Squeenix Final Fantasy Tactics PS1 (U) + Prime Convenience mod + Spekkio's tweaks

[spekkio]

BROs, I've decided to replay FFT, but with some mods this time. Went with the simplest choice: Prime Convenience mod (by Austin).

"Prime" segment adds following changes:

FFT Prime

Built upon FFT: Complete v.50, which fixes a few bugs and includes 99% of the script and text from the PSP port, The War of the Lions. Some more bugs and unaltered text were fixed by me, so setting aside the other alterations that the patch makes, one could think of this as an unofficial v.51 release of FFT: Complete.

• Abilities, Character Statistics, Job Levels, and Job Requirements are all identical to the original Japanese release of the game, with one notable exception that is listed below. Ability and Character Statistic differences can be found listed out in the readme.
• Although Elmdore has the Safeguard ability in the original Japanese release, he is left without it so that the unique Masamune and Genji Equipment can still be obtained.
• Includes ASM hacks made by the Final Fantasy Hacktics community that fix some longstanding bugs and provide quality of life improvements:
  • All formulas apply elemental (v2) - Fixes the Oil status bug by making it double fire damage properly and sword skills with an element attached will now actually apply these elements, taking precedence over the element on a weapon like the Ice Brand. Holy Sword skills are all either Holy or Lightning/Holy elemental and Fell Sword skills are Dark elemental.
  • Equipment duplication glitch fixes - Fixes the equipment duplication glitches that can be triggered from using Best Fit in the shops.
  • JP scroll glitch actual fix (Disable paging on confirm menu) - Disables paging when a confirm menu is up so there is no way to do the JP scroll glitch.
  • Random unit equipment more selective - Random unit equipment will now be more selective of secondary item types. (You shouldn't see knights in Chapters 2 to 4 using linen robes)
  • Unit slots backfilled when unit is removed from party - When a unit is removed from the party, other units backfill the slot so that it doesn't leave a gap in the party.
  • Cross Skip v3 - Holding X (Cross button), will fly you through dialog text as if you were mashing the button.
  • Iaido graphic fix - Fixes a visual bug during some Iaido animations where characters would use a Rod instead of a Katana.

"Convenience" segment adds the following:

FFT Prime - Convenience

In addition to everything in the previous section, this version of the patch has a few more changes to make the game less tedious and more fun to play:

• JP costs of all abilities halved, some absurdly overpriced abilities like Fly(5000 JP) are reduced further. The game becomes more challenging overall as a consequence of this change, since enemy combatants are able to afford more abilities as well.
• Increased the JP cost of the Chemist's Reequip ability from 0 to 25 to keep it from being equipped on nearly every enemy in the game in place of other abilities that may actually provide some help to them.
• Mime's Lv.8 Squire/Chemist prerequisites removed. The job requires only Lv.5 Orator/Geomancer/Summoner/Dragoon.
• Cloud's initial Level when recruited is close to the average Level of your party instead of Level 1.
• When using the Treasure Hunter ability, only the rare item will be obtained. There won't be any need to worry about a unit's Bravery level when searching for items and leaving it up to chance whether you get the useful item or not.

Cutting JP costs by half turned out to be great idea: there's definitely less grindan' required to get to the good stuff, and this change doesn't make the game easier, since enemies can acquire the "good" stuff easier too. Fights are more dynamic now, in some cases they only take like 3-4 turns, with a lot of participants KOed.



But... I wouldn't be myself, if I wasn't butthurt about something.

As you may've read above, in "Prime" segment Austin decided to bring back "japanese" skill costs and job requirements. This second thing actually increases grinding, since those are slightly higher than in the "american" version.

Compare the vanilla "american" job matrix in FFTPatcher:

With the one from "Prime - Convenience" (red = vanilla, blue = modified):

Except the decrease in case of Mime (Squire lv. 2 & Chemist lv. 2), almost all job requirements have been increased, so you now have to spend more time in each job, even the one you don't plan on using (by learning ITZ "action abilities").

Why? Because that's how teh Japanese had rolled.

It goes in the exact opposite direction than the idea of the "Convenience" segment, esp. JP costs being cut in half there.

So, I've decided to fire up FFTPatcher and make some slight changes to the game.



1) Decreased job requirements for following jobs (pink names = WOTL Translation used in Prime - Complete):

• Geomancer: Monk lv. 4 -> 3
• Lancer / Dragoon: Thief lv. 4 -> 3
• Samurai: Knight lv. 4 -> 3 (knight training is total waste of time if you don't plan on using his / hers action abilities), Thief lv. 4 -> 3 (Lancer / Dragoon requirement), Monk lv. 5 -> 4 (less grindan required)
• Ninja: Archer lv. 4 -> 3 (same thing as with knight, plus archers totally suck ass in FFT), Monk lv. 4 -> 3 (Geomancer requirement), Thief lv. 5 -> 4 (less grindan)
• Dancer: Monk lv. 4 -> 3 (Geomancer requirement), Thief lv. 4 -> 3 (Lancer / Dragoon requirement), Geomancer lv. 5 -> 4, Lancer / Dragoon lv. 5 -> 4 (less grinding)
• Bard: Summoner lv. 5 -> 4; Mediator / Orator lv. 5 -> 4 (less grinding, esp. since both these jobs are "final branches" of the chemist build)
• Mime: Monk lv. 4 -> 3 (Geomancer requirement), Thief lv. 4 -> 3 (Lancer / Dragoon requirement), Summoner lv. 5 -> 4; Mediator / Orator lv. 5 -> 4 (less grinding, esp. since both these jobs are "final branches" of the chemist build), Geomancer lv. 5 -> 4, Lancer / Dragoon lv. 5 -> 4 (less grinding, esp. since both these jobs are "final branches" of the squire build).

2) Increased job requirements for following jobs:

• Knight: Squire lv. 2 -> 3
• Archer: Squire lv. 2 -> 3
• Priest / White Mage: Chemist lv. 2 -> 3
• Wizard / Black Mage: Chemist lv. 2 -> 3

Why increase these "early" requirements? Well, IMO there are 2 distinct builds in the game: "squire" build and "chemist" build. You can either go Ninja / Samurai / Dancer for brawlers, or Mage / Calculator / Bard for casters.

I mean check this shit out (my modifications applied):

So IMHO:

• in case of brawlers, having access to white / black mage early (chemist lv. 2) is pointless (you won't be switching to these jobs unless you want to get Mime later,
• in case of casters, having access to knight / archer early (squire lv. 2) is also pointless, for the same reason.

My changes make the "Abilities" menu beautifully uncluttered (ignore wrong AR), as long as you keep Squire / Chemist below lv. 3:

To make things easier, I've made a .gif, which should explain differences between "Prime - Convenience" and my mod:

3) I've also wanted to modify descriptions for job requirements to reflect the changes above, but sadly FFTactext.exe can't handle this shit for some reason (can't modify .bin) fixed in V2:

Error means "text already too long" or some shit.



So, ignore these descriptions ingame:

Rules described above apply:

4) I've also slightly modified the background in main menu, to show the user that he / she / xe actually uses the mod (white M in the lower/right corner). A QoL change, so you don't have to check CRC of bins to know which version you're actually running.

So... If you're interested in using this mod, what should you do?

1) Get the .bin of the (U) version; this is the game as Matsuno-sama intended.
2) Fire up the PPF Patcher (PPF-O-Matic will do). Apply the "Prime - Convenience.ppf" from the FFT Prime.zip linked at the top, get the "intermediate" file; this is the game as Bro Austin intended.
3) Get my modification from this link use V5 below, apply the "FFT Prime Convenience + Job Tweak.ppf", get the final file; This is the game as declined by me.

And that's all!

 

[Ash]

Pretty nice work. Needs a mod to make the game faster in general though, e.g enemy turns, combat/level intro, and anything with an unnecessary delay. 90s Squaresoft were the best at JRPGs but they sure as shit like to make things unnecessarily slow.

 

[spekkio]

Yep, that would've been nice. I'm using Fast Forward button in RA, tied to Right Analog Stick. In all cases described by you.



AFAIK "One Vison" for TA:LUCT does exactly this - move / cast animations are much faster than in the vanilla PSP game.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, after some consideraton, testing, fixing, breaking, and actual fixing, I've prepared a V2 of my little FFT mod.

As mentoned in the OP, it's based on FFT Prime - Convenience by Austin.

List of my modifications below (fixes to V1 problems and newshit):

---

a) Job requirements

After reaching high enough job levels I've realized, that increasing job requirements for Knight & Archer (Squire Lv. 3 instead od Lv. 2) and White & Black Mage (Chemist Lv. 3 instead of Lv. 2) wasn't enough to stop "descendant jobs" from showing up in the skill list.
In case of sis Ripley, at some point Time Mage's skills showed up in the list:

Why? Well, after using FFTastic (savegame editor) it became clear to me, that when Ripley reached Lv. 3 Black Mage ("parent job"), Time Mage's skills showed up in the skill list, despite both jobs not being "unlocked":

Reason for this was me increasing Squire / Chemist requirements only for "direct descendants" (Knight / Archer / White Mage / Black Mage), instead of all "descendants":

Solution: increase Squire / Chemist requirements for ALL "descendants":

So, job requirement matrix now looks like this (and works as previously intended):

Which makes Ripley's skill list uncluttered (no "chemist" branch) again:

---

b) Descriptions of job requirements

Previously I've had problems with editing these via FFTactext (errors).

After way too many tries I've learned, that I had to use earlier version of the FFTPatcher (0.492). And lo and behold, descriptions fixed:

- Before (complex and ugly Prime - Convenience):

After (simple and beautiful vanilla my mod):

---

c) Main menu background

Changed obnoxious "M" in the lower-right corner into a sexy white dot. If you see it, you're running my mod. If not, you are failing at life:

But wait, there's much more in V2!

d) Tweaking Samurai

As you may know, both Ninja and Samurai have job-specific support abilities, that can be learned, and used with other jobs. Dual Wield (Ninja) and Doublehand (Samurai). The difference is, Dual Wield is an innate (inherent) ability:

So Ninja uses it all the time, you don't have to set it as an ability. And you can't equip it when you learn it:

On the other hand Doublehand isn't an innate ability. Samurai uses his / her weapon with one hand, and if you want xer to use both hands, you have to learn proper skill and equip it first.

But not in my mod.

Using FFTPatcher I've set "Doublehand" a.k.a. Two Hands as an innate Samurai's skill:

And voila. Bro Hicks now can use 2H without the "Doublehand" skill:

Admittedly game doesn't recognize it as a "proper" innate skil - you can choose it in the list:

But whatever, it works fine in combat (damage x2).



But! What if you wanted to go dualwield instead of 2H? Well, you can!

Just select Ninja's "Dual Wield" support skill:

Equip first weapon:

As you can see, "Doublehand" still applies. But when you equip second weapon, it no longer does:

I've tested if damage doesn't get quadrupled with such setup, but no - just two attacks with "regular" 1H damage.

---

e) Tweaking Arithmetician

These guys are OFC strong AF. Except one thing: speed. This is the slowest job in the entire game. I mean check out Sis Newt as a Summoner (Speed = 7):

And Arith / Calc (Speed = 4!):

My "default" Arithmeticians were so slow, that sometimes they weren't able to act during random encounters at all, because every ally was able to act twice before them, killing all enemies.

Once again, FFTPatcher to the rescue. It turns out Arith's speed is gutted to hell. All other mages / jobs from the "chemist" branch are much faster. Their Speed Multiplier is either 100 (Black Mage, Time Mage, Mystic, Orator), 110 (White Mage) or 90 (Summoner). While Arith's SM is 50:

I've decided to increase it to 75, which still makes Arithmetician the slowest job in the entire game, but not cripplingly slow. Sis Newt enhanced (Speed = 6):

But why stop there?

Checked some XML patches, decided to add 3 of them to my mod:

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f) Lower Katana break chance:

Decreased to 45%

---

g) Event skip:

It's like this thing Ash asked for...

---

h) Smart encounters:

---

And that's all, folks!

Link to V2 of my mod:

Use V5 linked below

As before, you have to apply it to the .bin already patched with the "Prime - Convenience" mod.

Gee, I love an occasional modding!

Spoiler

 

[Matador]

This is great, will try at some point.

I only have completed FFT : WOTL version, and that had the job requirements increased, so I was salty with the grind necessary to unlock some jobs, despite FFT being my favourite TRPG.

 

[Matador]

Playing right now FFT with your mod.
Man I missed FFT, it´s the best of its genre. And your mod has great changes, while being close to Vanilla.

Also found this Mod that seems cool. Probably worth trying.

https://www.rpgdl.com/lft

 

[spekkio]

I've got this mod on my "to try" list, together with FFT Kind Of:

https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=8658.0

Other mods look too autistic / hard / changing the game too much. But there's a ton of them:

https://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?board=53.0

AFAIK Celdia's Patch is also popular.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, after some thought I've prepared v3 (and final?) of my mod.

Changes:

• Katana break chance decreased from 45% to 33%,
• Time Mage's speed multiplier increased from 100 to 110 (same as White Mage, other mages use 100 or lower),
• Enabled one more ASM hack:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Added readme.txt.

That is all. Link:

Use v5 linked below

 

[spekkio]

I'm also happy to announce, that I've completed the entire game (except Deep Dungeon) using my mod, without any problems whatsoever.

Some thoughts below.

1) Two things that I loved going (back) to FFT after trying and abandoning PSP version of Tactics Ogre - LUCT:

- You know from the start how many jobs are there and which equipment each job can use:

- There are only ~20 statuses, with most of negative ones being p. easy to clear (Remedy or jobs' skills)

2) Main question: difficulty.

Well, JP requirements for abilities are halved, so you can "grind faster". But if you don't grind extensively, you will get some p. nice fights, esp. midgame. By "nice" I mean ones survived barely:

Fight against Wiegraf went smooth only after setting up my team properly:

Compare level differences:

Fight against Elmdore and Co. is "easier", since you only have to KO one of them. But again, there was a decent difference in levels between both teams:

3) Random encounters.

They are 100% optional now, due to the ASM hack. Most of the time they're smooth sailing. But sometimes you'll get shit like this:

:nuclearlaunchdetected:

Luckily for me, I've got 2 calculators in my team. Without them, I would've been fucked 100%.

4) Endgame team.

Used Ramza & 4 recruits:

Special units recruited, but benched:

For obv. reasons:

Setup:

- 2x ninja / monk:

- 1x samurai / monk:

- 2x calculator / mage:

Calculators with proper stats and spells own the game OFC:

Anyway, it's done!

First / the most successful japtactical, and for a goddamned reason. Fantastic game.

Probably the most surprising thing is how beautiful the graphics are (despite 3D being "early") and how fantastically designed the interface is. They don't make them like they used to anymore.

 

[Matador]

I´m on chapter 4 myself. Was going to thank you after finish it. Enjoying it a lot.

It´s the best Jap Tactical game ever. Every aspect of the game is brilliant. You fixed the excessive grinding needed to unlock some jobs, probably the only major issue.

And gonna add. It´s better than most tactical western games. I think only X-Com and JA2 are above it. If you think otherwise I´m opened to recommendations.

 

[spekkio]

Thanks, mang.



BTW, fags who want to switch from V2 to V3 of my patch during a playthrough (probably for "enlightened" Deep Dunegeon - other 2 fixes are super minor), should do it via "memory card saves" (.mcr in Retroarch) and NOT via "emulator savestates" (.state in Retroarch). For obv. reasons (new .bin has new CRC).

 

[lightbane]

Shame the alleged sequel where Ramza travels to other countries will never happen by now. Hell, Tactics Advance 2 should have had a sequel, same with Tactics Ogre, and yet here we are, making remakes of remakes.

 

[Matador]

Shame the alleged sequel where Ramza travels to other countries will never happen by now. Hell, Tactics Advance 2 should have had a sequel, same with Tactics Ogre, and yet here we are, making remakes of remakes.

How do you guys like Advance 2? I was considering playing it.

 

[spekkio]

^

Judges and shit? THX, bye.

 

[lightbane]

Shame the alleged sequel where Ramza travels to other countries will never happen by now. Hell, Tactics Advance 2 should have had a sequel, same with Tactics Ogre, and yet here we are, making remakes of remakes.

How do you guys like Advance 2? I was considering playing it.

No idea. I tried playing it long ago and found it to be TOO slow, as the CPU takes 30 seconds per turn or something (mind you, that was with the OG hardware). The story isn't as bad as unintentionally bad the first one, for what's worth.

 

[Matador]

Finished FFT with Spekkio's Mod.

 

[spekkio]

Which level for Ramza?

 

[Matador]

Which level for Ramza?

Level 35. Orlandeau carried hard last part of the game.

Next playthrough I have to make a No Auto-Potion, No Orlandeau run to have a real challenge

 

[spekkio]

Level 35

Orlandeau

Auto-Potion + Orlandeau

JK, anybody can play games any fucking way they / them / xem want.

 

[Matador]

You are absolutely right. Orlandeau is game breaking. Next time I will make a proper run without the cheaper stuff.

To be honest I think those are the only 2 broken things in the game. There are more strong tools, but nothing like AutoPotion and Orlandeau level.

 

[Matador]

BTW. My only other major critic to this masterpiece is the shenanigans in the deploying phase. The placement is not predictable and somewhat random unless you know the map beforehand, and resulted in reloading to place the units where I wanted.

First thing to fix in a remaster-remake. I´m Ok with the ambushes separating groups and Ramza, But in a tactical game deployment placement has to be more clear.

 

[banana]

FYI there is an ASM hack that removes the hardcoding on innate RSM skills for each job. With it any job won't and can't equip any RSM skill which is innate to their job.

 

[Damned Registrations]

To be honest I think those are the only 2 broken things in the game. There are more strong tools, but nothing like AutoPotion and Orlandeau level.

Oh, my sweet summer child. Those two are definitely up there though., especially when it comes to low investment. Most of it is in various other wildly overpowered reaction skills though, like MP Switch, Blade Grasp, and Abandon. Or whatever the nu translation called them. But FFT is a game oozing with cheese. Part of what I love about it. Back when I played it lots of people liked doing single class challenges, where you'd attempt to beat the game without using any other classes or abilities from those classes. Chemist was considered the easiest by a wide margin iirc. As much for sand bagging with phoenix downs as auto-potion.

in case of brawlers, having access to white / black mage early (chemist lv. 2) is pointless (you won't be switching to these jobs unless you want to get Mime later,

There's a major exception for this: Samurai's draw out command is actually based off the character's magic stat. Which means grabbing some of the more useful sword skills, then turning them into a mage of any description to crank that magic power up can be incredibly effective. Yeah, they'll be squishy, but having powerful spell like abilities (much more powerful than in the hands of a samurai, similar to how math works) without charge times as a support to whatever flavour of mage you want tends to be a great combo. But honestly, chemist is such an easy job to train anyways, I don't think requiring an extra level there is a big deal. There's also the fact that all the best movement skills in the game are all on the mage side of the tree, but that's kind of irrelevant if you're not overly grinding to just stomp the game into the ground.

 

[banana]

Do you have any plans for additional changes or rebalancing?

 

[spekkio]

BROs, just one more teeny-weeny modification...



Katanas' "draw out" skills

IMO their vanilla machanic is retarded: strong command, which is immediate and costs no MP, but each time there's a chance of katana breaking. Which isn't a problem for the ones you can buy in shops (as long as you have enough money). But it's a different story for the "rare" ones, with each of them appearing only once in the game. Outcome: you either don't use them at all, or resort to quicksave-scumming.

So... First step is obv: make all katanas unbreakable. Done via ASM patches.

Second step is more difficult. Making "draw out" command cost MP is impossible, since these skills being MP-free is somehow hard-coded into the game. So I've decided to make them time-consuming instead.

Each "Draw" / "Iaido" command now costs some CT, with every "stronger" one costing more than the previous one.

Ashura's skill costs 1 CT to use, so it's "almost-immediate":




While Kiku-ichimonji's (8th katana) costs 8 CT:





And Chirijiraden 10 CT.

These values aren't that high actually, some spells for comparison:

• 4 CT: Cure, Raise, Protect, Fire/Thunder/etc.
• 5 CT: Cure 2, Fire 2
• 7 CT: Cure 3, Fire 3, Shiva
• 10 CT: Fire 4, Raise 2, Titan

Summons / strongest spells need much more time to cast: Odin, Leviatan, Salamander 13 CT, Bahamut 15 CT, Meteor 20 CT.

So, IMO both aspects of the modification: making katanas unbreakable, but their skills CT-dependent, balance themselves.

This also makes "weaker" draw skill viable all the time: they may be weaker than the stronger ones, but are faster to cast.

DISCUSS!

Link to v4

This actually didn't work as intended, use V5 below