Final Fantasy Tactics: Omega WIP

For once in my life I want to see something finished by me (well except college, that's a different story). And I hope you guys can help me along the way.

Here's the rough draft of what I'll be making with the game, hopefully more ideas will come my way:

• Re-balance jobs (maybe some stat improvements or downgrades) and job tree
• Re-balance enemies (stats, equipment and abilities) -- this is to avoid playing it only in hyper-offensive teams rather than a mix or defensive teams.
• Re-balance some of the equipment.
• Spells will generally be faster as to avoid being not used for the majority of the game.
• Make status spells GREAT AGAIN. (Aiming for 60-80% chances, need some insight on this)
• Get rid of/balance broken shit.
• Make all encounters go on average level with your party. (I think I'll have bosses start with +5 levels or something, thoughts?)
• Make NPC's controllable.
• Implement a Exp/JP ASM hack if needed. Credits to Emmy of course.
  Spoiler

  Rather than gaining Exp/JP per action you get it per battle.

   

EDIT: for now this project is on hiatus, all my focus is currently on an RPG I am making

As fellow FFT modders, I'm glad to see more people joining in this classic game. I'm also working on my vanilla re-balance with some new battle machanics that will make the game more fun but not easier too.

Here's my suggestions for your ideas to work on.

Re-balance jobs (maybe some stat improvements or downgrades) and job tree
-I recommend trying to re-balance based on original concepts. Some classes may have unusually high or low for some reasons so try to make changes within the same level.

Re-balance enemies (stats, equipment and abilities) -- this is to avoid playing it only in hyper-offensive teams rather than a mix or defensive teams.
-I found re-balancing enemies is a bit hard to get it done right. I wouldn't recommend changing stats on enemies until you play with your mods for a long while.

Re-balance some of the equipment.
-That's interesting concepts and I recommend to do with moderation. Check weapon stats carefully and make changes that won't break the game balance.

Spells will generally be faster as to avoid being not used for the majority of the game.
-Spells are fast enough. There's a good reason why they have shorten cast time ability. Only the first level of spells are a bit too slow because CT 3 -> 2 won't be awesome so they raised to 4 instead. Reducing CT by 1 should fix it.

Make status spells GREAT AGAIN. (Aiming for 60-80% chances, need some insight on this)
-60-80% is too high. It's almost like you'll mostly guaranteed to hit. I set Rend with 35-45% chance in my mod but they work like 90% chance of breaking gears during tutorial with PA bonus.

Get rid of/balance broken shit.
-Agreed. Please remove Arithmetician spells.

Make all encounters go on average level with your party. (I think I'll have bosses start with +5 levels or something, thoughts?)
-5 levels above is too strong unlike Tactics Ogre where equipment matters more than levels and you can have abilities to boost freely. I recommend +2 is OK or +3 if you want challenge though I'd rather keep it vanilla since I'm no grind fan.

Implement a Exp/JP ASM hack if needed. Credits to Emmy of course.
-You'll need to work on PSX version for that. Maybe it's possible in some ways but not PSP for sure.

Change/remove some abilities, namely:

Cure 2 changed to Sanctuary -- heal in a large area.
-Large area heal and it'll heal your enemies too. Making it ally only would be too cheap.

Cure 3 changed to Nirvana -- sends a poor forgotten soul to heaven (or hell whichever you choose). Damage enemies with holy light. (yeah forget the first part)
-There's already Holy spell and strong enough to send some to heaven (or hell)

Cure 4 changed to Mana -- giff me 30 mana for 10 mana.
-Too broken and render Chakra/Ether useless. I wouldn't recommend that.

Protect 2 & Shell 2 removed -- Protect and Shell now has a small AoE.
-Buff protect and remove Protectja? What about CT/MP penalty? That's not a wise idea if you aim to re-balance.

Removed Level 3/4 of black magic -- didn't make sense to have.
-It does. There's halve MP and shorten cast time making some exceptional strong be more useful.

Fire 2 changed to Firestorm -- same range as explosion bigger AoE.
-Bigger AoE means you'll have more chance to hit your ally too. Unlike TO:LUCT that have no CT, you'll find undesirable outcome sooner or later.

Bolt changed to Lightning -- single target spell that inflicts Don't move.
Bolt 2 changed to Thunder -- small AoE spell that also inflicts Don't move.
Ice changed to Frost -- small AoE spell that inflicts Don't Act.
Ice 2 changed to Ice Raid -- medium AoE spell that also inflicts Don't Act. (need a simpler and more creative name for this)
-Adding status effects with spells is interesting but that'll make Swordskills useless since its strength is being able to add status effects where spells can't.

That's my two cents and good luck with your mod. The important part is you make the mod you can enjoy.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Re-balance jobs (maybe some stat improvements or downgrades) and job tree
-I recommend trying to re-balance based on original concepts. Some classes may have unusually high or low for some reasons so try to make changes within the same level.

Yeah, I'm not gonna go crazy on re-balancing the jobs, just a few tweaks to my liking.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Re-balance enemies (stats, equipment and abilities) -- this is to avoid playing it only in hyper-offensive teams rather than a mix or defensive teams.
-I found re-balancing enemies is a bit hard to get it done right. I wouldn't recommend changing stats on enemies until you play with your mods for a long while.

That's the plan. I'd like to have a game where diverse setup is better than sticking to one thing and one thing only.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Re-balance some of the equipment.
-That's interesting concepts and I recommend to do with moderation. Check weapon stats carefully and make changes that won't break the game balance.

Well I mostly want some early game ways to inflict status effects and such.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Spells will generally be faster as to avoid being not used for the majority of the game.
-Spells are fast enough. There's a good reason why they have shorten cast time ability. Only the first level of spells are a bit too slow because CT 3 -> 2 won't be awesome so they raised to 4 instead. Reducing CT by 1 should fix it.

Yeah that, I'll just see what I can do with the things I'm doing right now.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Make status spells GREAT AGAIN. (Aiming for 60-80% chances, need some insight on this)
-60-80% is too high. It's almost like you'll mostly guaranteed to hit. I set Rend with 35-45% chance in my mod but they work like 90% chance of breaking gears during tutorial with PA bonus.

This is before evasion mind you, so yeah, I think this would equate to 50-65% but not sure yet. For the most part I really want to make it hit, so I'll see what happens.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Get rid of/balance broken shit.
-Agreed. Please remove Arithmetician spells.

I don't like broken random things so yeah, I will remove it.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Cure 3 changed to Nirvana -- sends a poor forgotten soul to heaven (or hell whichever you choose). Damage enemies with holy light. (yeah forget the first part)
-There's already Holy spell and strong enough to send some to heaven (or hell)

This is mostly for early game.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Cure 4 changed to Mana -- giff me 30 mana for 10 mana.
-Too broken and render Chakra/Ether useless. I wouldn't recommend that.

Have second thoughts on this as well. But I'll test it out just for the heck of it.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Cure 2 changed to Sanctuary -- heal in a large area.
-Large area heal and it'll heal your enemies too. Making it ally only would be too cheap.

Yeah I'll take your word on this.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Removed Level 3/4 of black magic -- didn't make sense to have.
-It does. There's halve MP and shorten cast time making some exceptional strong be more useful.

I'm planing to have a compressed list rather than repetitive spells that just gives more AoE.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Fire 2 changed to Firestorm -- same range as explosion bigger AoE.
-Bigger AoE means you'll have more chance to hit your ally too. Unlike TO:LUCT that have no CT, you'll find undesirable outcome sooner or later.

I'll see what I can do about it after a few tests.

1 hour ago, Windows X said:

Bolt changed to Lightning -- single target spell that inflicts Don't move.
Bolt 2 changed to Thunder -- small AoE spell that also inflicts Don't move.
Ice changed to Frost -- small AoE spell that inflicts Don't Act.
Ice 2 changed to Ice Raid -- medium AoE spell that also inflicts Don't Act. (need a simpler and more creative name for this)
-Adding status effects with spells is interesting but that'll make Swordskills useless since its strength is being able to add status effects where spells can't.

I'd like to see more choices. So try first before anything else.

Thanks for the insight!

I don't recommend adding status on early spells. That'll outshine Swordskills and break the game mechanics. I'm also testing status inflicts on higher tier spells and now it's only -ja level to make game balanced.

As for status inflicts percentage, you need to check on hit formula carefully. Spells has 19% chance unless specified and formula varies. I may boost some and nerf some a little but I won't go over 55% that's for sure.

I also like Meditate skill in Tactics Ogre allowing us to perform action and skill separately. Too bad Final Fantasy Tactics doesn't allow that and I think that will make Chemist obsolete in my opinion.

Early game has dedicated role clearly, Knight for tank/damage, Archer for ranged damage, White Mage for healing/buff, Black Mage for magical damage/bad status, Knight has sword skills for ranged physical with status.

If you try to make changes to those balance, game mechanics will crumble making certain abilities being OP or useless than others. But if you find spots you're OK and have fun with it, that's OK for you too.

I also tried other mods and felt like "This isn't FFT I played before." so I made my own patch to enjoy vanilla experience better. You can try my patch and feel free to give me your opinions too.

/forums/topic/430-fft-valeria-psp-revamped-mechanics-and-re-balance-mod-for-better-vanilla/

At first I thought to make no grind run friendly patch but I ended up utilizing some new mechanics that blend with vanilla gameplay well especially innate abilities that provide benefits to enemies too.

-Squire with innate Counter Tackle will make me think twice before hitting on low HP and use stone more frequently
-Chemist can do considerable amount of damage so you can't ignore their attacks like nothing.
-Thief with Vigilance will increase surviability requiring more attention to take down.
-White Mage with innate regen will turn classic strategy shoot da healer to be harder to utilize
-Black Mage can counter with magic means you'll need deal focus on physical damage more
-Monk will counter your attack so you'll want to use ranged approach on him.

This will enhance gameplay experience without having to change battle mechanics. But if you inflict status on spells, you'll need to add status removal, the way game turns and resolve the issues in battle.

Sometimes you gain benefits that enemies don't making the game being unfair and boring. Sometimes certain fight will be too hard with unbalanced mechanics in battle. Like I increase Potion to 40 and Auto-Potion will make Chemist/White Mage obsolete with too high HP restored.

Well, I wish you luck in making a good mod you like. That's what it matters since they're plenty of FFT mods and we create our own to enjoy the way we want.

16 hours ago, Windows X said:

*Snip*

All of your ideas are noted, thanks!

I've been out of the FFT scene for long, but nevertheless I've yet to play a good rebalance FFT classic mod. So I'll be following both FFT projects closely! I'll give my insight to both independently in the future as well.

3 hours ago, Hart-Hunt said:

I've been out of the FFT scene for long, but nevertheless I've yet to play a good rebalance FFT classic mod. So I'll be following both FFT projects closely! I'll give my insight to both independently in the future as well.

I completely agree with your statements. It's really hard to make a balanced classic mod. Some jobs has unusual uses that often ignored and re-balance often ignore those aspects. Moving skill or add mechanics will easily ruin the game and classic feels. Not that I'll do any better but I'll try to stay faithful to vanilla. I'm doing FFT mod for real now unlike the past noob me who thought giving this into the game would be more fun.

After trying 1.3 vanilla and other vanilla mods, I feel the urge to make my own to have good balancing with Tactics Ogre and Wild Arms XF. They're great SRPG games in my book.

Innate abilities can't have reaction since it'll enforce its own into battle so I'm working with different reactions and might move some skills to balance between jovs better.

This might sound little bit strange to talk about my project on someone else's thread but I believe this information will also be useful for him too.

13 hours ago, Hart-Hunt said:

I've been out of the FFT scene for long, but nevertheless I've yet to play a good rebalance FFT classic mod. So I'll be following both FFT projects closely! I'll give my insight to both independently in the future as well.

The pressure is on! 

As usual, when I get back some time on my hands and all caught up with my friends on MMOs, I'm going to be back in the game. FFT: MT first, and then I'd be happy to play your stuff too.