A Few Esper Questions

So, just got my first batch of Espers in Zozo in my playthrough of this mod, and I've got a few questions regarding this new system.

First off, the auction house is gone. Not sad to see it go, but that would mean that Zoneseek and Golem have gone elsewhere. An NPC suggests they're in Zozo, but I haven't run across them. Admittedly, I'll be back there as part of the story in the future, but given how few Espers any given character can equip, missing those espers can cripple a character.

Second, when do you get access to EL respec, and is there a cost to it? Just got my first few EL, and am not sure what I want to do with the characters. I understand it's available in the World of Ruin, but there's a difference between "As soon as you get the airship" and "Halfway up Kefkas Tower". One means I can just carelessly toss the attributes into whatever I deem useful at the moment, and the other means I better put some thought into it.

Third, besides Golem and Zoneseek, do any other espers have different locations? I notice that Relms only major selling point is Bahamut. Death Gaze isn't an easy boss, and he's definitely tedious to find. I'm not sure how much I'd be interested in using Relm if her only good point is such a pain to get. On a similar note, is Crusader just as hard to get, and is Ragnarok a choice between the Esper or the sword still? Terra and Celes have a lot more going for them before their ultimate spells, unlike Relm, but if getting the Illumina prevents me from learning Ultima, or if I basically have to be done with the game to get Merton, then I'll have to adjust my thoughts on those characters.

Lastly, has anyone compiled a list of each characters spells and EL Bonuses? The information is all right there on the character page, but a list that's per character, rather than just a list of Espers, would be much easier to read and allow judgement of each character (for example, it takes a bit of time to realize that only Setzer, Strago, Celes and Mog have access to Magic +2 ELs, but not Terra and Relm). If not, I might be inclined to make one myself, and I could post it for inclusion in future Printmes.

A couple non-esper questions, since I don't want to trouble you with extra posts. Do all characters have the same HP/MP growth (Before EL), with the only difference being the base HP/MP, which just gets added on? If so, that produces an odd curve, where Shadow and Gau have notably horrid HP when Sabin recruits them, but that difference is negligible (About 1/13 of total HP) by the time you finish the game. The difference is certainly more notable with MP, wherein the bonus MP makes up about 1/6th of their pre-EL total at 35. While I know EL is meant to be a major source of character customization, it seems that base HP is something that just stops mattering after a while, when it starts out causing Gau and Shadow to die with most death-counters.

And does all time stop when Cyan is charging his Bushido? I really want to play him in this mod, because I've never used him outside of Sabins scenario in Vanilla, since he sucks so bad. But if time is pausing for him, then I kind of feel things have gone too far in the other direction in terms of negating his charge time. It's just a differently flavored skill selection window at this point. I kinda liked the idea of him delaying to unleashe some badass swordplay. Maybe add a longer action delay after selecting the move the higher up on the list the action is? Maybe you've done that, and I haven't noticed. Or maybe you like it the way it is. Either way, I'm enjoying using him at all, so I'm overall happy here.

And finally, how long does Jump actually delay the command? Edgar seems to spend so much time in the air that the only advantage to jumping over using Drill is the ability to do so from the back row (along with the mixed blessing of removing himself from play).

Thanks for your time and consideration!

The auction house guy says "that wackjob up north"... not sure how you got Zozo out of that.

The EL respecs are from talking to Ultros in the WoR. The first time costs 25k, each subsequent respec is 100k.

The only other espers that have been moved are Crusader and Ragnarok.

All characters have the same HP/MP growth; all that separates them is the base, any EL bonuses, and access to equipment that boosts it.

Time stops when Bushido is charging. The Bushido skill itself has a longer command delay than just regular Fight does, however.

The exact delay for commands (including Jump) are listed in the Readme.

EDIT: Shadowed

It's not Zozo for Zoneseek and Golem. It's a different "crazy guy up north"

Esper Level resets are available early WoR, but the price spikes up after the first respec (which resets your entire current party). That being said, you really don't need to min-max ELs and most characters perform quite well with multiple levels in their WoB espers. Pretty much the only one that doesn't benefit from her early espers is Stam Celes.

There's a "Find Doom Gaze" option now with the WoR airship, so it'll autofly for you. (Also, Relm's great without Bahamut)

Regarding putting printme info in different layouts, BTB has his layout set up so that the printme could actually be printed. You're free to reorganize the data and put it elsewhere (like I did with rages) but that's not likely to be included in future printmes.

You are correct about the HP/MP growths. The characters with access to larger HP pools get their HP via ELs

Any time you are in a submenu, ATB pauses. This includes Bushido. Regarding the "Just a different skill window" the same thing applies to Blitz. It's flavor basically.

I don't know Jump's exact delay, but even with the delay it can (and will, with things like two-handing a spear and/or hitting a weakness) outdamage drill.

Huh, that's weird. When trying to reply with a quote, I was unable to write anything else. Wasn't able to continue until I selected the option to remove quote but keep contents.

Anyway, glad to hear Crusader and Ragnarok are obtained differently now, I never bothered with Crusader in Vanilla because of how late you got it, and I rarely got Ragnarok because of how good Illumina was. If they were in the same place, that'd mean that I'd probably skip on the ultimate spells for Terra and Celes, and just get Strago and Relm some ultimate spells. Incidentally, is X-Zone the same as it was before? I never used it because I didn't want to give up any after battle draops. And is Dark just a reverse elemental version of Holy?

As far as getting 'that wackjob up north' referring to Zozo... well, I was headed to Zozo next, you meet other espers there, it's full of wackjobs, it's pretty much the only other town the residents of Jidoor talk about, it's one of only two towns to the north of Jidoor, and it's largely unchanged in the WoR, which would help make those espers available if you missed them in the WoB. I think I've got some justification for that theory  I'm guessing, then, that it's referring to the guy who takes care of Rachel. Only other wackjob to the north I can think of and he's available pretty much just the same in WoR, in case I miss them before the Floating Continent.

And actually, it was me looking at Celes Stamina option that really made me wonder. Boosted Remedy and Regen didn't seem like enough reason. And while I'm pretty sure her good gear isn't enough reason to build up Vigor, I wasn't sure if I was missing something that might make me prefer to do that. I'm not super into min-maxing, but while Stamina is much more useful in this mod, it is still much more situational than the other boosts. I'm not super worried about min-maxing, but I do like to make an informed decision. Anyway, I assume Ultros, and therefore the respec, is still in the Colosseum, so it was "As soon as you get the airship" as I suspected. Cash doesn't sound too bad, especially with the discount for the first visit (Probably best used to wash away ELs purchased with the very limited initial selection). Dunno how much 100k is in the WoR, but it might be fun to try out multiple different builds to see what I like.

Curious to try out Relm then, if you said she's good without Bahamut. She seems to be a healbot with Starlet, and only Fire 2 to attack with. Unless Sketch has been made more useful of course.

I realized the quote thing, too. That's why I responded in the format that I did >.>

X-Zone never prevented enemy drops in vanilla except in the one notable case of Wrexsoul, and this is because Wrexsoul does not count as "dead" when possessing you, ergo you do not get his drop if you end the battle without killing him.

Dark is actually quite different from Holy, most notably in that it does not ignore defense like Holy does.

Celes's stamina option can be fairly good, but it does revolve around capitalizing on some... lesser-known options. It's definitely not a beginner-friendly build like Terra's stamina option is.

Sketch is more useful now in that it uses Relm's stats instead of the enemy's. It's still situational, though.

5 hours ago, Sines said:

I'm guessing, then, that it's referring to the guy who takes care of Rachel.

You're still not thinking far enough north.

Edit: No problem with quotes here.

28 minutes ago, Synchysi said:

 

You're still not thinking far enough north.

Edit: No problem with quotes here.

It's been at least a decade since I last played... I don't remember very much until I actually arrive there. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find it soon enough.

And yah, quotes are working.

By the way, are there any 'meaningful' missables? I'm almost to the Sealed Gate Cave, and I remember Atma Weapon being remarkably missable for something so good. Obviously, I don't care about getting 99 leather armors or anything, but if there's anything I'd want to equip in the end-game (or, I guess, that's really important until the end-game) I'd like to know. I'm a bit rusty on some of the secrets in the game, so I might have forgotten about some of the hidden rooms and rewards that'll go away once I complete the dungeon or the WoB in general.

There's a few, but it's set up so that nothing missable is unique (i.e. an extra Life Bell from the banquet, the Power Glove at Mt. Koltz, etc.)

That's the important part. I like missable secrets to be getting cool stuff early, but not getting cool stuff at all. I don't generally follow guides, but I don't want to miss some things, and a lot of games have really good gear that is very easily missable. I particularly remember the Double Beat runes of Suikoden 2, which are relegated almost entirely to the first real dungeon, which you walk through twice, and are randomly dropped from some basic enemies. It caused your character to attack twice when you used a basic attack, and was automatically included in the majority of physical only builds, and plenty of hybrid builds as well. The fact that another important rune for a physical build was also limited and hard to find made it so that if you didn't know where these runes were, and how to farm them, then you'd have vastly inferior physical characters until MUCH later on in the game.

So, I always worry about missables. I pop open a walkthroguh, browse through a section quickly to make sure I'm not missing anything, and then play through it. Knowing that I can't really miss anything is nice.

Incidentally... what about the Water Rondo? Did you add a water battlefield in the WoR or something? Or is that an actual missable, and you didn't think about it since it's not an item? Likewise, are any of Gaus rages missable, or does the Veldt auto-populate with all WoB enemies once you hit the WoR, regardless of whether or not you encountered them already?

Water Rondo is still missable, yeah. We haven't really found an elegant way to add a water battlefield to the WoR.

Mog does bitch at you if you don't recruit him at all in the WoB, though.

does he say anything different if you choose the goggles?

I'm not sure if choosing the Goggles trips the event flag or not, so no clue.