the Dark-themed skillset unavailable (since Ophiuchus, the 13th starsign, does not have any birthdays associated with it), until the party reaches the plot point I may or may not put in the game that allows you to change your starsign. So, for instance, Scorpios (affiliated with Queklain) are gonna get a bunch of debuffing powers, and Arieses (associated with Belius) will get "punch it to death with fire, raaagh"-type moves.
-For the player-chosen skill, I'll take a look at each player's recent roleplaying and give them a couple choices for which skill to add to their list. For instance, someone's who's been lamenting over failing to protect someone will be given options themed around shielding allies, or dealing damage in retribution. SO ROLEPLAY LOTS, DRAMA MAKES YOU STRONGER

So, the work to do before the OOC thread can launch and take applications...
-make the job tree
-- make up the list of skills for each job
-make the list of starsign benefits
-design the combat system (how hard can it be  )

And then, work to do before the game can start...
-write the plot for the first chapter or two at least
--design battle maps for the first chapter at least
-finish putting some detail onto the map, at least around the starting area
-build the character archetype in Maptools
--make levelling up macros in Maptools
--make combat macros in Maptools(?)

[Shoruke]

My forum game is going to be a little bit more immersive than most of them, if I do say so myself 

I'm going to be periodically uploading the maptools campaign to the DFFD Google Drive, so that the players (and waitlisters and lurkers) can download it, open it (I'm using Maptools version 89, the most recent as of this post), and look around. This will allow players a more in-depth look at the combat stage than the pictures I post in the In-Character thread, and also allows you to look over the job tree visually, and read over the Lore compendium, which I'm actually having a bit of fun compiling. It will serve the triple purpose of being my Job System reference, keeping the players up to date on what's what and who's who, and making sure anyone who isn't familiar with the plot of FFT can keep up with the plot of the forum game.

TL;DR: the players will be able to either take a quick peek at what's up on the forum proper, or download the campaign and make a more detailed analysis. Also lore.

[kj1225]

I'm pumped for this! unless I don't get in the first load of people and thus have to weep in a corner until I get off wait list.

[Shoruke]

I have GREAT NEWS

I have enlisted the help of a friend of mine who is good at making drawings and arts and stuff, and is a cool bro in general, in creating the art for the game's characters. He'll be making a battle sprite and a portrait for each of the 6 starting characters. As for anyone who gets in from the waitlist or if I decide to just increase the game's roster size... we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I'll probably be able to strongarm him into getting that done too, but no guarantees.

In the meantime, I present to you... the job tree.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At the start, you can access your Unique class, plus Squire, Alchemist, and Archer, and you branch out from there.

Chemists are now Alchemists, which sound cooler, and are also a bit less useless.
Archers are also a bit less useless. Likely not much stronger, but less useless.
Squires... ehh... I'm pondering their ability list, I'll get back to you on that.
Ninjas are now Assassins, which are different...
Oracles are now Green Mages, and may or may not suck less...
Priests are now Clerics, and are pretty much the same...
Dancers and Bards are no longer gender-restricted...
Calculators are now Arithmancers...
Beastmasters are new, if you've ever played a Tactics Ogre game, they're much better here than there, because in Tactics Ogre they are knights that suck ass. These guys help your monsters and beat up enemy ones, so they're much betterer.
Blue Mages are also new. Every race of monster is going to have at least one signature skill that can be learned by a Blue Mage. You know you want to get back at those sons of bitches from Finath River with a Choco Meteor...
Mechanics are... uh, new. They're not like Mustadio, more like the bastard child of The Engineer and The Demoman, complete with handgun. He can alter the terrain, or place little machines to help him out. Yes, one of those machines is functionally equivalent to a sentry gun.
Binders are new. They're Summoners who, instead of calling an eidolon for one strong attack, act as a medium for the eidolon to keep it there longer. Benefits include halved hp damage (half goes to the eidolon), increased stats, and access to several skills and passive abilities based on who you're channelling or have bound to you. Drawbacks include a backlash of some kind if the eidolon is killed rather than dismissed, and minor, temporary cases of identity confusion. You still have access to your other skills though, so yes, you can call forth an eldritch abomination and use it as a meat shield.
Red Mages are also new. Knight + Wizard + Cleric. Rather than learning their own active skills (they just make use of the active skills of those three classes), their JP is split four ways: Knight, Wizard, Priest, Red Mage. The Red Mage skillset includes only reaction, support, and movement abilities. (I'm considering changing this so that the player allocates their own Red Mage JP, within some arbitrary limit)

The Unique class in the middle is, well, unique to the player. At the start, the players won't be much stronger than any other ruffian, and their unique classes are going to be severely underwhelming, albeit with slightly above average stat growth. After one or two chapters, those unique classes are going to be like Ramza's growing skillset, meager to start with and then much much better. By the end of the game they'll have so friggin' many skills in 'em you won't dare leave home without them. Note, however, that your unique job does not contribute at all towards accessing other jobs.



Oh yes, and of course discussion and constructive criticism and other contributory ideas are not only welcome, but encouraged.

[freeformschooler]

Digging the class changes, but does being Unique (AKA a player character) mean we can't switch to standard classes? Or we can switch to any of the starting standards?

Also looking forward to portrait/tiles for PCs. I was gonna offer that in case you didn't figure anything out, but glad you did.

[Shoruke]

does being Unique (AKA a player character) mean we can't switch to standard classes?

At the start, you can pick between your unique class, Squire, Alchemist, or Archer. Making use of the "generic" classes will cause you to gain Job Levels for that class, allowing you to access the stronger jobs higher up the tree. For instance, if you look at the job chart, you need to have Alchemist level 2 to become a Cleric, and Cleric level 3 to become a Green Mage.

Your unique class will never further your ability to take up other jobs, but no, it will not impede you either. And it should quickly grow into a very strong class.

[evilcherry]

Wait, no White Mages?

[Shoruke]

I just started calling them Clerics. They were Priests in FFT.


Also, I think I'm going to have to mess around with the map a bit... it just doesn't make sense to me... for instance.

They dig up some coal from the coal mines in Goland Coal City, and want to sell it. They can either...
a) Head to Dorter by travelling through the Zeklaus Desert, which is full of (undead) monsters, has no roads, and is not very flat. Or,
b) Head north to Lesalia, which is fine, but if you want to sell your coal anywhere else, you need to continue past Grog Hill (which has a footpath, but nothing suitable for a handcart, let alone a wagon or carriage), and since Walled City Yardow doesn't exactly scream "merchant haven", from there you'd probably continue east past the Doguola Pass- a hillside, guarded only by highwaymen, with treacherous terrain and not even so much as a level footpath- before finally making it to a trade center with a port.

It sure is a good thing that all commodities can be transported in bulk on the back of a chocobo, right? Oh, wait, Ivalice has some 800,000 people in it. Oh sorry, did I say people? I meant to say it has some 800,000 soldiers in it, plus the civilians, the bandits, the nobility, and did I mention the bandits? They steal stuff, and following the pointless Fifty Years' War and then the Bend-Over-Here-It-Comes-Again-But-Harder-And-More-Pointless War of the Lions, there are a lot of bandits in Ivalice. Poor Ramza could hardly get from place to place without murdering his way through a couple dozen douchebags who read wanted posters, not to mention the local wildlife. If Ramza and his troupe, who are strong enough to KILL AN ELDRITCH GOD WITH SWORDS, are given a challenge by the random pelicans and stray cats and bulls wandering the hillsides, who the hell is going to guard the merchant caravans? And please don't say, they have the chocobos do the fighting. Tame chocobos are weaker than wild ones (quoth Ramza quoting Delita), and weighted down with coal or what have you, they'd just make easy prey.

*huff* </rant>

So yeah, I'll be adding some new locations here and there that imply Ivalice is a place where people live and stuff happens and there are serviceable roads for people to travel on in relative safety when they're not being hunted by everyone in the country with a name.

[Shoruke]

Okay, I'm finally done making up the ability lists... for the 3 basic classes. Whew, HTML tables take a lot of typing.
I'll just add the tables for the more advanced classes when someone gains access to them. (which means if at least one person takes each of Squire, Alchemist, and Archer, I'm gonna have a lot of typing to do before the second mission, but what can you do  )

Now I just need to write up the intro, maybe make a graphic for it, and I'll probably launch the OOC thread to take applications late tomorrow morning. (That's ~16 hours from now, for those among you not in North America)


EDIT: Here, I'll upload what I have to my Google Drive. Tell me if you notice any stupidnesses or obvious balance issues.
Considering I wrote the entire combat system from the ground up in an afternoon, there's bound to be some 
linky