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2536

Gaming Discussion / Re: Leviathan or Mist vs Behemoths

« on: April 30, 2008, 11:44:43 PM »

Storm is the only really negative reaction to Holy (Meteor is also Holy elemental). Otherwise it is kinda FF5-Monkish - it only counters with a physical attack otherwise.

2537

Gaming Discussion / FF4 - Analyzing Underappreciated Magic

« on: April 30, 2008, 11:43:24 PM »

I just wanted to take a quick perspective of magic that perhaps has been ignored (quite a bit by me) and maybe some of you can suggest a few others...

There are a number of underrated spells that arguably underrated and perhaps if one gives proper attention to them, maybe it will improve balance in the next FF4 hack.

The Summons (other than the Mist Dragon) given to Rydia when she comes back are really really underappreciated. Particularly when Rydia learns the level 3 elementals, people think these summons are worthless, but they really aren't. Here's a quick look at these summons, and the spells they compete against.

Summons: Shiva/Ifrit/Ramuh
Competes vs: level 2 elementals, level 3 elementals
Time to being "obsolete": after learning level 3 elementals
Reality:

These summons are sometimes called the "poor man's level 3 elementals"... but that's because they are using them wrong.

All level 2 elementals have a base magic power of 64... whereas the 3 summons have a base magic power of 80. It does sound MP cost inefficient for single targets which is true... however, it may be worth exposing elemental weakness, when you consider how magic damage is calculated (consider using Ramuh vs Leviathan if you don't have Thundaga). Once you learn the level 3 elementals, you could be overestimating the power of the summons here as well. These summons always multitarget, so they don't suffer from split damage. The level 3 elementals do. The base power of the level 3 elementals is 256. 3 is the magic number for when a summon may be an appealing alternative option for using an elemental.. as level 3 elementals then have a base power of 85 (= 256/3), so it's not that much of a difference.

Another perspective is looking at this spells, compared to say Edge's Ninjutsu spells... but there are arguments to be made on both ends..

Flame's spell power is 80, just the same as Ifrit and cast faster... but then again, that's limited to Edge's mediocre Wisdom growth.

Blitz's spell power is 160, just the same as Titan and is also cast faster... but also suffers the same issue as Flame... mediocre Wisdom growth.

It would have been a good idea if these summons were boosted at least 10% by the Mist Ring (up to 50% shouldn't hurt too much IMO).. in order to keep them competitive with the level 3 elementals.


Summon: Titan
Competes with: Virus, Quake
Time to being "obsolete": Quake
Reality:

Quake is eventually the spell replacement for Titan, so it's kinda hard to root for Titan too much then (I don't understand why the FF4A port didn't even attempt to boost Titan with the Mist Ring, since that is the first summon Rydia is linked to). The base magic power is 160, which is basically any of the elemental summon that expose an elemental weakness. Other than the monsters that are immune to this attack (those that are weak against aerial attacks), this spell is relatively damage efficient.. though relatively weaker than Virus for a single target (Virus has a base spell power of 128). The spell Quake (not the monster version) has a spell power of 200, so it was meant to be a replacement.

If Titan was boosted by the Mist Ring by say 66 to 75%, it would be a nice improvement for an overlooked summon... but alas, noone really thought of this...


I also want to give some attention to the Twin spells... even though tons of randomness is involved with them.. they are relatively underrated for what they do.

Flare/Pyro is pretty powerful given that the spell base power is 120... equivalent to Flood (Ninjutsu spell). This is nearly double any level 2 elemental spell Palom can cast (spell base power of 64). The MP consumption is nicely split towards both twins (10 MP each). The only issue that it has is the "random wisdom" pick... which tends to be annoying as the twins in the early part of the game have their non-vital magic stat be only 1/2 as powerful and it is always multitargeted... still, for a basic spell it is pretty damn powerful.

Comet is the closest thing to any of Rydia's summons.. with a base power of 80, and being auto-multitargeted by default (so split damage is a not a factor) it is a pretty good spell.. even before you get Rydia back. The only real negative is its casting infrequency and the MP consumption doesn't quite matchup with Rydia's elemental summons (20 MP for each twin vs 30 MP for the elemental summons). It is still a relatively solid spell though.

Ok.. enough of this for now.. but these are some interesting considerations to look at..

2538

Gaming Discussion / Re: Leviathan or Mist vs Behemoths

« on: April 30, 2008, 10:54:31 PM »

That's why I recommend Mist... since it is completely HP dependant and defense/magic defense ignoring. If you have Bomb though, you will be saving a bit of MP.

2539

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Count/Doom - Status and Spell Info

« on: April 30, 2008, 10:52:46 PM »

This status induces countdown induced death, very much like FF5 and 6.

Status:

The status counts down from whatever the initiated value happens to be (which is 10 for Count/Doom spell).

It can be affected by Stop (and Dispel can remove Stop under this instance, strangely enough).

This status is totally unaffected by Haste and Slow... so those of you that assume that the Plague "hurts you" by casting Haste on you are totally wrong. In fact, the only reason it doesn't hit is due to high magic evade. (Like Evil/Wicked Mask's Reflect on you on the SNES version).

Spell:

The attack itself has a perfect hit rate of 100%, but it's completely unblockable. It is has the boss-bit set.. so it can't be used on bosses.

Interestingly enough though, it is reflectable. FF2/4ET has the Fataleye/Ahriman monsters that don't have the boss bit set, so you can see the monster die from Count.

Other details:

Testing Count status on enemies is interesting.. only two "designated" monsters are only able to be declared as "Count inflictable"... there are some odd bugs that go with this.. as when there are 2 or less monsters with the status inflicted, the game could freeze in attempting to remove them. The game is actively waiting for a command (by either monster or character)  to be executed so Count's auto-death stuff can be done. You will also notice that the monsters inflicted with this status eventually don't attack anymore. The only safe commands to use are magic, item, change/row commands..

Edit: Note, the 2 monster limitation seems to be specific to the monsters groupage that can cast it.. which is a pair of Fataleye/Ahriman.

2540

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Dispel - Ill Conceived?

« on: April 30, 2008, 10:43:09 PM »

I'll post this although it may have been mentioned already.

Dispel does not remove Stop when Stop status is inflicted on the characters. It only gets removed if Count status is involved... and Dispel does work on enemies with Stop status... which means someone really fucked up here.

2541

Gaming Discussion / Re: Leviathan or Mist vs Behemoths

« on: April 30, 2008, 10:00:44 PM »

I've found that Rydia doing nothing is a waste of her ability.

I've also found that Rosa becomes less important over time, and that White Magic isn't that great.. that and Aim is relatively useless at this point (unless you are playing FF4A). However that is for a different thread...

2542

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Dispel - Ill Conceived?

« on: April 30, 2008, 05:30:33 PM »

Instant game overs in scripted battles aren’t really … good.

I blame that solely on FuSoYa and Golbez's inability to deal 9999 Meteor damage consistantly.

2543

Gaming Discussion / Re: FF4A European Font Replacement Bugs

« on: April 30, 2008, 05:29:09 PM »

I honestly don't understand the TOSE font fetish... there's always a different font for each version for some reason or another.. although I can understand the various languages will need better fonts available, but it's kinda rediculous.

The FF5 US font seems alright as a replacement.

2544

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Random Lesser Known Facts

« on: April 29, 2008, 08:51:31 AM »

8F, 6A, 5 - That's the dialog order (in hex).

According to FF2's (SNES) dialog...

Rubicant: I lost now
But I shall return!
Good luck...

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Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Random Lesser Known Facts

« on: April 28, 2008, 09:15:03 AM »

It requires low HP (near death for Rubicante) and a physical attack for that "counter reaction".

It's also a self-suicide moment to boot.

I do believe there was one more line for it though...

Odin (not the Lunar version) also has one as well, but it's only for a random lightning attack.

2546

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: FF4A Big Chocobo Behavior

« on: April 28, 2008, 12:05:16 AM »

You can definately give many duplicate items to the Big Chocobo in any game. I've done that plenty of times with many sets of arrows.

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Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: HP% Spells

« on: April 27, 2008, 09:19:19 AM »

Attacks based on the target's HP has never had any variation... except when absorbed in FF4A.

2548

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Recall Command

« on: April 27, 2008, 09:11:34 AM »

The only time the "Not Enough MP" message is displayed is when a target is Charmed and simply doesn't have enough MP to cast the spell that was randomly selected.

 

Unless I remember incorrectly (a distinct possibility), in FFIV (the SFC version at the very least), MP needed to cast a spell is subtracted at the moment casting is begun (as opposed to upon casting). Spells in a menu may be dimmed out based on MP at the time the menu is generated to prohibit the selection of a spell which cannot be cast due to a lack thereof. Due to this, schematically it would appear to be impossible for the player to initiate casting of a spell which could fail based on lack of MP.

However, if a character’s MP is siphoned away after the menu is called and before it is dismissed, it is not updated and the player can select a spell which should be greyed-out (this was not the case in FFVI, and probably also V). In the case of this anomaly, the game will see the PC go through the required casting time before calling the dialogue box in question: “Not enough MP.”

That's usually the other possibility, but the number of monsters that cast Psych/Osmose are far and few between (there's the Dark Sage, and the Insectus monsters in FF4A, the Insectus uses it as a magic counter though).

Obviously, the message is also seen whenever a monster attempts to cast a spell as a matter of course without enough MP.

No, that never happens. Monsters never consume MP. Consider Scarmaglione (the "living" version). His primary attack is Thunder. If Tellah syphons all of his MP, his attack will still occur, regardless. If Thunder ever misses, that's due to magic evade that all characters have except for Dark Knight Cecil.

It might sounds strange, but Toad is probably the most useful spell of the bunch, given the implications of the status itself vs MP consumption.

Are there enemies which Tornado would fail on, considering the period in which the command is available …?

Other than the bosses, no monster is ever immune to the spell. It may be difficult, but that's only because there is a level comparison done.

The Tornado spell has the boss bit set, so it always fails to work on a boss. On the other hand, the one on Abel's Lance is not, which is the only difference. I'm not sure if any other property is different, other than the "set monster to death" vs when Abel Lance's Tornado is used. I believe a custom version of the spell is written for that weapon anyways, the original spell would not do that, even if the boss bit was removed.

2549

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Dispel - Ill Conceived?

« on: April 27, 2008, 08:53:47 AM »

Incidentally, I’m very sure that in the SFC version of FFIV, Dispel would remove Reflect if Reflect’d off a battler of the opposing side.

Is this conviction unfounded? I did actually test this a few years back, and was fairly sure it wasn’t just the Reflective barrier wearing off … <__<;;

Hmmm... I actually forgot to do the Evil/Wicked Mask test. Dispel does actually remove Wall after it is reflected. I set my ATB to a speed of 1, plus set it to Active, so the game updates a relatively slow sometimes. You're correct. This Dispel version sucks though (it should ignore Reflect so it works more like the other Dispels in other games).

2550

Final Fantasy IV Research & Development / Re: Hide Command

« on: April 27, 2008, 08:48:03 AM »

It seemed to me as though auto-Hide would occur faster the lower Gilbert’s HP was in the GBA version. I can’t pretend to have done empirical trials, but is this consistent with your observations?

Auto-Hide occurs faster in the SNES version for two reasons..

1) Auto-Hide is executed automatically on the SNES version, like how Berserk does for any character/monster.

2) Auto-Hide is executed on Gilbert's turn in the GBA version, so it gives one an opportunity to heal him before the game attempts to auto-hide on his next turn.

For me, I remember him Hiding immediately after re-Appearing when his HP was a single digit, but staying for longer when he was just barely in the danger zone. : /

Remember the ATB is a factor in the GBA version, the SNES version ignores this I believe (though, Gilbert actually gains a lot of Agility compared to others in this game).