The New FFIV

Rydia: Since Rydia will heavily rely on Summoning, her best Black magic spell is Quake.
Palom: Flare
Porom: Holy
Rosa: Curaja (Full Cure)
Tellah: Meteor
FuSoYa: Ultima
Golbez: Quake
Cecil: Cura

So... Golbez is basically a non-summoning version of Rydia?

While Ultima and Meteor may have different animations, Ultima is functionally a better version of Meteor as-is. What changes are you making to the spells to make Tellah not get completely obsoleted by FuSoYa?

Also, are you making Cura a unique spell? While I can understand wanting to give Cecil something unique... it seems weird to make the other White Magic users skip a whole tier of healing just for him. His niche isn't healing, it's being a Defense-[sexist comment] who just so happens to work as a backup healer in a pinch. It won't be infringing on his territory to let the others have Cura, too.

Sidenote: While I generally approve of the idea that all of the characters should have a unique niche... if the only way that happens is in their Ultimate spells, that means that they go through the whole game as clones of eachother until the very last dungeons... Not the best design plan, though at least I can see what you're getting at.

I think you edited my post Djinn. o_O

While Ultima and Meteor may have different animations, Ultima is functionally a better version of Meteor as-is. What changes are you making to the spells to make Tellah not get completely obsoleted by FuSoYa?

Instead of one black mage being better than the other, this hack is being set up for party preferences. If you wish to run with four casters such as Tellah, FuSoYa, Rydia and Palom, you can. That's how I have the magic system set up in this hack. I want people to choose their characters based on a unique party set up, or just because they like one character over the next.

So... Golbez is basically a non-summoning version of Rydia?

Golbez is the physical damage type whereas Rydia is the Magic. They both have the same skill of Black magic, but Golbez is more of a tanky red mage whereas Rydia will be relying on her summons. I should note that Asura in this hack will not have any healing properties like she does in my other hacks, but instead just give the party Life 3. I found that to be over powered and would ultimately negate the use of Rosa, or any healer altogether. There will not be a Life 3 spell in this hack, just Asura.

Also, are you making Cura a unique spell? While I can understand wanting to give Cecil something unique... it seems weird to make the other White Magic users skip a whole tier of healing just for him. His niche isn't healing, it's being a Defense-[sexist comment] who just so happens to work as a backup healer in a pinch. It won't be infringing on his territory to let the others have Cura, too.

Since Cecil can technically use magic, I thought I'd state his strongest spell.
Cecil has the basic White Magic, it's his best spell and he shouldn't be relied on for healing. :p

Sidenote: While I generally approve of the idea that all of the characters should have a unique niche... if the only way that happens is in their Ultimate spells, that means that they go through the whole game as clones of eachother until the very last dungeons... Not the best design plan, though at least I can see what you're getting at.

This is true, and untrue at the same time. It's true that some of the characters may be clones of one another; however, you won't be able to have these characters in the same party until the end of the game which eliminates the feel of one character being a clone. ie, you won't get FuSoYa until a later part of the game whereas Tellah will be present towards the beginning.
As I said above, I would like to give the player some opportunity for strategic party development.

I think you edited my post Djinn. o_O

While Ultima and Meteor may have different animations, Ultima is functionally a better version of Meteor as-is. What changes are you making to the spells to make Tellah not get completely obsoleted by FuSoYa?

Instead of one black mage being better than the other, this hack is being set up for party preferences. If you wish to run with four casters such as Tellah, FuSoYa, Rydia and Palom, you can. That's how I have the magic system set up in this hack. I want people to choose their characters based on a unique party set up, or just because they like one character over the next.

I don't think I edited your post?

Anyway, it's fine if you want to make Ultima and Meteor the same spell, I guess. I'm assuming that means you're lowering Ultima's spell power to the same as Meteor's? You might consider making them mildly different... like maybe make Meteor a reflectable spell while Ultima ignores reflect? And I'm assuming that Flare is higher-spell-power, but forced Single-target non-elemental Ign.Def damage?

Ultima is a little stronger than Meteor and Ultima is classified as an Earth spell, Meteor being Fire.

Oh, well, adding elements to those spells would certainly give them some diversity. Though Earth is a terrible element in FF6. Considering the number of ways to completely null it... I must admit it seems an odd choice for Ultima. Fire for Meteor is fine, but I'm curious why you decided on Earth for Ultima?

Sorry if this is derailing the current discussion, but I thought I'd mention that I'm working on some FF6-style sprites for FF4 characters. I just put the completed ones in the Spriters Exchange, and I intend to do more, including NPCs. Let me know what you think.

I saw them, however, I've got all my sprites finished. ^_^;

Any more news on this? I was looking forward to playing this once it was complete... :/

Picking this back up now. I've begun adding in all the equipment, still need a tiny bit of help with those custom battle commands if anyone is wanting to give it a go.

I have an interesting, yet TERRIBLE, work-around idea for your Twin Magic command.

You could simulate lost MP cost by adding a short reaction command to ALL monsters in the game.

Something like, "If Spell [Comet] used, target Character ID [Porom,Palom], use [Osmose]"

And then make an Osmose spell with no animation that will always hit Palom and Porom.

You could make more interesting scripts for monsters too, so that all monsters react differently to Twin spells. And make -that- their gimmick, since I'm pretty stumped as to how to make Twin magic work as an actual dual-tech that requires both of them to even be in the same party. (Apart from making Twin magic depend on monster AI as well. Such as, making Porom/Palom's command effectively do nothing, but once cast, it would activate a line of AI code for each monster that says "If [CometA] cast, and If PCIDs [Palom,Porom] are both present, then Cast [CometB] on Monster party")

Weird, and it uses a lot of AI code space, but certainly doable!

And you wouldn't have to/want to write it on EVERY enemy, just on enemies that will be in formations by themselves. If you have two enemies with the same AI in battle, then it would likely result in the command getting doubled (though that might be AWESOME and worth the MP cost).

Hmm... actually, this might make for an interesting way to do dual-techs, Chrono Trigger style.