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Well, it's rather painfully obvious that a lot of FFVI fans aren't quite satisfied with the way SwdTech works. How would you, as an experienced FFVI player, propose it be redesigned?

Also, if people want to comment on the programming changes needed to redesign it in whatever particular way, please feel free to do so.

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My idea is as follows: Instead of making the player wait through the 'charging' as the SwdTech bar goes up, have the player select a command at the beginning of the 'charging'.

An in-game 'charge timer' should start once the player selects the SwdTech command, and then the player chooses the attack immediately. Once the attack is selected, the game automatically waits the amount of 'charging' time necessary to do that SwdTech (Pause should of course freeze time), and when the time delay has sufficed, Cyan then performs the move.

There are two added benefits here:
1. While Cyan is 'charging', the player can still input commands for the other characters.
2. Instead of having a 'SwdTech bar' like the following:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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...the player would see a list:

Dispatch........Empowerer
Retort...........Stunner
Slash.............Quadra Slice
Quadra Slam...Cleave

Edit

Imagine that the dots are simply spaces, and that you see two columns of text, because the board will compress multiple spaces into one.

The player can now see the names of the various SwdTechs, and can simply pick a name. Numbers, bars, and waiting all become unnecessary when choosing a SwdTech (although waiting still would occur before the skill is performed).

An interesting problem came up the first time I used SwdTech: When I saw a bar with numbers on top, I immediately thought that that meant I had to charge, and the higher the number, the better the attack. So I picked 3 (Cyan starts with the first three SwdTechs) over and over again, and couldn't quite understand why it was exponentially decreasing damage each turn. (I also couldn't understand why it didn't go up to 8.) If such a SwdTech menu existed (as I propose it), suddenly, such a situation would be much less likely to occur, since I'd probably be more so experimenting around with the various skills than continually using one that seemed to go sour on me.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 28th April 2005 18:26

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

That's probably the way I'd prefer it, as well. If someone came up with a patch to make a change like this, I would definately use Cyan a lot more than I do now.

Hey, Cyan is my fav character, but battle-wise, he was not too useful. Now hes gonna be the coolest AND a frickin powerhouse! That rocks!

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"A swordsman passed through here recently. He was amazing! But his heart was full of chaos. If he can learn to cope with his pain, he'll be the mightyest warrior alive!"
-some guy in maranda.

It makes perfect sense to have it that way instead. However, if anyone takes this idea and uses it they should play test it to see the results. Should this change make Cyan overpowered some tinkering would have to be done.

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This is my world: (Got my second chapter up, 3rd Chapter about 80% complete)
http://www3.sympatico.ca/daniel876/homepage.html

Haha, as far as i know, ill be completely forgetting that i gave him a command so ill probably end up decimating the whole enemy group with quadra slam and im gonna go: hey WTF?..ah yeah, i told him to do that.

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"A swordsman passed through here recently. He was amazing! But his heart was full of chaos. If he can learn to cope with his pain, he'll be the mightyest warrior alive!"
-some guy in maranda.

I say he can use sword tech at anytime but you have to have the sword equiped (i.e. like kotesu = dispatch) this way you hes not overpowered but you it gives him some what of a unique flavor

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procastinate now, dont put it off

Quote (Blythe @ 29th April 2005 14:36)

I say he can use sword tech at anytime but you have to have the sword equiped (i.e. like kotesu = dispatch) this way you hes not overpowered but you it gives him some what of a unique flavor

I think Blythe has something here.

Although, I would tinker with it slightly. Make it somewhat like say Illumina that teachers Ultima at a rate of 1. Kotetsu teaches Cyan Dispatch at a rate of say 2. That way you take a system already embedded within the system and make a slight alteration to it. Then, take the original suggestion by Glenn Magus Harvey and you have a balanced character.

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This is my world: (Got my second chapter up, 3rd Chapter about 80% complete)
http://www3.sympatico.ca/daniel876/homepage.html

Having him use techs based on what sword he has limits him more so than the wait time, I think, unless you have a favorite move and only use that one. It also eliminates a lot of wha makes him unique, especially since the other characters' special skills are not limited like that.
Unless, of course, simply having that sword in your inventory is suffiecient requisite for performing the tech. Then, it would be like he simply quick-changes the blade and attacks.

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M777: lightweight 155mm howitzer
3/11 rules over all artillery!

Giving him the ability to use a particular SwdTech only when equipped with a particular sword would simply be more like altering the attack power and properties of the SwdTech or sword itself. Hence, that's not that great of an idea, in my opinion.

On the other hand, Racthoh's idea is a possibility, making SwdTech a kind of merge of the magic-learning system and the unique-skill system within the game.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

That idea is good but, instead of having a certain blade for a certain tech, a certain blade excecutes a certain tech much better than other blades

as an example: Kotesu teaches Dispatch, and once you have learned dispatch, Kotesu deals double Dispatch damage and piercing then other swords do with dispatch like...
Kotesu does 500 Dispatch(plus piercing) damage while all other swords does 250 damage (without piercing)
get my idea?
So, Sky Render will do cleave much better than other swords, and 'extra' swords might power up all sword techs or power up certain techs differently than others

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Its not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality i accept. ~Calvin and Hobbes

Yah, i dont post much if you havent noticed. I'm not used to large fourms so i usally lurk and post every now and then..

Quote (Racthoh @ 29th April 2005 13:48)

It makes perfect sense to have it that way instead. However, if anyone takes this idea and uses it they should play test it to see the results. Should this change make Cyan overpowered some tinkering would have to be done.

So long as Cyan learns the techs over the same length of time as he would in the normal game, I do not see how this system would overpower him, especially when he still has to compete with characters like Sabin, who has better stats and an equally powerful skillset with virtually no wait time to begin with.

If it is indeed possible to edit the game so as to give Cyan a list like this, I'd be very interested in playing around with the final result.

I'd love to play through a game with a redesigned SwdTech. Cyan's skill is one of the reasons I never use him (though sometimes when I play through I'll throw him in for fun), and this could be intresting to play through.

I'd like it if whichever swordtech he used was just random. Like, you just had the Swordtech command, and the game just did one. Or if you could pick a standard one to use, like equipping it. I know I only used the Quadra slam/dice ones, so that'd be helpful!

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You're telling me that there's no hope.

I'm telling you you're wrong.

Quote (RelmArrowney)

Or if you could pick a standard one to use, like equipping it. I know I only used the Quadra slam/dice ones, so that'd be helpful!

Thing is, though, there isn't enough effect difference between the SwdTechs (other than damage and/or number of hits) to warrant this. For example, if you did that with Sabin's Blitzes, that would force the player to choose between, say, an air-elemental special attack (Air Blade) that hits all enemies and a non-elemental special attack (Bum Rush) that hits one enemy at random. However, moves like Quadra Slam and Quadra Slice are too similar; once getting Quadra Slice, no one would pick Quadra Slam again because it's just a less powerful version of the exact same thing.

And picking Cleave every time would also be pretty cheap.

There's also the possibility, though, that you can take the mechanism you proposed, then also have the wait-time mechanism that forces Cyan to 'charge' (read: wait) before he can do SwdTechs. That actually could be another good idea, although more restrictive than the idea I stated at the beginning.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Here's another idea: the more Cyan uses a tech, the faster the meter fills. You could tweak it further and make it fill faster for that particular move (example: you use #4 a lot, and the meter fills fast up to #4, then its speed returns to normal). This rewards patience.

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M777: lightweight 155mm howitzer
3/11 rules over all artillery!

interesting idea there, bahamut although what if you use cleave every time?

oh and did u like my idea?

This post has been edited by Retribution on 2nd May 2005 01:34

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Its not denial. I'm just very selective about the reality i accept. ~Calvin and Hobbes

Yah, i dont post much if you havent noticed. I'm not used to large fourms so i usally lurk and post every now and then..

Well, the time you save not having to wait for the tech meter to fill is made up by all the time you spent in previous battles letting it fill. The balance might be a bit tricky, but it's certainly feasable.

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M777: lightweight 155mm howitzer
3/11 rules over all artillery!