FF6 - Brave New World

I hadn't considered that approach... Okay, I take back what I said about Mog not having good damage options then. I looked at dragooning and went "No Vigor, no way", but spell jumps sound absolutely wonderful. I'm just imagining Mog dropping from the ceiling while cursing the enemy before smashing them in the skull with a staffrod, and it is just adorable.

Mog's base vigor isn't much lower than Edgar's, and he gets the ability to train exclusively with Palidor if you hold off on using him.

That said, I personally feel like Palidor is an awkward choice for him. You'd have to dump a lot of levels into it for the effect to be appreciable, and the only other way it would help out would be by making him a faster dancer. I suppose raising his speed would be a more attractive option if we also made it a factor in the success rate of initiating a non-native dance, which is just an idea I'm tossing out.

[quote='Lockirby2' pid='18992' dateline='1377716311']
To be honest, I feel that if Sabin needs a nerf to avoid running away with the game, part of me feels like Terra might need a nerf moreso.

Personally, I agree with you that Terra is probably the best character in the game. If everyone else did, I'd probably consider nerfing her. But you're the only one so far, so I think we're good.

Terra's main drawback is that she's not as useful in random encounters as she is in boss battles due to a lack of a reliable fuel source. I tend to spam her status magic in most battle since she her other options are casting expensive spells or attacking; the latter is an attractive option if you've gone with the Apocalypse (I typically do), but that power comes at the expense of a great weapon for Celes.

The main problem with Sabin is that a pure stamina build makes him practically immortal if you stick a Life Bell on him. This is less a problem with Sabin, though, as it is with how stamina is currently handled overall; Setzer could probably be used in the same manner if you spammed stamina level ups on him, but the "Immortal Sabin" build is popular because stamina is a very attractive stat on him since he can also use it to attack and spam Mantra/Chakra.

I've actually found that pretty much everyone that has left commentary on the subject has made mention of just how absurdly powerful Terra is. I'd be on board with issuing her a nerf as well.

I've actually found that pretty much everyone that has left commentary on the subject has made mention of just how absurdly powerful Terra is. I'd be on board with issuing her a nerf as well.

You have anything in mind? The basic idea with her is that she's got slightly better spells than Celes (Life 2, RegenX, and Ultima if you want to count it) but poorer stats: Celes gets a +2 Magic boost (albeit late in the game) where Terra does not; she also has more HP, vigor, speed, and stamina.

The stats issue *is* offset by morph, but morph rarely lasts more than a few turns at best, so I feel like we can't really count it.

I got around to downloading this last week and just finished up a play through, great hack guys! Definitely a fan of switching around parties and experimenting out new combos (instead of the classic Sabin/Edgar/Locke/Terra for the whole game), and all of the characters felt like they had something to bring to the table. Of course, I barely used Terra this time, so I haven't seen everything she's capable of.

I've got a couple questions though: first, what's up with the treasure map? I assumed the "old man" was the guy who painted it, but he didn't say anything new. I flew around everywhere and still couldn't find anyone who explained it.
Second, would I be able to get the password to the Unlockme? I've been really curious about what's in there.

Taking Phoenix away from her might not be a bad idea - She loses out on Life 2, Cure 3, and any esper MP boosts until Ragnarok, which would help hammer in her role as a powerful anti-boss character that has limited use during random encounters. Does end up making yet another summon relegated to a single character, though.

Another option might be to just take away RegenX from her. With how powerful Stamina is/was, along with a lot of bosses having Purge or seizure-inducing attacks in general, I had a tendency to use RegenX as my catch-all "Heal up the team" spell; the MP cost was a notable hurdle if I didn't at least have Cure 2/3 as an alternative, but in general having RegenX was a higher priority for the team than Cure.

Just my two cents >.>

EDIT:

I've got a couple questions though: first, what's up with the treasure map? I assumed the "old man" was the guy who painted it, but he didn't say anything new. I flew around everywhere and still couldn't find anyone who explained it.
Second, would I be able to get the password to the Unlockme? I've been really curious about what's in there.

Make sure you're trying to view all the cutscenes from the original game; in particular, there's one involving Gau that you seem to have missed, as it also explains the treasure map too.

Also, I'm still waiting on the Unlockme password as well ;[

With the Soul Sabre, Terra filling up the tank in a random encounter is no issue. When she's out of MP, you can just knock an encounter to one enemy, figure out a debilitating status to cast on it, fill up, and then have her decimate the next four or five battles by herself again. It doesn't work as well with dungeons filled with undead, but there's usually something to sponge off of.

I also feel Morph should be counted, since it usually lasts for about half to three quarters of a boss fight if you play your cards right with the menu. To give an example, in my first playthrough, when fighting the Ice Dragon, Terra probably did 100K by herself while the rest of the party chipped in nuts and bolts. I got that number by counting her damage, and I don't know how much HP he has total, but you get my drift (is that stuff in the Unlock Me?). Of course, she did have an elemental weakness to exploit, but at the same time, she often does.

As for ideas to improve this, maybe you would consider giving her Cyan's old place in the lowest speed tier? That would help a little bit, though it wouldn't solve everything.

I suppose the thing with Sabin's Life Bell would be more prominent for me if I was at a higher level (in my regular playthrough, I'm not talking about the LLG), because he'd have more HP to tank (and it's his primary tanking method) and gain health from Regen even faster. I noticed just about everybody else being closer to invincible regening just 50, whereas Sabin would still be in trouble regening 100 thanks to his poor armor. I actually found Strago of all people to be virtually unkillable with his high Magic Defense, Refract and regening over 100 per go (Terra was in the same boat, though, because I also gave her Mag/Stamina boosts the entire game). I do agree that Stamina needs a smaller role in that, even though it would make Stamina less useful.

I also second Julford's comment. When she's so good at attacking, she shouldn't be such a great healer at the same time IMO.

I've got a couple questions though: first, what's up with the treasure map? I assumed the "old man" was the guy who painted it, but he didn't say anything new. I flew around everywhere and still couldn't find anyone who explained it.

The "treasure map" is just the old "Emperor's Letter" key item that I tried to have actually follow some sort of logical path. We haven't changed anything related to the quest or its triggers; if you can't figure out what to do with it, it's probably because you got Locke before talking to the old man.

Second, would I be able to get the password to the Unlockme? I've been really curious about what's in there.

I sent you a PM.

Taking Phoenix away from her might not be a bad idea - She loses out on Life 2, Cure 3, and any esper MP boosts until Ragnarok, which would help hammer in her role as a powerful anti-boss character that has limited use during random encounters. Does end up making yet another summon relegated to a single character, though.

Yeah, that's not very easily doable >.>

The character/esper structure in the mod is a very delicate house of cards, and moving or taking away just one of them sort of causes the whole thing to collapse.

Another option might be to just take away RegenX from her. With how powerful Stamina is/was, along with a lot of bosses having Purge or seizure-inducing attacks in general, I had a tendency to use RegenX as my catch-all "Heal up the team" spell; the MP cost was a notable hurdle if I didn't at least have Cure 2/3 as an alternative, but in general having RegenX was a higher priority for the team than Cure.

This one's actually doable if I deem the spell to be overpowered, but I think a better option would probably be to lower her base stamina to limit the spell's effectiveness.

(If, again, we consider her to be OP. I think she's the best character, but not overwhelmingly so.)

Also, I'm still waiting on the Unlockme password as well ;[

Sorry 'bout that... >.>

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I also feel Morph should be counted, since it usually lasts for about half to three quarters of a boss fight if you play your cards right with the menu. To give an example, in my first playthrough, when fighting the Ice Dragon, Terra probably did 100K by herself while the rest of the party chipped in nuts and bolts. I got that number by counting her damage, and I don't know how much HP he has total, but you get my drift (is that stuff in the Unlock Me?). Of course, she did have an elemental weakness to exploit, but at the same time, she often does.

In the interest of fairness, I wouldn't say that the average player (or even most veterans) are as good at manipulating the menu to screw with the battle timers as you are. The average player is going to see *far* less effectiveness out of morph than you.

Comparing her to Celes (because I assume that's who we're stacking her up against), it's important to note a few things. First, Celes gets Ice 3 and Bolt 3, and is thus able to hit the same elemental weaknesses that Terra can. She'll do less damage, but that's largely because players tend to build Celes for vigor and Terra for magic. Celes is capable of far outstripping Terra in magic damage if you choose to build her that way, particularly given that she gets a +2 Magic boost that one could access as early as they know where to find it.

(Again, I'm not counting Morph here; if we count it in a Terra/Celes comparison, then we also have to factor in how useful Runic can be)

I also second Julford's comment. When she's so good at attacking, she shouldn't be such a great healer at the same time IMO.

Well, I sort of designed her to be one of the game's four primary healers (Locke, Setzer, and Relm are the other three). she's meant to function as a Red Mage/Sage-type character, with good white *and* black magic, but less on the physical offense unless you sacrifice magic boosts to build her that way.

Like I said above, her main disadvantage compared to Celes is that Celes has much better stats (and stat growth opportunities) than she does.

First, Celes gets Ice 3 and Bolt 3, and is thus able to hit the same elemental weaknesses that Terra can. She'll do less damage, but that's largely because players tend to build Celes for vigor and Terra for magic.

Lol, I didn't really consider Bolt 3 because I pretty much learned it walking the last stretch to Kefka, and thought "Wow, that would have really helped going through a dungeon filled with Ahriman and machines, like the one I just went through." XD. With only one of the three main elements, I considered her to be lacking slightly in elemental properties, although she did have Holy to make up for it.

I actually went half and half with Celes, and found her to be somewhat weaker than Terra, even though stat-wise, Celes had a small leg up. Although if I had given Celes more magic power from the get-go, that probably wouldn't have been the case as much, but Celes is also missing good endgame healing abilities.

Well, I sort of designed her to be one of the game's four primary healers (Locke, Setzer, and Relm are the other three). she's meant to function as a Red Mage/Sage-type character, with good white *and* black magic, but less on the physical offense unless you sacrifice magic boosts to build her that way.

Now that I think about it more, I can see how taking away the healing would be a mistake...although the speed reduction could still possibly be welcome, and play off her lower stats compared to Celes as well. Still, it's not as though Terra unbalances the game to a high degree, since the hack's really well-balanced to begin with. I just feel that she unbalanced it more than Sabin did (and I'd probably say the same for Celes, not that I'm saying she needs a nerf now too)

Lol, I didn't really consider Bolt 3 because I pretty much learned it walking the last stretch to Kefka, and thought "Wow, that would have really helped going through a dungeon filled with Ahriman and machines, like the one I just went through." XD. With only one of the three main elements, I considered her to be lacking slightly in elemental properties, although she did have Holy to make up for it.

Your Celes seems rather underleveled. She learns Bolt 3 at level 30, and she should be one of the higher-leveled characters on your team since you're forced to use her a lot in the early WoR. Did you just dump her after getting Cyan and not rotate her back in?

Although if I had given Celes more magic power from the get-go, that probably wouldn't have been the case as much, but Celes is also missing good endgame healing abilities.

For the most part, I agree. I *have* heard back from players who have used her effectively as a healer in the endgame since she can toss cure 2 rather effectively and knows all of the basics (Life, Regen, Remedy), but I don't consider her to be a proper healer.

My personal endgame setup for her usually involves sticking her with Sabin and two characters with Flameguards and then just abusing the hell out of Merton. She ends up quite gimmicky this way and rather gimped if she's forced to do much else, but to be fair I also gave Terra the Apocalyse *and* the Gem box.

Now that I think about it more, I can see how taking away the healing would be a mistake...although the speed reduction could still possibly be welcome, and play off her lower stats compared to Celes as well. Still, it's not as though Terra unbalances the game to a high degree, since the hack's really well-balanced to begin with. I just feel that she unbalanced it more than Sabin did (and I'd probably say the same for Celes, not that I'm saying she needs a nerf now too)

The lowered speed might be a bit much, given that she's' already on the bottom tier with Cyan and Setzer (Strago is on the underground tier >.>)

I think a good starting place for adjusting Terra if it's deemed necessary is to lower her base stamina.

I always use the lowest levelled characters in my roster to keep them all at similar levels. It means that I ditched Celes for quite a while to get everybody else up to speed. I usually throw a couple sucky characters under the bus early in the WoR to avoid wasting my time training them when they won't be going to Kefka's Tower anyways. However, in BNW I honestly couldn't decide on a second character to leave out of Kefka's Tower until the moment I was actually going there. I also make an exception sometimes to bring a character that I know will be useful for a particular dungeon.

I thought of using that strat with Merton, but I learned it barely sooner than Bolt 3 anyways (I didn't take her to the Fanatics' Tower. I wanted to see if Cyan using physical attacks could be a useful way around some undetermined hindrance. Long story short, no, that was a horrible choice XD).

Lowered base Stamina would definitely make a nice difference too, especially if the Esper Stamina boosts are reduced so it has a larger impact.