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Well, personally I'm not sure if the game refers to the battle system as "ATB", but there's something I've never really understood about it. Now, if you leave the game idol, the monsters attack REALLY quickly. Are they affected by the ATB, or is it just because the computer knows exactly what it's going to do?

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Oh noes! Teh MSN Space!

Talking very generally, I'm quite sure the computer ramdomly chooses an order in a fraction of a second, the same is for the target that the computer decides, it just choosed ramdomly.

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"Its no cheating if you don't get caught"

Ah... yeah that does make sense... Must be within reason though, for example, a conjurer of the Land of Summons Cave will cast warp while within charm, but it'll never do so otherwise. I never did understand it though, strangely. It seems rather trivial. I must be getting slowd doun

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Oh noes! Teh MSN Space!

Quote (Moglv99 @ 12th June 2005 09:17)

Talking very generally, I'm quite sure the computer ramdomly chooses an order in a fraction of a second, the same is for the target that the computer decides, it just choosed ramdomly.

Well, the whole purpose of the ATB is to have a "progress bar" filling up to show when a character'll be ready. If they were picked at random, it wouldn't be as real-time. One character could end up being picked twice despite being very slow, or once every turn despite a blazing high speed stat.

Though the initial value of the bars is generally decided in a semi-random manner influenced by speed.

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"Judge not a man by his thoughts and words, but by
the quality and quantity of liquor in his possession
and the likelyhood of him sharing."

Yeah, it's just like the previous FFs (or X) in the fact that the enemies all choose their actions pretty much instantly, so even though it's ATB, the enemy will attack much faster than you, since it attacks immediately after its meter fills.

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The island bathes in the sun's bright rays
Distant hills wear a shroud of grey
A lonely breeze whispers in the trees
Sole witness to history

ICO-You were there-

Just hold down your confirm button while it's cycling through your Warriors (fighters, whatever) and you'll have a better chance at overlapping the computer's commands, even if by milliseconds. When you think you have to undergo a more intricate navigation through the menus, try slowing the game to -NormaL- speed (if you're playing the rom) to get these commands selected and executed as soon as possible. It helps to set your On/Off for 'turbo' or whatever button close to your left hand so you can make the speed switch more efficiently, since you're not using that hand much in battle.

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He always blamed it on me...

FFIV is the most troubling game I've ever played. Probably because of the battles!
Either way, i think using "Jump" and "Steal" during battles is less harm than good because of Steal's fallability and Jump's time consumption.

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

I'm telling you you're wrong.

In active time battling (ATB), each fighter in a battle (be it one of your characters or one of your enemies) has a 'time bar' that fills up after he/she/it does an action. Differences in characters' speed statistics affect how fast the time bar fills (in some games, it may also or alternatively affect how long the bar is). Once a bar fills, the character/monster is able to take a turn.

Thing is, though, when bars fill for your enemies, the computer immediately inputs a command. Then it waits to perform the command, in the order all commands were input (e.g. after you ordered Rosa to cast Holy, the Treant enemy ordered the Cure spell, so after Rosa casts Holy, the Treant immediately casts Cure--as long as it isn't KOed, of course).

However, when you get a turn, your character's sprite starts flashing, and you are asked to input a command through the familiar menu system. Of course, it takes longer to input a command--unless you're choosing 'Fight', of course. Now if you sit there and do nothing, your enemies will continuously input commands (at the rate at which their ATB time bars fill up), but you'll have no commands in the so-to-speak "master command list".

Yeah, that's why they're so much faster.

By the way, with magic, your characters will not only have the wait time until it's their "command turn", but also will have a "casting time". This amount of time seems negligible, though, except for Rydia (and probably the black mage twin) casting Meteo. This effect is not observed on monsters, though.

For reference, I am basing this information on FF2us.

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