LFT: An FFT mod (The final release is a lie. Download here!)

[metroid composite]

Do note that Frog is currently (and has always been since original FFT) a 3-range move (instead of 4 like basically every Oracle spell and all other Black Magic spells).  Lower range has always been one of its things, for better or for worse.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Hm. Frog as a 1-range high-accuracy spell looks interesting in a vacuum, but the change to a 1-range spell just makes it unnecessarily risky, particularly for a class as squishy as the Wizard. As it stands, I use Frog now and then. If it was range 1, I wouldn't even bother buying it .

[SageAcrin]

No, definitely not.  We've actually had people argue that Speed Break needed even further nerfing (so -1 with less than 100% hit rate).  We didn't nerf it that way, but we have gone out of our way to nerf it (Zodiacs can't be dropped below 4 speed).

Yeah but, Slow Dance is 66% and was 100%. It's full field and fires off at a rate that really isn't that different from once a turn even at endgame. Slower yeah, not enough slower. In both cases it's basically superior, if for no other reason than you can snipe with it with greater ease.

I wasn't judging objectively, I was judging it compared to the other speed downs in the game when I said that. (It would be different if Battle Skill, when all is said and done, was a good skillset in and of it's self still. Weapon Break is excellent, but stat breaks still are incredibly iffy moves, after all the changes are done.)

It's not supposed to directly compete with Chakra, and I don't see why you'd kill the vertical tolerance to remove the differentiation between the moves.  If anything it competes with the Chemist Hi-Ether (notably a skill I've set item for on Mages to help with running out of MP--and also note that Replenish heals more MP than Hi-Ether).  There's also thematic issues; Squire fetches supplies for their Knight.  0 vertical making it actually hard to hit other people with it is just...all wrong thematically.  More range would be fine, though.

Well, okay, I'll go along with the thematics; I tend to not think about that, with a game where a Geomancer uses swords rather than the traditional FF bells, a game where Oracles get Defense Up for some reason, etc., base FFT has some hiccups in that direction. But I see your point; It doesn't have to.

It definitely needs more something though.

Frog as a low(er) range ability is...well, I like the idea, but clearly most people prefer to snipe with mages universally by the reactions to it.

You could make it an actual really, really fast charge-time spell(2/3 CT range. Hell, no charge time would be cool I'd think.) and keep the iffy rate, but that's not going to change the general reactions to it, I suspect, despite it working pretty decently in practice. And everything else breaks the ability to unfrog(or unbalances the spell).

Although, you do bring up a point in that Frog is already 1 range less than every other spell, let alone compared to Death. Maybe just boosting it to 4 range(/upping it's cost if felt necessary?) would work. The lower range would explain why it doesn't get used much as it is. Then again it makes it eerily similar to Petrify, which is annoying. I dunno.

[Laggy]

Wizard and BM are good enough that I am pretty much kneejerking against any kind of direct buff to Frog. Even as really filler niche utility (3 range instant disabling on a class that emphasizes damage), it will still find a purpose. It may not come up often, but it's there. It's only when it's completely overshadowed by another move in the skillset that I'd draw concern.

Speed Break can be 2-sworded. And usually is with early thief accessibility. This is why people thought it was too good, not too weak.

Replenish and Reinforce I guess I could see improving, but... Squire move makes this less of a concern than you'd think, and they still do get Knightswords in C4. People who actually bother with Squire do get mileage out of them. They're never going to be directly competitive with other classes as a carrier (and they shouldn't, being the 1st job accessible and all that) but there exist situations where you could be tempted to go to them, and that's pretty much the role I want them to fill.

[metroid composite]

No, definitely not.  We've actually had people argue that Speed Break needed even further nerfing (so -1 with less than 100% hit rate).  We didn't nerf it that way, but we have gone out of our way to nerf it (Zodiacs can't be dropped below 4 speed).

Yeah but, Slow Dance is 66% and was 100%. It's full field and fires off at a rate that really isn't that different from once a turn even at endgame. Slower yeah, not enough slower. In both cases it's basically superior, if for no other reason than you can snipe with it with greater ease.

Slow Dance actually hadn't had many power complaints (until very recently) and speed break had.

Consider, a Thief with Speed Break against Queklain who has a teammate cast Haste 2 on everyone; this Thief can break Queklain to 1 speed by clocktick 40.  If you tried to do this with 12CT Slow Dance, you'd only break 2 speed in the same time period, not 8.  (Alternatively, without haste you're looking at 8 broken speed vs 3 broken speed by clocktick 50).

One thing that wasn't necessarily obvious with the 100% Slow dance was that 12 clockticks is a long time with no effect happening.  100% speed break every 12 clockticks actually took quite a while to catch up to 50% speed break every 8 clocticks (i.e. original unbuffed Slow Dance).  Think about it:

tick8: -0.5 speed vs -0 speed (tied)
tick12: -0.5 speed vs -1 speed (50% version ahead by 2 clockticks)
tick16: -1 speed vs -1 speed (tied)
tick 24: -1.5 speed vs -2 speed (finally the 12 CT version starts pulling ahead).

24 clockticks is quite a while--Stop wears off in 20 clocktics, Don't Move/Don't Act/Slow wear off in 24 clockticks.

Oh yes, and you take more damage while dancing, and if an enemy kills or statuses you before the dance goes off then you get nothing, and if your speed is decent you might need to take two turns to get any effect at all.



So...no: they aren't directly comparable.  (Slow Dance has its advantages over Speed Break as well, naturally, like infinite range and multitarget).

[metroid composite]

Hmm, one thing that had been bugging me about 40% Slow Dance at 6ctr is that comparing it to Cheer Song, which is 100% at 12ctr, it looks bad.  80% of a speed, or 100% of a speed?  Now, yes, using the analysis above, the fact that the 80% is actually split into an early 40% and a late 40% is an inherent advantage, but I wanted to run some numbers...and I did.


For starters, there's the issue that 40% Slow Dance is nonuniform--it could leave someone at 6 speed, and someone else at 1 speed.  In short, effectively, it works like a Fire Emblem stat cap.  Aha! I know how to do that problem!



So I used this average as the function for how much speed has been decreased by Slow Dance.  Then I created two columns for every single CT, one for the speed you'd be at with 12ct 100% Cheer Song, and a second one for the average speed your enemy would be at each clocktick if you constantly Slow Danced.  Then I did two more columns for the total turn advantage you were getting, adding the advatage each clocktick (1 - your speed/enemy speed).  All of this was assuming 9 starting speed for both enemies and players, mind you.

Short version: Slow Dance won for average turn advantage at every single clocktick.  Even when I assumed the enemies had Flash Hats so that their minimum speed was 2.  Even when I assumed the enemies had three Sprint Shoes so that their minimum speed was 4 (well...except for the fact that Cheer Song eventually catches up really late because it can get a better than 2-1 advantage).

Though, that said, there's another issue with this analysis; I'm holding them parallel based on clocktick.  But 1 clocktick in a heavily Cheer Songed enviornment is actually much more of a turn than 1 clocktick in a heavily Slow Danced environment.  That's another point in Slow Dance's favour; let me go factor that in (this time I'll take actual CT values, and just compare turn-advantage at 100 CT, 200 CT, 300 CT, etc).

...Hmm, okay, taking that into consideration, it looks like 28% is the one that would make 6CT Slow Dance similar in general power to 12CT Cheer Song.  (Take a moment to gawk at just how much worse original Cheer Song was to original Slow Dance).


Done being disgusted?  Righto.  So...anyway: I'm against Slow Dance being 28%.  For starters, missing all enemies and not getting your exp?  That's frustrating, not fun.  For another thing, this is a huge nerf over the original 50% with 8CT, and I stand by original Slow Dance not being gamebreaking--it's best in multiples, and yet the Dancer SCC used way more Nameless.  For a third thing, the LFT design is that Dance is supposed to be the better skillset than Sing, while Bard gets the better weapon than Dancer (actually, that's the design of original FFT too).  Therefore Slow Dance being better is a-ok with me (especially if it has downsides like unreliablility).  So...what percentage would Slow Dance need at 6ct to be about equal in power to the original Slow Dance?  According to my calculations, either 0.375 or 0.36 depending on what you value more.  (Well...not counting the "people take bonus damage while performing" nerf--that doesn't translate into speed numbers well).

Anyway, so what does this mean?  Well...I wouldn't mind 40% at 6ct--I'm not hugely worried about slightly buffing Slow Dance overall from the original.  I could also see the argument for, say, 35%; while a slight nerf from the original, it wouldn't be the only speed breaking move to get slightly nerfed (speed break).  (So...we're back to my original gut reaction range of 35%-40%).

Some other statistics to consider: let's say there's 5 active enemy targets; the chance of not getting your JP and thus being frustrated is...8% (with 40% hit rate), 12% (with 35% hit rate), 17% (with 30% hit rate).

Anyhow, that's my ramble.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I honestly prefer Slow Dance being slower and more reliable over faster and more liable to hax, but that's a personal playstyle thing - I like having strong odds, and while 100% Slow Dance was crazy, I just loved how reliable it was. As it stands, it's reliable enough for me to use it even without Mime spam-chu. I'm not sure at which point it should stand for CT, though (is it 8CT or 10CT right now? I honestly think 10CT might be a bit excessive for 67% SD, but that's probably not where it stands right now anyway, but speed hax is really hard to balance, especially looking at how FFT makes its speed work). Fun mental exercise to look at, regardless.

[metroid composite]

I honestly prefer Slow Dance being slower and more reliable over faster and more liable to hax, but that's a personal playstyle thing

Well sure, and Cheer Song would exist for the reliable version (increasing the distinction between the two moves--probably a good idea since they're the only two moves that feel strongly similar...unlike, say, Polka Polka vs Battle Song which are totally different effects).

The problem with Slow Dance was not that it acted particularly fast when it was 12CT 100% accuracy.  It's just "reliably shuts down basically any fight in 5-10 actions".  Reliability moreso than power was the problem.  Same way Last Dance with 100% hit rate would be a problem even if it was some ridiculous CT like 25--If you set up three different speed Dancers you could still cause no enemy to ever get another turn (unless the enemy was speed 13).

One side note is that design-wise it just generally feels like "pick one design focus for an ability and do that".  Going to focus on reliability?  Okay, make it 100%.  Going to go for unreliability?  Okay, make it unreliable.  But the point is: pick one.

And...side note, it's not like the reliability even changes that much.  Two hits of 40% gives you a 64% chance of getting at least speed-1 on that enemy, compared to the 67% chance with almost double the CT.

is it 8CT or 10CT right now? I honestly think 10CT might be a bit excessive for 67% SD, but that's probably not where it stands right now anyway

Right now it's 10 CT 67%.  (This is improved from 12 CT 67%).

No, I definitely don't think it should be 67% with 8CT.  That's actually a very mild buff over 100% with 12 CT.  It would be more reasonable to do 50% with 6CT than to do that.

(And I still wouldn't be inclined to do 50% with 6ct.  Compare Battle Skills which are -1 Speed and -3 PA/MA, and Speed Break still has arguments for being the best.  50% Slow Dance at 6CT just plain crowds out Polka Polka and Disillusion--something closer in ballpark to 1/3 the stat loss for speed seems appropriate).

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I honestly prefer Slow Dance being slower and more reliable over faster and more liable to hax, but that's a personal playstyle thing

Well sure, and Cheer Song would exist for the reliable version (increasing the distinction between the two moves--probably a good idea since they're the only two moves that feel strongly similar...unlike, say, Polka Polka vs Battle Song which are totally different effects).

The problem with Slow Dance was not that it acted particularly fast when it was 12CT 100% accuracy.  It's just "reliably shuts down basically any fight in 5-10 actions".  Reliability moreso than power was the problem.  Same way Last Dance with 100% hit rate would be a problem even if it was some ridiculous CT like 25--If you set up three different speed Dancers you could still cause no enemy to ever get another turn (unless the enemy was speed 13).

One side note is that design-wise it just generally feels like "pick one focus of an ability and do that".  Going to focus on reliability?  Okay, make it 100%.  Going to go for unreliability?  Okay, make it unreliable.  But the point is: pick one.

That makes sense. I generally end up picking Slow Dance over Cheer Song even though Cheer Song is perfect accuracy if I hate to choose between one anyway because, in practice, MT speed-busting is a lot more potent than MT speed-buffing even accounting for the chances to miss. Given how I generally use Cheer Song -and- Slow Song together anyway because of the overkill... but, as I see, t it's not a matter of being completely reliable, it's a matter of being reliable enough, which, at 67%, Slow Song definitely is.

And...side note, it's not like the reliability even changes that much.  Two hits of 40% gives you a 64% chance of getting at least speed-1 on that enemy, compared to the 67% chance with almost double the CT.

Certainly. On the other hand, in this part, I'd honestly prefer dropping less anvils on the short-term psychological frustration of the player. Two hits of 40% are practically the same statistically, sure, but the psychological effect on the average player can be frustrating, and the fact that it activates more often might actually -compound- that - although the possibility of getting a lucky string might mitigate that effect anyway, but the human mind has the tendency to forget lucky strings and notice unlucky strings more when it comes to probability psychology. I doubt this is what you're looking at when thinking on the balance (and I think Slow Dance is fine as it stands, and the changes you're mulling make sense to me), though: this is just me thinking off on a weird tangent. I may also be thinking bullshit here, so take the impression with a grain of salt. But I honestly prefer the odds of Slow Dance missing over half the field lower even if the price is slower casting.

is it 8CT or 10CT right now? I honestly think 10CT might be a bit excessive for 67% SD, but that's probably not where it stands right now anyway

Right now it's 10 CT 67%.  (This is improved from 12 CT 67%).

No, I definitely don't think it should be 67% with 8CT.  That's actually a buff over 100% with 12 CT.  It would be more reasonable to do 50% with 6CT than to do that.

Hahahaha. Okay, then it -was- what I was thinking it wasn't because I honestly didn't find the investment/effect ratio unreasonable in practice. Nevermind that. <_<

[metroid composite]

Certainly. On the other hand, in this part, I'd honestly prefer dropping less anvils on the short-term psychological frustration of the player. Two hits of 40% are practically the same statistically, sure, but the psychological effect on the average player can be frustrating, and the fact that it activates more often might actually -compound- that - although the possibility of getting a lucky string might mitigate that effect anyway, but the human mind has the tendency to forget lucky strings and notice unlucky strings more when it comes to probability psychology.

Maybe yes, maybe no, but figuring this out actually seems like the single most important point so I'm going to focus on it.

Missing a 67% chance often has me yelling at the screen "AWWW come on!"  Not quite as bad as missing an 80% chance, but it's really frustrating.  If you read FFT boards, you'll see a lot of people whining about the AI cheating because they got hit through 97% blade grasp.

Fire Emblem 7 I think had the right approach to percentages.  If the screen displayed 67%, it was actually 78%.  If the screen displayed 80%, it was actually 92%.  If the screen displayed 30%, it was actually 18%.  If the screen displayed 1%, it was actually 0.02%.  And if the screen displayed 50%, it was actually 50%.  This psychology seems to work: I've never seen someone whine about the hit rate percentages in that game.  I've only seen them whine about the crit rate percentages (which are the only percentages that AREN'T lies).

The takeaway lesson of this is as follows: in a game that doesn't lie about its percentages, the least frustrating percentages will be 0%, 50%, and 100%.  For that reason, It's worth aiming to hit one of those percentages, and if you can't at least try to be close to 50% (as 45%-55% only "feel like" they should be 41%-59%).

Actually, this is a strong argument for just putting Slow Dance back at its original 8CT, 50% hit rate.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Certainly. On the other hand, in this part, I'd honestly prefer dropping less anvils on the short-term psychological frustration of the player. Two hits of 40% are practically the same statistically, sure, but the psychological effect on the average player can be frustrating, and the fact that it activates more often might actually -compound- that - although the possibility of getting a lucky string might mitigate that effect anyway, but the human mind has the tendency to forget lucky strings and notice unlucky strings more when it comes to probability psychology.

Fire Emblem 7 I think had the right approach to percentages.  If the screen displayed 67%, it was actually 78%.  If the screen displayed 80%, it was actually 92%.  If the screen displayed 30%, it was actually 18%.  If the screen displayed 1%, it was actually 0.02%.  And if the screen displayed 50%, it was actually 50%.  This psychology seems to work: I've never seen someone whine about the hit rate percentages in that game.  I've only seen them whine about the crit rate percentages (which are the only percentages that AREN'T lies).

I've seen people whining about getting hit over low percentages in FE7, actually! Rather a lot, truth be told. This says more about how sensitive people are against odds rather than anything else, though.

The takeaway lesson of this is as follows: in a game that doesn't lie about its percentages, the least frustrating percentages will be 0%, 50%, and 100%.  For that reason, It's worth aiming to be very close to one of those percentages.  (Actually, this is a strong argument for just putting Slow Dance back at its original 8CT, 50% hit rate).

Hmmmm. That -is- a point. I do prefer 10CT/67% odds still, but that's my own brain wiring talking there. For some reason, I find the high 60s percentage field rather comfortable: high enough for me to think it's worth making an attempt, but risky enough to not frustrate me when I miss. It's more reliable than a coinflip, but it's unguaranteed enough for me to keep in mind that it can and will not strike home sometimes. 

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

More Logtastica. This one's going to be huge sorta, since there's a lot of fights covered. Also, I have to point out that C3's options for magic damage twinkery are fucking sick.

Yardow City - Xeroma's Fighting Game Stand

Okay. Setup is Wiz-TM Ramza/BM-Sum Eva/HK Agrias (solely for JP purposes)/Bard Junk/Sam-Dan Alicia. No revivers, and this was a daring proposition in a fight where my average HP lies somewhere within the sub-160s. I manage a Haste 2 on everybody and go to town - the Ninjas are easy enough to dispatch. The only problem lies with the Summoners, which 2HKO Ramza and OHKO Eva. However, Ramza also has Counter Magic, which means that Titan gets a Ninja OHKOed, but immuned by a Summoner. Ramza dies shortly after, so it's up to Agrias and Alicia to bumrush the Summoners. Somehow, it happens rather swiftly, even though Agrias gets into critical range. Samurai MA being not much below Wizard MA makes the skillset ridiculously good off its base class now.

Yuguo Woods - Where Ramza, Eva And Anton Become Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd

Laughable. Priest with Cure 4 and 94 Faith Oracle with Cure 3 make a horrible mockery of this fight, which was always pretty poor. Add Ramza Counter Magic with the bumrushing self-cast Cure 4 madness into a fray and suddenly you have a lot of lol ohkos flying around. Trivial.

Riovanes Castle Gates - It's Like a Tex Avery Cartoon, Only Without Squirrels

How badly screwed can you make an enemy field without using Nameless Dance even once? Well, Nena and Anton alone managed to: sleep an archer, petrify a Knight, keep another one under a Stop loop, Chicken another Archer and the last one ate Frog from Ramza throughout the fight while Alicia and Junk spammed Cheer Songs and Slow Dances. By the time I killed my first enemy, the enemies had like 03 Speed across the board while my Party sat around with 11-12 Speed. The Archers could kill Ramza here and there, but with two revivers and Nena being able to take hits (partly thanks to the horrible Brave on the Archers - they are -total- Foxbird bait here, being all in the range for turning into chicks off one casting), it's hard to feel threatened at all. After doing some mop up, I decide to lulz it out and pile as many status on the remaining archer as I can. This leads to a Frog'd, Sleep'd, Faith'd, Confused'd, Berserk'd Archer hanging around. Then she gets mercifully slaughtered by Alicia and things end. Very funny and sad.

Riovanes Castle - Wiegraf Really Needs To Get Laid

First surprise: MP Switch+97 Brave Wiegraf. Cute, Laggy. Cute. In theory, this was supposed to make magic bumrushing not a brainless win here. In practice, a proper setup means you still 2HKO Wiegraf while not being 2HKOed, which pretty much sealed the fight. I replace Time Magic with Summon Magic because my first attempt had Ramza missing his second Bolt 2 off 85% odds, and Ramuh still comfortably OHKOs Wiegraf's MP and HP. I tried to dick around with a speed-twinking setup, but that wouldn't happen with only a Green Beret. Ubersquire Ramza might've made it, but I'm not sure he'd OHKO. Regardless, this is the simple part. My first attempt against Velius involved my entire mage party getting Loss'd and killing itself ingloriously. I decide I want Confuse blockers, but my earliest alternate save is at -Orbonne Monastery-. Okay no, this is going to have to happen without them. So, I ask Laggy on tips to goad Velius into trying to kill me instead of whoring me out, and I bring Agrias/Timothy/Alicia instead of ten billion mages. The Wiegraf fight actually has a supposedly positive hax chance almost screw me over: on my Ramuh casting #1, MP Switch -fails to activate- and Ramza is no longer in danger of being OHKOed by a Velius physical. Well, I have to make do anyhow, so I bring Ramza forward and charge a Ramuh in order to help handle the Demons, which are bad news. This proves to be very intelligent, as Ramza 2HKOs them and leaves them in killing range for an Agrias Lightning Stab. Now, with far less offense to handle, the fight becomes much easier, and Anton stalls by reviving Ramza and Timothy as often as possible until he gets nabbed himself by a Clops - this gives me time to kill the last Demon and rip around 80% of Velius' HP with Agrias by herself, but once he's out of fresh people to nab, he finally wisens up and kills Agrias, and only Timothy is alive while Alicia is at 0 on the count. If I move with Timothy, Velius will definitely be in range for a lol ohko and the fight is over. So, I take a risk by having Timothy wait, and Velius is only at range to use Loss, promptly confusing Tim. Now, all left to do is hope Lady Luck favors me... and the confused Ninja prompty walks up to Velius and Charge +3s him for the kill, juuuuuuuust before Alicia turns into a crystal. Such hax. Props to the fight, Laggy.

Riovanes Roof - Fortunately, Rafa Wasn't Showing Her Tits

I sorta blanched here because I had stripped Rafa of her equipment as soon as she joined and feared she'd be naked there as well, but the concerns were unreasonable. I bring Timothy with a Green Beret here so he outspeeds the Assassins and baits them into range of my Wizard. Works like a charm, obviously, and as soon as I get some room (Celia and Lede ID Timothy and Petrify Anton), Eva gets a turn and Leviathans the girls. Battle over.

Now, C4 awaits.

[Ranmilia]

Oracle SCC part 2

Lenalia Plateau
Resets: zero!

Chat was surprised at this being an easy battle, I wasn't too shocked though.  Thieves' Fort was much more dangerous.    Poor strategy here too but it's a good map for oracles, the enemies all run up and make themselves highly vulnerable to Confusion or whatever horrifying things you want to drop on them.  I won with 3 life drains and 2 turns of poison on Miluda, the poison coming courtesy of a confused wizard.  This was really a bad plan and I cut it quite close on people dying - just tried it to illustrate how nerfed Life Drain is/was at 2 range.

Fovoham Plains
Resets: Just one, I think?

I was scared of Wiegraf and thought this would be dangerous... and it was.  All the enemies run up and you can drop Confuse for merry times all around.  Wiegraf himself cannot be confused, though, and will OHKO any squishy targets he can reach - but usually he just goes for Delita.  The danger comes from the monks + Wiegraf managing to drop someone early on, which generally happens regardless of what you do.  On the winning run, Wiegraf overextended himself and I chased him down and hit three life drains (the last coming from someone on the upper plateau literally chasing him to the back of the map).  All three were 70% though and if one had missed I'd have been in some trouble.  So.  

Note also that the enemy Oracle here has (no spells and) a stick.  Sticks don't show up for ME until after Zirekile.  No fair.
Note also that one of the monks got the random name Sage, got confused, and then used Secret Fist on the other monk.  So, Sage engaged in confused lesbian fisting.  Yep.

Fort Zeakden
Resets: aaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuugggggghhhhhhhhhh okay it was only like six or seven but as always feels like more because battles go so long.

This sucked.

The wizard who charges OHKO damage on Ramza turn 1 must be Silenced, if this misses it's pretty much a reset (even though Ramza will revive through dialogue, he comes back at 1 HP and there's no way he'd manage to stay up facing Super and Algus's crossbows.)  
The lone knight on the other side is lured forward and confused.  If he has Basic Skill he'll run around trying to Throw Stone people, but if he doesn't have Basic Skill he won't find any targets close enough for an actual action and will sit in place for the duration of the battle, effectively dead unless one of the others goes after him.
Delita chases Algus and needs to live as long as possible and break as much of his equipment as possible, preferably all three of shield/helmet/armor, without wasting his time trying to deal damage or hit wizards.  This is up to the mercy of the AI.
My team Zombies up, providing a chance of undead revival and easier Life Drain HP distribution.  And then... they... well... hm.

Super and Algus are incredibly threatening.  Super has a solid 2HKO on anyone and Algus has OHKOs on anyone with Charge.  Both of them have crazy movement and range, and can shoot up to the top of the fort.  This is bad, because if anyone gets sniped it's obviously impossible to take Algus down in three turns.  The other knight and the wizard that wasn't immediately silenced usually get distracted playing with Delita, but they provide a solid meat wall for Algus to hide behind.  On my first attempt I tried getting people up on top of the fort, but crossbows put an end to that, so... hiding everyone behind the fort it is.  Sage suggested I try to blitz Algus down instead, to which my reply was "With what exactly?"  He's vulnerable to confusion, but there's just too many enemy pointy things in the way.

Most of the actual resets came from me getting greedy and doing stupid things like poke my head out from behind the fort to try to confuse/petrify people.  Bad ideas there.  Oh, also, the absolute worst luck imaginable - everything missed, undead revival never kicked in, etc.  This battle sucked.

The winning run was the one where I turtled hard enough to actually make Algus advance far enough to shoot someone around the back corner of the fort - and then his own confused wizard ran in front of the charge, saving my oracle.  The entire team seized the moment and ran out to surround and trap Algus, Foxbird him once to shut off Auto Potion, and then staff beat him down.  Thankfully, Delita had done his job and left Algus at only 66 HP, and he went down before the other enemies could break through and let him escape.  

Dorter Trade City
Resets: !!!!!!!

This battle.  Usually easy.  Not so here.  Third in a row in the string of fights I was really not looking forward to.  You'd think it would be hard to lose with two swordskillers on your team, and in FFT you'd be right, but this is LFT where the enemy archers can hop up on the roofs and hit literally every panel on the map.  They will infallibly target the squishiest things they can find, will OHKO with charge or 2HKO without, and the swordskillers generally can't reach them.  Oh, and there are thieves and time mages too.  I anticipated this being nigh impossible, and I was right, but... well.

I manage to zombie up everyone except one person, and of course that one is the first to die.  Enemy time mage puts Reflect on Andrew.  I throw confusion into the center anyway, reflecting from Andrew to the other thief such that he's getting hit twice by each cast, four times in total.  All four miss him.  Gaffy and Agrias are mostly useless.  Two people are dropped by archers after being wounded and trying to hide.  The entire team is dead except for Gaffy and Agrias.  I decide to fast forward and see what happens anyway.

Agrias Raises the non-undead dead unit, with zero and a lot of CT on her counter, just before a Charge hits and kills her.
Ramza gets undead revival.

"Okay," I think, "that was fun but what can I actually do with them?"  I run up and manage to lock Petrify on both archers... at 37% and 41%.  Everyone else is still counting down and on zero.

Petrify hits.
Petrify hits again.

"Well, dang, that was lucky, but I'm still dead since that girl's about to crystallize and the time mage is still alive at critical in the corner..."

Undead revival, no crystal.  Saved for one turn before I have to risk it again on the last dead unit.  Walk over to time mage.  Check his HP.  19.  Staff beats deal 18 to neutral.  I prepare to cry, check the attack anyway, and find I have good compat with him and deal 20something.  Hit.  Win.

Battle over, no resets, via the expenditure of all the luck saved up from Zeakden.  That was crazy, I still needed EVERY BIT of that luck to win.

This battle is WAY WAY WAY too hard right now for where it is in the game, you're stuck there and can't do randoms or shop if you can't beat it.  It's mainly a byproduct of all the archer changes coming together in a terrifying way for the enemies.  Yeah, you have two swordskillers, but they can't save you from the archers.  In fact I think the two skillers will lose vs the two archers straight up if neither are distracted by other units, and the thieves with time mage support are no joke themselves.  (And god forbid the time mage haste an archer.  Or haste anyone, for that matter.)  

Yes, I'm doing a mage SCC with no revival and wet paper durability, but I can easily see an ill-equipped mixed party having the same issues here - if you aren't prepared to deal with the archers sniping the entire map from nigh unreachable positions you're screwed.  Additionally, the previous battle features Super rocking the crossbow Battle Skill, and if he (or the melee knights) broke any items, you can't replace them.  It's unacceptable to have a battle like this that's got you locked in on the map.  I'd strongly suggest changing at least one enemy archer to a crossbow, or using another unit entirely.  It's certainly cute to see some challenge here, and to see the archers snipe on this map, and I think leaving just one of them capable of it would be okay, buuut... honestly even that's dicey, I can't really approve of this fight from a design standpoint unless the swordskillers really are capable of taking the whole battle out by themselves.  

In summary death to FFT lockin battles.

Araguay Woods
Resets: Zero

Saved Boco.  This is a joke with Oracles, or really any ranged unit.  The highlight was a confused Black Goblin running up to a Gabbledegak and Stop Breathing it.  

Zirekile Falls
Resets: Zero, barely.

Also not hard, although I was stupid and moved Ramza forward early and got him killed.  Thankfully Delita was nice and Wished him back up.  Naked Chemist Gaffy (he spent all his chemist JP on High Ether, Echo Grass and Eye Drop, didn't even know Potion) was OHKO'd on the first move by Delita's Lightning Stab, which also hit and inflicted Undead on a knight.  The second action of the battle was Agrias using Stasis Sword on the same knight... and hitting Stop on him.  Poor guy.  Anyway, everyone went down into the water, laughed at the knights clustering on the bridge and petrified them in due time.  One enemy knew Local Quake and confused someone but nothing bad came of it.  

That's all for tonight.  FINALLY sticks are here, it freaking took long enough.  Apparently there's Oracle rebalancing coming, I was going to wait to talk about that until a bit later on but Laggy pestered.  I'm not a fan of status spells that aren't fatal having such high costs and low hit rates (nonfatal status is never worth an action below around 75% hit rate), and Mediators duplicated and outshined a lot of their skillset and generally directly outclassed them prior to whatever changes Laggy just made.  We'll see how that works out.  

By the way, this hack is awesome.

[metroid composite]

Apparently there's Oracle rebalancing coming

Yeah, I wouldn't have kneejerked it, but I also haven't played with recent Mediator updates, so I can't really say how they measure up.

Changes are as follows:
Status Q values increased by 10 to 20 across the board, and more often 20.  This is about a 4%-9% increase in status odds.
Blind Rage changed to a charm move, 2v0, 7ctr, probably Petrify-level hit rate.

On the removal of Berserk--Laggy was trying to reduce the shared status between YYM and Talk Skill.  Laggy wanted to change Sleep which I fought against for several reasons.  First, I consider Sleep kinda iconic (top 3 power level from original FFT).  Secondly, there's a lot of Oracle strategies around it that don't really exist for Mediator, like put to sleep then hit with stick, put with sleep then try to Petrify, and Sleep followed by re-apply Sleep.  In vanilla FFT I've been in situations where I wanted to sleep my own teammates, and the spell could be twinked to reach 100%, whereas Mimic Daravon was stuck closer to 50%.  The Sleep spell in Oracle is more interesting than people give it credit for, I feel.

Berserk, on the other hand, usually existed as a Silence Song redundancy.  Yes, it's not the same as SS.  Yes, it affects a wider range of enemies.  But we never really buffed it to the point that people would consider it against non-optimal targets (i.e. non-mages).  Silence Song is also pretty iconic, and the only PC Silence ability.

Charm went in because it's basically the only other worthwhile status.  It needed something to differentiate it from Steal Heart, so it's 2v0.  However, at any normal hit-rate, multi-target Charm is a complete freak of nature.  Sharing Petrify's hit rate seems to work, though I wouldn't say no to even a bit lower than that if it starts causing problems.

[Grefter]

Late, but thematically at least I like Frog as a range 1 high accuracy option for BM, depending on how fast it is that makes it a defensive skill in an otherwise fairly defenseless skillset.  Sure sure you aren't supposed to ever have your mage with a dude all up in his face blah blah blah.  This though?  If it happens you have your BM Frog and run like a bitch (or whatever is most appropriate) and I am sure one of you guys will at some point use some kind of fucked up Monk/Black Magic hybrid that frogs shit and then punches it in the balls or something.

[metroid composite]

Oh yes, naming the charm Oracle move!

Names consistent with other FF games:
Charm
Charm Song

Names that sound cool
Mind Control
Possession
Siren Song

Bear in mind that it should work with the Blind Rage animation too--skip to about 3:20 in this Youtube video to see the animation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOp1nZxrico

(Interesting video overall, actually--didn't know most of these bugs).

[dude789]

Possesion fits the animation pretty well and mind control isn't bad either. I wouldn't go with Siren song though. It doesn't fit the animation and Siren Song usually causes silence in other FFs.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Get the best of both worlds and name it Possession Song!?

[VySaika]

Mind Control. And change the spell quote to be "My puppet threads weave a web of despair."

>_>

<_<

* Gatewalker flees.

[SageAcrin]

I still like Infatuation, for whatever it's worth.

Generally speaking, Oracle spellquotes are "Inflicted state" (Blind, Paralyze, Sleep) or "Inflict State" (Doubt Faith, Pray Faith, Confusion Song". Charm's both hard to make a non-ridiculous or redundant(Charm Song when there's two other Songs on the set) version of the inflict state version of that. Also, Steal Heart is the Inflict State kind of phrasing.

I know, I over think this, but I can see Infatuation on the list. Domination would also work for Inflict State. Possession fits the skillset and makes it easier to get an animation for(Since you can use all sorts of weird animations for *that*.), out of the suggestions I've seen, so I'd go with that.

And now more logishness stuff.

Olan Trade City:

No resets. By this stage I had abused Propositions to get a Calc everything but Non-Charge(There aren't enough propositions in the game to get Non-Charge I think.), Difference and CT. Actually had almost all the Calculated magic skills too, so I had a pretty decent sniper to replace my Dancer. Who...also was my old Dancer. Fitting.

Anyways, that made this easy, as this fight isn't really that threatening for killing a normal team but can kill Olan pretty easily now. Height Cure 2 and Protect kept him alive(and the Thieves beating on him half the time, but c'est la vie.). The rest was fairly simple, though pretty long.

ZALMO PLOT:

One "reset" when the game crashed right after I beat the fight and I was forced to use a mid-battle savestate I made just in case ePSXe crashed.

I don't think ePSXe likes my external. It hadn't happened at an important time before that but I'm not stupid enough to wait for that before I start paranoidly oversaving and making saves I don't plan on using for any reason but crashes.

Anyways, the initial Geos massacred Alma despite Laggy's best attempts, but that's not a big deal. Initial area is buff city for a Calc as it's all Height 5 and nothing else on the field is. From there it was pretty simple, keep my defenses up and roll over the enemies very slowly. Very, very slowly. Damnit Zalmo stop reviving people.

Hilariously he missed Raise 2 twice. Once on the first try and then again when I was forced to reload due to the crash. Ha-ha. Oh, and Grefter got charmed at one point by an axe to the face. You want a "OH FUCK RUN" moment, that's about it. >_>

Book Depository Basement 2:

Easiest fight so far? Well, Gariland was easier. I was kinda surprised by this, but I think the enemies got a bad draw of skills...then, well, add in Leviathan, shake well, suddenly the main offense(The three dumb Lancers that charged into Summoner range to Throw Stones) were all dead. Oops. From there it was mostly "Hunt down TMs and Chemist and kill them.". Not the most threatening fight so far. By this stage I'm using Agrias half the time, even, so it's not necessarily my levels of twinking; The enemies just aren't as good in the last few fights. Strange.

Book Depository Basement 3:

Hey look it's Izlude! Okay this fight had the potential to be scary, but this was definitely my team makeup that made it not; Basically the horribly winding, spread out area combined with a revival heavy party means that the enemy has issues to start with, then I Calc sniped the enemies. Fun combo. Lots of deaths/near death situations throughout, but nothing I couldn't handle because usually the enemies couldn't reach my revivers from where they were. Not really much to say in-depth.

Incidentally, around this point I'd like to mention that Angel Song rocks as MP healing. It's came up a few times throughout(And probably won't anymore, I'm mostly dropping Song/Dance as they're feeling notably slower now. They're not bad, but I've mastered the jobs so. <_< Yeah I'm less efficient and more "I want my JP to do something.".), but watching it fullheal my Summoner's MP in a round and a half at this stage is pretty impressive.

Book Depository Basement 1:

I...had to do this over but it wasn't a reset. I forget what it was. Dumbly reloading after doing something, only to realize I hadn't saved after it or something? Crash? I forget.

Regardless it was similar both times: Ramza Holy nukes Wiegraf and everything goes downhill for him from there. Well actually it's more everyone beating on Wiegraf and then Holy nukes him down. But, details. It's substantially better, as a fight, than usual because Wiegraf's better at taking hits; Now it's much easier to get in there and go "Okay fuck do I have enough firepower to off him?". But, it's still the same fight at the heart of it.

[Tonfa]

Dominion. Fitting thematically, sounds cool, also a pseudo-reference to THE Emperor. >_>

Anyway, regarding the Slow Dance debate - remember that Dance animations border on outrageously long especially if there are many enemies or mimes, so I'd be against lower CT from a playability standpoint.

[Talaysen]

Personally not a fan of "Possession" or "Mind Control".

EDIT: I like Sage's "Infatuation" name best out of all those mentioned.

---

Uploaded videos of my current playthrough.  I think Laggy wants me to post them here or something.  I will note that I have been purposely avoiding randoms, so I'm pretty underlevelled.

Orbonne:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe6HBmCuo7I

Garliand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rHov1H-KE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfVyMLkF7As

Mandalia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwOKSunIOs8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx9YZqCrtvk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Ar68Q8EVc
I recruited new generics before this fight.

Sweegy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Ar68Q8EVc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICXe7jizgzE
I approve of the new bomb changes!  This was still a pretty easy fight anyway.

Dorter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8uVBQS_ePk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0z-dcbVbFc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3teSyL6Rrs
The highlight of this fight was being able to knock my Time Mage out of the way of a fatal Charge +2 with Throw Stone in part 3.  JUST AS PLANNED.

Sand Rat Cellar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBIc-k6-d9g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aswhG7USVCU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XWoM3dUQ68
Had a reset here.  Then abused POIZN.

Thieves Fort (Miluda 1):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rcPNUfcb84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wN_iDyVbwzc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjgLNFFihhE
Charmed thief steals Miluda's helmet on a 23% chance in part 2.  JUST AS PLANNED

Lenalia (Miluda 2):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlGdyXgCRXg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16E1LQkwfiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YofEXrotqo

Windmill Shed (Wiegraf):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXjVoxqbFqI
I had like four resets here because they have way too much offense.  My response?  Blitz the hell out of Wiegraf.  With POIZN.  I end up winning with just Delita alive due to POIZN.  Yay!

Zeakden (Algus):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPkX9YIVGHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6iw93nhNwE
Had a lot of resets on this one too.  Ended up going for blitzing Algus and somehow pulled through.

Dorter 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNK_0sngLEg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onGAKZcntLg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7QLIgQHw1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLsNdc-kKxk
That goddamn archer gets in the top corner and then the second one dies right next to it stopping me from being able to get into melee range.  So I have to wait for about 18 minutes while the corpse turns into a treasure chest and then get in there to kill the archer.  Argh.

[Random Consonant]

Yugi-Oh Woods

One of the undead wizards does nothing but cast POIZN.  Musty gets to use Seal Evil twice, the rest are mocked with healing.

Riovanes Gate

More generic wizard electrocuting shit.  Also nobody got frogged, sadly.

Ramza vs. Wiegraf, Round 3!

Ramza is a Summoner with Defend Up and Move-HP Up.  Wiegraf can't 3HKO and goes down in three summons.

Ramza vs. a hideous goat demon

Velius's demonic support is handled in relatively short order and doesn't get a chance to be much of a threat.  Velius himself gets a Cyclops off but is quickly hit with Silence Song and cannot do anything worthwhile as everyone has N-Kai Armlets equipped.  This gives me enough time to get shit together for fun.  Said fun involves casting Pray Faith on the Wizard for Flare nukings.  To the tune of 655 damage.  Man, FFT magic is fun.

EPIC RAFA STUPIDITY

Plan was for Ramza (now a Thief) and Ninja to gang up on whichever slut was closest and knife her to death.  Unfortunately, Ramza missed both times.  However, the assassins decide to use Stop Breath on the two instead of going to murderize Rafa, and I am saved from pain and frustration by Equip Axe Split Punch.

[OblivionKnight]

I think Charm should be renamed "Sexual Harrassment" 

You can have a quote from a sex offender there.  I think it would work. 

"Now...take off your pants for me!"

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I see OK is volunteering for that LFT Alma SSCC.