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[MaximumZero]

Sorry, you're going to be waiting a long time (like... until he starts LPing one of the FFT Advance games instead). You can effectively make a red mage by combining two of the mage skill sets I guess though?

That's... not entirely true, but I'll say no more on the subject. Know that you can approximate one with the existing classes, by training as a Priest/Wizard, and switching to Knight. They can wear robes to increase their MP, and wield all sorts of weapons and armor. Note also that many of the Knight's Sword Arts are spells channeled through swords to cause certain effects, which casters do far better than straight physical fighters.

This is, of course, assuming you meant FF1-style Jack-Of-All-Trades Red Mages.

Any chance of hiring more swordsdoodz for backup?

I can only handle about 8 characters at a time, especially with the NPCs that keep cluttering the party, wasting expensive equipment, and mucking up combat. Note that I give equipment and training priority to the most active players, and try to pick low-level characters in the roster to go into battle for level-balancing purposes. As such, there's a sort of natural selection at work, where inactive players don't get new equipment priority or as much practice, and will eventually enter leveled battles which they'll have a harder time with. At this rate, I imagine we'll start cycling in new characters before much longer.

You could always just take all of Algus/Argath's equipment and give it to me. ^_^

[Solifuge]

Well, though I could probably make room for 1 more character, 8 is the highest I want to go right now. It lets me alternate between a Main team and an Off team. Besides, keeping just 8 characters equipped and at equal level is tough enough. Note also that there's a hard cap (16) on the character roster, and I need to leave room for pets, recruits, and NPCs.

With that said, we have hereby had our first character death (well, technically our second, but Solee wasn't really a character yet), and I'm only halfway through the next update. You might not be waiting too long after all!

[MaximumZero]

I'm actually looking to start playing 1.3. I've beaten loved FFT to death.

[Solifuge]

The waitlist has gotten pretty big relative to our party size, and I'm better at keeping people alive than I thought I'd be. As such, I have a few propositions to run by folks:


   a. Add ~4 more active characters to the roster. In exchange, players can't have a pet unless they've taken the Beastmaster skill.

   b. We nix level-grinding, and pick combatants from the roster randomly, making combat lethality a bit higher. New characters will be leveled to the party average.

   c. Instead of adding waitlisted characters on a first come, first served basis, add them from the list at random.

   d. Periodic dropping of inactive/abandoned characters; maximum of 1 per update.

   e. At each new chapter the waitlist gets wiped, giving folks a new chance to get a character in.

   f. After each chapter, we build a completely new roster of characters.


Some of these are more extreme than others, but how would you guys feel about implementing some combination of the above? I'd like to encourage participation and all, and I want things to feel fair regarding the waitlist, but I don't want to be too heavy-handed.

[Bluerobin]

I'm worried about using any of the options that leave Ramza leveled way higher than the rest of the group. At this point you already had a few levels difference between most of your party and the enemies at Dorter and I'm just worried you'll end up with Ramza essentially getting twice the experience of the rest of the crew. I guess if worse comes to worse and you absolutely can't get past something you can always just grind up the lower level characters, though.

I'm a fan of (a) and I'd be happy to let someone use Robyn's Beastmastery once he gets it (assuming he's still alive). Not so much a fan of (f), and even (e) sounds a little sad, but most of these could be made to work.

[Patchouli]

a. Seems like a good choice.
b. I don't know about picking combatants randomly, there's a good chance you'll hit a point where you'll want a certain composition, and going random all the time might be a problem. Then again, like you said, it would boost up the mortality a bit. It could be a whole lot of fun though, and makes for more interesting fights. The just-mentioned level differences could be an issue though.
c. Up to you. I think the first-come first-serve works fine, and seems to be pretty standard for LPs.
d. It seems like a PITA on your end, leveling up dudes to only drop them. It's up to you.
e. I think at each new chapter, people that have died can choose to create a new character. Unless everyone died. Then it seems fine to let everyone get new picks again.
f. I think that seems a bit too extreme. It would make sense story-wise for the transition between Ch1 and Ch2, and possibly between Ch3 and Ch4, but still. Also a PITA for you to deal with.

[Bluerobin]

Actually I'm going to go complete 180 on my opinion of (f). If there was a Hall of Fame of sorts in the OP I think I'd be ok with losing my character and it would let you burn through a huge chunk of the list at chapter breaks, especially if combined with (a). That said, it is a little heavy handed, so I can imagine people might not like it, plus yeah, levelling new characters would be a huge time sink, especially in later chapters. Otherwise my opinions match up with Patchouli pretty well.

[Furtuka]

a. Sounds good
b. *shrugs* don't really like it that much but is willing to go for if worse comes to worse
c. that kinda sounds like it would violate the whole point of there being a waitlist
d. Seems like a viable choice should things get too overcrowded
e.maybe, don't really understand what that would do
f. I don't think that's a good idea

[Knirisk]

a. Fine by me.
b. So long as it doesn't render significant battles...errr... extremely difficult.
c. Not a fan of it, but then again, I think my character's like maybe next in line to be added anyway.
d. Possibly, unless they're a great asset to the team.
e. Only if the people on the waitlist aren't particularly active.

f. I think that seems a bit too extreme. It would make sense story-wise for the transition between Ch1 and Ch2, and possibly between Ch3 and Ch4, but still. Also a PITA for you to deal with.

[MaximumZero]

I vote A&D. The rest seem like they're a bit much.

[warhammer651]

I like a b and d

[Mephansteras]

I like A the best.

[Greiger]

A. seems alright, but of course I don't have a pet, so I may be bias.

B. Also seems good.  But party buildout is an issue.  I recall even in vanilla FFT I was very uncomfortable without at least 2 people capable of rezzing.  And being too heavy on melee guys on a fight can make a big diffrence on your capability to deal with threats.  Imagine 3 melee guys chasing a chocobo around the battlefield as it continually outdistances everyone and heals enemies. 

(Perhaps a semi-random version of B?  Where party loadout is taken into account?  Though that also risks bias, ether accidental or perceived.)

C. Not sure how that would help.  Waitlist would still be just as long.  But if you see some benefit it would be a fairly unobtrusive change. And it's hard to argue about random chance giving anyone an edge.

D. Seems reasonable.  Though there are folks who just sit and read the thread and don't want to strongly influence decisions.  I don't do LPs much, so maybe I'm missing the point though.  So I wouldn't argue with this.

E. Seems a bit extreme.  Might result in a bit of thread spam of folks reposting characters.  You'll definitely not have to worry about inactives though.

F. Way extreme.  I see more time levelgrinding new redshirts (who might not even survive the level process when it gets longer) than playing the game

TL;DR:  I like A, sorta like B, won't argue with C or D, dislike E, loathe F.

[Solifuge]

The leveling time isn't a problem for any of the above either; I found a pretty quick job-leveling method involving disabling an enemy, and hosting supervised gladiator-style sparring sessions. Baring that, there's always surrounding a KO-ed foe, reviving them, and KO-ing them again, repeating as long as needed.

Anyway, here's a brief explanation of my thoughts on each option:

   a. Add ~4 more active characters to the roster. In exchange, players can't have a pet unless they've taken the Beastmaster skill.

   b. We nix level-grinding, and pick combatants from the roster randomly, making combat lethality a bit higher. New characters will be leveled to the party average.

   c. Instead of adding waitlisted characters on a first come, first served basis, add them from the list at random.

   d. Periodic dropping of inactive/abandoned characters; maximum of 1 per update.

   e. At each new chapter the waitlist gets wiped, giving folks a new chance to get a character in.

   f. After each chapter, we build a completely new roster of characters.

A. I kinda like this, but it does mean all characters will be getting less screen-time. I'll leave this up to you guys.

B. This would speed things up significantly, but is bound to result in an underleveled roster. I think XP/JP mechanics boost gains for lower-leveled characters to compensate, so they should lag only a few levels behind. I might split folks into 3-4 rounded teams (~3 units each), and randomly pick one team per battle, adding in any additional characters at random. Also, so long as I only bring Ramza into plot fights, people should keep pace once we start roaming the map more.

C. This lets latecomers still have a hope of getting a character in. Alternatively, I could switch between picking the next on the list, and then picking one at random, to keep first-come priority, but still give newbies a chance.

D. I know I do this in other LPs... I'll add a character for a DF succession game or something, and won't check back until I have several updates to read. Since I want to run this more interactively, this helps prune out abandoned characters to give active people more of a shot at getting in.

E. Similar in spirit to C., with a bit of D. and F. as well. It lets latecomers and early followers get an equal shot at getting a high spot on the waitlist. Also, character submission guidelines might change as more classes open up... the style I started with was built around having only Squires/Chemists to pick from, though we now have a lot more options. The strategic role each character will play in combat is rapidly becoming more important.

F. was inspired by the time/situation shift between Chapter 1 and 2 (Side note: I know the plot up to the start of Chapter 2). I like our current crew, and want to keep them around for as long as possible... but the theory was that F. would burn through characters quickly, and give more people a chance to participate in the LP. There's a trade-off.

[Heron TSG]

D is my top choice, with A at a close second. I really would like Barbarossa to stick around, and if possible with a beast. (Though I would prefer having a character with no pet to not having a character at all.)