Post by addition1 on Mar 18, 2016 9:29:18 GMT -5
Seeing one of the rules recommended in another challenge gave me the idea for a Final Fantasy Tactics challenge that I had kind of attempted myself. Tactics is one of those Final Fantasies that has many challenges already established so coming up with new ones is difficult, and sometimes not very entertaining or difficult in itself. Let's get into the rules and see if anyone can come up with something new and exciting!
SEO - Shop Equipment Only - Only items purchased in the shop may be used. No stealing enemy equipment or picking up human treasure chests for free equipment. Monster chests are allowed as they only give items. Poaching is allowed. Items are allowed to be removed from characters such as Meliadoul and Orlandu and then the character be expelled. Item Duplication in the shop is not allowed.
NCA - No Crystal Abilities - Picking up crystals from any human character, ally or enemy, with the intent to learn new abilities is forbidden. Crystals may be picked up only to be used for healing.
RJ - Random Job - Each character, including guests, are to be randomly assigned a job. Guests may be restricted to easier access jobs such as Archer to prevent unnecessary grinding in initial battles with them. (Though I suppose you could just Gameshark them into whatever job
) The characters to be used throughout the game must be chosen at the start of the new game, and all other characters, including generics, must be expelled immediately. The characters used must be in their assigned job prior to the battle at Dorter Trade City, if you choose to use generics. Otherwise, they are to be in their assigned job prior to the next immediate mandatory battle. Abilities learned in other jobs prior to joining, such as any Swordskills Orlandu may know, are allowed to be used. Any abilities learned while unlocking the required class, however, are prohibited. JP glitching certain jobs for characters such as Agrias is also prohibited. I.e. Even though she has Priest unlocked and can learn abilities to use in it, you may not JP glitch to have her learn Holy to use at will. JP glitching in the required class is allowed. If summoner is chosen, for example, you may glitch to learn Bahamut and use as you see fit.
Let's look at this thing together now! Shop equipment only is more to limit the strength of the characters moreso than to limit the options available. Many enemies such as Wiegraf and Miluda in chapter 1 have very strong equipment for the time and make the battles upcoming much easier. Being able to fight random Knights at Mandalia Plains in Chapter 2 with Light Robes and Crystal equipment further simplifies the game. While yes, you will have access to such gear sooner or later, the need for such equipment is minimal. Besides this is a challenge, right?
No Crystal Abilities is merely to prevent you from using abilities learned in other classes. This is essentially a single character class run, but more focused toward the Four Job Fiesta of FF5 fame (that's a lot of F's) to add some variety to this game. Crystals may be needed, or simply wanted, for healing at times, and restricting the use of them to force the player into wasting a turn healing seems a tad pointless. As I stated in the rules, abilities learned in another class upon joining are permissable, or abilities learned with JP that the character may already have upon joining, however abilities learned just for the sake of using in another class are not. It would defeat the purpose of having a character forced into being a Thief, but using Geomancy just because he can. Although, if you get stuck with a Thief I guess you will be quite rich by the end of the game with all of the stolen equipment and gil. Random Job is fairly straightfoward. Simply select a job from the 20 available (22 if you are playing the War of the Lions version) and select a character to go with it. If you have access to a Gameshark and happen to get stuck with a Dancer Ramza, then an Agrias Bard is also acceptable. While heavy grinding is not recommended, it is also not forbidden. Some jobs simply take time to access (looking at you Mime). We don't want to roflstomp Algus at Ft. Zeakden (wait... yes... we do... not the point, moving on!) You may not however grind for abilities unless the battle ahead of you is simply impassable. If Riovanes Roof is simply too difficult, for instance, then reloading an earlier save to learn one more ability is always an option. Using the JP glitch is also not recommended, but it is allowed simply to reduce the grinding. While you may have the ability to cast Meteor against Algus, you may not have the MP to do so, which is why it is allowed. Cutting off access to abilities serves no purpose other than to lengthen battles unnecessarily. You are going to master the classes assigned before Altima anyway. Some classes can't even get the glitch to work such as Geomancer or Calculator, so allowing the glitch or not really doesn't make a difference. As I said above, however, some characters come with some jobs unlocked and glitching for those is forbidden. Orlandu is supposed to be a Wizard, not a sword-swinging magician with Lightning Stab. That being said, Ramza is free to use Wish and Yell to his hearts' content as he either has the JP to learn them, or already has them unlocked. Same goes for Lavian and Alicia with Spin Fist in the Monk class. I don't really remember the start of Chapter 2 that well, so I am not certain if this is actually even true or relevant, but I will clarify just to be safe: Rad, Lavian, and Alicia are allowed to stay as a Squire and Knights, respectively, until after the inital Dorter fight. Once control of the world map is gained, however, if any of the three are chosen, they must be assigned to their respective class. Unless, of course, they are to stay in their initial class, in which case, SAVE THE CHOCOBO!
The challenge that I did that sort of played along with this was that I was to never purchase any items from the shop. My only equipment and usable items were to come from enemy humans and monster chests. I did make one exception though, and that was with Katana. I decided that if I were to steal a katana, I could purchase as many as I would like of the same kind in the future. This was to allow my Samurais to actually do something other than punch and slash the enemy. I will admit that it was a lot easier than I had envisioned, and as I progressed continually got easier and easier. The equipment you steal is always getting better and the enemies never really get any stronger, minus a few spikes here and there (Velius). Plus being able to change classes and use all the abilities just took the fun out of it and pretty soon I was at Limberry fighting Elmdor without 108 Gems just to have some sort of a challenge.
Hopefully this clears any questions up. If not, feel free to ask!
SEO - Shop Equipment Only - Only items purchased in the shop may be used. No stealing enemy equipment or picking up human treasure chests for free equipment. Monster chests are allowed as they only give items. Poaching is allowed. Items are allowed to be removed from characters such as Meliadoul and Orlandu and then the character be expelled. Item Duplication in the shop is not allowed.
NCA - No Crystal Abilities - Picking up crystals from any human character, ally or enemy, with the intent to learn new abilities is forbidden. Crystals may be picked up only to be used for healing.
RJ - Random Job - Each character, including guests, are to be randomly assigned a job. Guests may be restricted to easier access jobs such as Archer to prevent unnecessary grinding in initial battles with them. (Though I suppose you could just Gameshark them into whatever job
) The characters to be used throughout the game must be chosen at the start of the new game, and all other characters, including generics, must be expelled immediately. The characters used must be in their assigned job prior to the battle at Dorter Trade City, if you choose to use generics. Otherwise, they are to be in their assigned job prior to the next immediate mandatory battle. Abilities learned in other jobs prior to joining, such as any Swordskills Orlandu may know, are allowed to be used. Any abilities learned while unlocking the required class, however, are prohibited. JP glitching certain jobs for characters such as Agrias is also prohibited. I.e. Even though she has Priest unlocked and can learn abilities to use in it, you may not JP glitch to have her learn Holy to use at will. JP glitching in the required class is allowed. If summoner is chosen, for example, you may glitch to learn Bahamut and use as you see fit.Let's look at this thing together now! Shop equipment only is more to limit the strength of the characters moreso than to limit the options available. Many enemies such as Wiegraf and Miluda in chapter 1 have very strong equipment for the time and make the battles upcoming much easier. Being able to fight random Knights at Mandalia Plains in Chapter 2 with Light Robes and Crystal equipment further simplifies the game. While yes, you will have access to such gear sooner or later, the need for such equipment is minimal. Besides this is a challenge, right?
No Crystal Abilities is merely to prevent you from using abilities learned in other classes. This is essentially a single character class run, but more focused toward the Four Job Fiesta of FF5 fame (that's a lot of F's) to add some variety to this game. Crystals may be needed, or simply wanted, for healing at times, and restricting the use of them to force the player into wasting a turn healing seems a tad pointless. As I stated in the rules, abilities learned in another class upon joining are permissable, or abilities learned with JP that the character may already have upon joining, however abilities learned just for the sake of using in another class are not. It would defeat the purpose of having a character forced into being a Thief, but using Geomancy just because he can. Although, if you get stuck with a Thief I guess you will be quite rich by the end of the game with all of the stolen equipment and gil. Random Job is fairly straightfoward. Simply select a job from the 20 available (22 if you are playing the War of the Lions version) and select a character to go with it. If you have access to a Gameshark and happen to get stuck with a Dancer Ramza, then an Agrias Bard is also acceptable. While heavy grinding is not recommended, it is also not forbidden. Some jobs simply take time to access (looking at you Mime). We don't want to roflstomp Algus at Ft. Zeakden (wait... yes... we do... not the point, moving on!) You may not however grind for abilities unless the battle ahead of you is simply impassable. If Riovanes Roof is simply too difficult, for instance, then reloading an earlier save to learn one more ability is always an option. Using the JP glitch is also not recommended, but it is allowed simply to reduce the grinding. While you may have the ability to cast Meteor against Algus, you may not have the MP to do so, which is why it is allowed. Cutting off access to abilities serves no purpose other than to lengthen battles unnecessarily. You are going to master the classes assigned before Altima anyway. Some classes can't even get the glitch to work such as Geomancer or Calculator, so allowing the glitch or not really doesn't make a difference. As I said above, however, some characters come with some jobs unlocked and glitching for those is forbidden. Orlandu is supposed to be a Wizard, not a sword-swinging magician with Lightning Stab. That being said, Ramza is free to use Wish and Yell to his hearts' content as he either has the JP to learn them, or already has them unlocked. Same goes for Lavian and Alicia with Spin Fist in the Monk class. I don't really remember the start of Chapter 2 that well, so I am not certain if this is actually even true or relevant, but I will clarify just to be safe: Rad, Lavian, and Alicia are allowed to stay as a Squire and Knights, respectively, until after the inital Dorter fight. Once control of the world map is gained, however, if any of the three are chosen, they must be assigned to their respective class. Unless, of course, they are to stay in their initial class, in which case, SAVE THE CHOCOBO!The challenge that I did that sort of played along with this was that I was to never purchase any items from the shop. My only equipment and usable items were to come from enemy humans and monster chests. I did make one exception though, and that was with Katana. I decided that if I were to steal a katana, I could purchase as many as I would like of the same kind in the future. This was to allow my Samurais to actually do something other than punch and slash the enemy. I will admit that it was a lot easier than I had envisioned, and as I progressed continually got easier and easier. The equipment you steal is always getting better and the enemies never really get any stronger, minus a few spikes here and there (Velius). Plus being able to change classes and use all the abilities just took the fun out of it and pretty soon I was at Limberry fighting Elmdor without 108 Gems just to have some sort of a challenge.
Hopefully this clears any questions up. If not, feel free to ask!