Messages

3376

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / FF4A Magic Behavior Changes

« on: December 25, 2007, 11:52:12 AM »

There has been some tweaks magicwise in FF4A, that may have gone unnoticed...

Some spells tend to either succeed if all targets succeed in being hit by the spell. These spells include Size, Toad, Piggy, and Stone/Break. This doesn't matter whether or not the targets are resistant to said spell (of course, if you are resistant, you won't be affected).

In FF4A, these spells don't behave in an "all or nothing" scenario. Any target succeeds in being hit by the spell gets hit by the spell (if resistant, then no change will occur).

Some enemy special/magical attacks like the Panther's Bluster only shows itself when the attack succeeds. The attack itself fails if you are resistant to either/both status attributes. However in FF4A, the attack still continues, even if you are resistant to both attacks. A wasted animation occurs....

3377

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Status Attribute Peculiarities

« on: December 25, 2007, 11:40:32 AM »

Charm - Arguably the most evil of status attributes.. inflicting this status has some caveats.

Occasionally, the targeted enemy will still make a final attack before doing their special "charmed attack". Unfortunately, sometimes they are even more evil (see Tinymage).

When used against you, you completely "stop what you are doing"... unless you are the Avenger Sword wielder or have Beserk status (FF2/4 only)... and you will get a final last attack on the enemy before retargeting occurs.

Charm counteracts Berserk status...

Magic casting time is ignored while under Charm status (enemies never worry about this to begin with, only your own characters). Only valid spells being cast are White or Black (Summon/Call spells or Ninja spells are never cast).

Special character commands are never used under this instance either.

HP Leak - Frequently, if the attack that inflicts HP Leak doesn't visually hit its target, the status is still inflicted.

Under no circumstance where Stop, Paralysis, and Sleep can be inflicted at the same time. All three provide the same effect, except that Stop cannot be counteracted and there's no protection against it.

Status afflicting weapons tend to not work as well when another status is afflicted on an enemy. Weapons that inflict death status tend to not work that well when a status such as Sleep has been previously inflicted.

3378

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF2/4 The Buggy Avenger Sword

« on: December 25, 2007, 11:09:15 AM »

Addtionally, if the Avenger Sword wielder is coming off Charm, the character is reberserked when his turn comes up... so they may be stuck doing nothing for several turns.

3379

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2USHT bug fixing?

« on: December 24, 2007, 11:52:48 PM »

Here's the other bug:

3380

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2USHT bug fixing?

« on: December 24, 2007, 06:56:34 PM »

There's the equipment bug. I thought it was the Mythril Glove that was bugged, but clearly it is the armor.

3381

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 24, 2007, 01:31:40 PM »

The Elemental of Air and Darkness is Cool

* Boss: The fact that she takes just as much damage "unwhirly" than "whirly" makes her an easy target. At least she doesn't do the lame gradual petrification attack...

If you already know what happens next, you don't have to worry about buying more equipment for Kain...

* Boss: Golbez is still not a match against you, but the more time you give him, the better the chance he will succeed in killing you (that window is short though)

Try not to use the Darkness Crystal trick, as there are so many goodies in the Sealed Cave...

The treasure in the castle isn't great, but a number of the treasure chests are worth your while....

It is a good time to be stocking up on Whistles, since there is a limited number of Greens around, and you never know when you'll need that item space.

3382

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 24, 2007, 11:40:00 AM »

Trading for Rosa in the Tower of Zot (if there was a way to get in/out of said tower... it would be awesome)

The only irony is that some of the treasure chests contain equipment that is clearly not good for the current scenario... not that it matters.

* Boss: Magus sisters tend not to attack enough, but the tallest sister tends to over Reflect her middle sister.. so you may want to take that to your advantage.

3383

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 23, 2007, 03:36:56 AM »

Here's another example of rebalancing...

Remember that peninsula north of Mt. Ordeals? Well, most of the monsters there have insane attack power. Using 90% or so of those monsters attack power and readjusted the attack power of the monsters on Mt. Ordeals.. sure they are easy to kill, but they will beat you down.. and most of them are not spirits to boot (mostly undead, which you provide no armor for resisting them).

Then again, that also means you need to increase the attack power of those monsters by the time you get Cid...

See my logic here?

Remember that elementals increase damage output (2x, max of 4x), but it doesn't ignore defense (think in terms of elemental Flans). Enemy types modifiers completely ignore defense, so those Ogres at the Magnetic Cave should have like 20000-40000 HP because of the Charm arrows+Charm Claw... or something along those lines (or they should pound you hard, especially with the ghetto armor you should have bought... and I'm not talking about the crappy stuff from Toroia).

3384

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 23, 2007, 03:09:13 AM »

Its hard to balance really, I kept running into problems.  You'll notice probably about 3~5 spikes in difficulty that require you to level...which sometimes results in overleveling.  In the end I guess its up to each player's style. 

Well, let's start at the Mombomb boss. Explode doesn't do enough damage, as it only requires a Cure2 to fix the damage. The individual bombs are annoying, but with a full party, you're not really running into real trouble.

The battle at Fabul is pathetic.. the Generals can fall asleep (Catclaw->Tiger Claw) so the individual soldiers are harmless. Plus, they don't hit hard at all. Heck, unlike the original battle, the soldiers don't even attack by themselves as they are still stuck waiting for the General to call for an attack. Worse is that some of the older monsters are used in the rehash, which by themselves are already beatable by this point (you don't even need the Chicken Knife to beat them that they are this easy).

Milon in both forms are essentially the same being. Lit 1 is not scary (how about Lit 2 instead?), and undead Milon virtually does the same shit and doesn't hit hard enough to scare children.

Kainazzo is still pathetically weak.. just give Yang Ice+Lightning claws and he's a one man death machine.

Dark Elf doesn't scare children. Give the Paly a Legend Sword and you have Holy hell.

Did I mention that the regular enemies in between die too easily? Where's the beef? If you are giving the equipment that increases stats or expose elemental or enemy type weaknesses, you need to rescale their HP properly to take those details into account. The Eblan battles are difficult, but reasonably doable. If the enemies were scaled towards what the current Eblan enemies are, the balance is closer to being restored.

3385

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 23, 2007, 02:57:49 AM »

Bosses: The more they change, the more they really are the same...

The Airship, The Crystal, And Power Overwhelming

Care you explain?  I need to know what things I need to improve upon also.  ;)

Mark your suggestions with * so I know that's something I need to look at for my next hack. 

There's a difficulty gap that starts sucking post Antlion. Maybe it's the overleveling, but the enemies aren't hitting hard enough and/or not doing anything worth speaking of. Probably has to do more with their HP being low too (easy to kill).

3386

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 23, 2007, 02:25:33 AM »

Taking Back Baron

After waking up Yang, you finally get some awesome options at the Weapon+Armor store... not every good piece of equipment is expensive...

It may be worth your while to make that side trip to Mist for some goodies.

Baron's Weapon Shop has the rest of the Claws so you can complete the set... worth buying if you ask me.

* Bosses: The more they change, the more they really are the same...

The Airship, The Crystal, And Power Overwhelming

Level suggestion: Get Cid up to level 24... but that's not really needed

Cid can equip most of the stuff James can equip.. so a shield is in the cards!

* If you got the balls, try to claim some treasure at Eblan... significantly worth your while if you are smart enough. (If some of the current monsters you faced were retweaked to 90% of the attack power of those at Eblan, that would be better)

Several places have better sets of armor you can take advantage of... make sure you have the money (spend wisely too).

The Magnetic Cave sucks, but it's not that hard.. the best armor that isn't magentic can be bought from Baron, Agart, Mist... and one piece can be found at Eblan. Many sets of arrows have been graciously made available... so don't be stupid and pay up.

* Boss: Dark Elf is still a joke... unless you let him attack.

3387

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2USHT bug fixing?

« on: December 22, 2007, 11:48:33 PM »

Hmm.. I understand the MP Tab and Tella being able to use Cure4 ONLY if that was used.. however, I don't see the logic in allowing Tella to have the Life2 spell available. That's just a wasted spell slot.

Also, I don't understand why you made the KarateGi that much better than the Knight Armor.. like, it's far superior, and yet 1/2 the price. Even worse.. it doesn't even compare with the Mythril Armor...

The Holy arrows are not sold at Toroia.

Also, I don't quite understand why the weaker Dark Knight armor is sold at Fabul.. but the "missing set" is sold at Agart... is there more I should know about the armor?

3388

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2us HardType Walkthrough by Deathlike2

« on: December 22, 2007, 11:46:59 PM »

Trial at Mt. Ordeals

The twins should be your new best friends, especially with some extra MP...

Make sure you BUY the Mage equipment for Palom+Porom. Early stat boosts are great, plus petrification immunity cannot be understated (unfortunately, that means James can only be victimized... 1 of 3 chances!).

Level suggestion: 13 for both twins so they have the level 2 set of elementals+healing, 19 for Palom and Bio/Virus and 23 for Quake... both late Palom requirements are optional, but more HP can't hurt you here 

* If you feel lucky, go try the peninsula of power for some harder enemies... (they are much more competitive that the ones you currently fight)

If you bothered to buy the Ancient Sword, you will have a great time annihilating the Spirit+Soul enemies that will try to kill you... even better if you bought  1 or 2 Chicken Knives to make fights even quicker as both twins can equip them.

Tella is still useless when he comes back... what a sham. 

* Bosses: More of the same undead trash

Once you cleanse James' soul, you'll find Tella with some magic.. unfortunately he's still be a one-hit wonder.  Back to forcing him to heal.

3389

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2USHT bug fixing?

« on: December 22, 2007, 11:37:16 PM »

Did that sword drop for you?

Yes, and I really wasn't expecting it.

One of those towns I put as many arrows as possible--I may have missed one.  Whoops.

I plan on adding a few more shops in my new FF4r hack, two of which will be arrow shops. 

Ok.

3390

General Discussion & Support / Re: FF2USHT bug fixing?

« on: December 22, 2007, 11:26:20 PM »

Is the Granite Sword the rare drop, or the next to rarest drop? -> I don't remember.

Well, it's the renamed Medusa Sword, if you still remember.

Btw, I did say way back that you don't sell Holy/White arrows. The only time you give them is at Mt. Hobs in the treasure chest closest to Chang.

Also, remember why there is a v1.1 of FF2? Well, IIRC, it is either the certain set of enemies.. or the gradual pertrification of the Medusa/Granite Sword vs certain enemies that makes the AI go nuts and lock up the game.

Btw, regarding the Cursed Ring, when do the drops start. I would've thought the Spirit/Soul enemies would drop them.. but either you tweaked it so they don't drop at all, or they drop very very seldomly...

I don't remember the drop info for the Granite sword.  I thought Toroia old the White Arrows.  And the Cursed ring was solely meant to be an "accidental lucky drop".  It has insane defensive properties that should make the game easier.

Check the drop for the Gr. Naga.

I'll double check Toria when I get there.. but I don't recall it being sold there.

I was planning to harvest the Cursed Rings late game.. but praying for a few early.