Computer AI allies?!?!

[zer0haste]

CHARACTER AI!??!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!
This is the worst change imaginable for a FF game. Im going to refer to this game as WTFFXII - as in WTF. Anyone else wondering how it will work when you only control the fighter? Yes... i get to attack! ! ! :mad: I mean how much strategy can be involved when you have a mage that is on Fire+ gambit. Whoops, this judge here is fire resistant, im screwed. Perhaps when you become more powerful, the black mage will have Fire, Lit, and Ice gambits, so then you have a 33% chance that she will use the right spell. ANYONE prove me wrong here. Seriously, this has to be a joke......

[TasteyPies]

Yeah its silly when you cant controll the other charicters...

I guess its the new fad It worked in .Hack and Kingdom Hearts right?

[Bahamut2000X]

Well as mentioned before, don't say you hate a system till you try it. I thought FFX ould be bad since it was CTB,but it wasn't all too bad, and had some nice points.

Although from my understanding you'll be able to switch between charcters, but you have each target something and they auto-attack (like the auto-attack of FFXI) and then they use special skills as you tell them to.

But that's my understanding of it, I have yet to see it or try it, but I know those from E3 can confirm this if they got a chance to try it out.

[DocFrance]

OH MY GOD! You mean Square is trying something different than what they've been doing for the past ten games? This is an ATROCITY!!! How dare they try something new?

[Laguna]

Ha- change can be a good thing, but this really limits the game. It would be better if they made it so different players could control different characters (like in FFVI!) Still, it wouldnt be bad if they just stuck with a three man ATB system. I blame the ENIX part of Square entirely. A common phrase my friend uses pretty much everytime we hear about something new in FFXII : "DAMN YOU SQUENIX!". I agree with him.

[Loony BoB]

I'll wait and see how good the AI is, but it does indeed take away a lot of the strategy involved, and more importantly, if they don't use the right cure/recover spells and items at the right times, I'm going to be pretty pissed. Even more so if they die a lot.

[TasteyPies]

Nothing like having your toughest charicter get stuck in a corner in mid battle because of idiot AI

[Ouch!]

Square was able to pull of the AI in Kingdom Hearts, I don't see why SE shouldn't be able to do so for FFXII. There will probably just be a lot of customization for the AI.

As for the original comments about casting spells randomly, I don't quite think it'll work like that. I'm pretty confident that the AI will be smart enough to use the weak points of enemies to their advantage.

[Bahamut2000X]

If anything the AI might have a learning curve that will pick up on how you fight, although as I said I don't think it's 100% AI, but I could be wrong, I think I remember hearing it was you had still lot's of control over them such as who they attack and what skills they use. But the AI I think they eman is after they kill thier target then they move on to the next on thier own, or when suddenly attacked the spring into action or something long these lines. But like I said this is only speculation from me and what i think I remember hearing a bit ago.

[Sefie1999AD]

I hope Square Enix does the AI like in Seiken Densetsu 3. There you can customize how your allies will attack and which techs they use. But for casting spells, that's what is up for you to do. The game pauses when you select the item/magic menu, and you can scroll between each character's spells and order them to use a spell of your choosing and target one/all allies/enemies with it.

[*ETERNAL FANTASY*]

enix....responsible for change?....i rekon!

[TasteyPies]

I LOVE the way .hack did the AI and they better copy them :D

The way you can shout out instructions ect. and they do whatyou want. Like use recovery items use special attacks cast spells. You could do it so quickly you could still control your charicter well too.

[Shayo]

so, the fighting style is similar to starwars: knights of the old republic?

[Del Murder]

The only game I've played where this was done was Dragon Warrior IV and I didn't like it. It's different when it's an action RPG like the Mana or KH series but in a tradional menu based RPG I'd rather control all of my party. I am not looking forward to this feature but I will give it a try. I don't think the problem here is change in general but the actual feature itself.

[ZeZipster]

I LOVE the way .hack did the AI and they better copy them :D

The way you can shout out instructions ect. and they do whatyou want. Like use recovery items use special attacks cast spells. You could do it so quickly you could still control your charicter well too.

Agreed, they put a lot of focus on it because the creatures were so unproportional...

[Ariel]

Well... that doesn't exactly make me want to dance for joy, because it's not an idea I'm fond of in an RPG. Hopefully, it'll be pulled off well.

[DocFrance]

Well... that doesn't exactly make me want to dance for joy, because it's not an idea I'm fond of in an RPG. Hopefully, it'll be pulled off well.
Play Seiken Densetsu 3.

[Dragoon Kain]

if its like what the did for ff mystic quest then it wont be too bad. how you had your other character go on auto. they usually used spells the enemy was weak against which wasnt bad and if you were low on hp they would cure you. so if its like that it wont be as bad. but if its not :( :eek:

[Del Murder]

Why do people keep referring to SD3? Is FFXII going to be action based like that series?

[zer0haste]

yeah, SD3 and the like are a different genre of RPG.

- FFXII ..... I could see this being awesome, if they didn't go for this drastic change in battle system. Im not doubting square (-just enix-), but the constant throughout the series that makes me go back has just been drastically altered. Not the timing, not the magic system, not the # of characters in party; these are all great and interesting to tweak and perfect. But as far as ive seen from E3 info, the skeleton of this game is like a vagrant story hybrid, and only the skin is final fantasy.

edited to add: especially this auto-attack crap! vagrant story parallels again

[Shayo]

i got the following info from www.ffxii.net

During field exploration, all three party members in the active party will be on-screen following the lead character. Players will be able to rotate the camera freely to get a good view of the surroundings. Characters will be seen carrying their weapons in and out of battles with a new battle system called ADB (Active Dimension Battle) in real-time. Players will be able to control the actions and movement of one of three active characters at once. It's also possible to pause during the battle with the Circle button for issuing commands and switching control to the other two characters at any moment.

Available enemy targets will have an icon appear above their heads when the party moves within combat distance. When an attack is issused, an arch appears between the character and the enemy, indicating which target the character is focused on. Similar to FFX-2, commands are issused, the ATB bar begins to fill and the character will perform the action when his or her ATB bar is full. Characters will automatically keep on attacking the enemy until the battle ends or a new command is issued. Other than Black and White, Green is a new branch of Magic. Green Magic will contain buffs like Shell and status-infliciting magic like Blind. A new Gambit system will allow players to select certain strategies and tactics for the characters controlled by A.I. The new battle system also takes into account character placement that add a layer of strategy to battles. Melee characters can be pushed to the front in order to prevent the enemies from attacking the ranged characters shooting from behind.

[Del Murder]

That doesn't sound so bad, kind of neat actually. As long as you can switch to other characters during the battle.

[Bahamut2000X]

Ya the system sounds pretty good, if it works out well I wouldn't mind seeing it in the future again except with a few more party memebers under your control. Just imagine all the startegy that could get involved in huge battles like that or all the chaos. :D *drools over thought*

[Kirobaito]

Yeah, that info makes me feel a lot better about this. :p

[TasteyPies]

Pretty cool magic-wise im guessing

Nukes = Black
Heals = White
Other = Green

thats cool instead of having space or time magics ect.

Thats all -Tastey :eyebrow:

[edczxcvbnm]

This worked in .hack very well. I would say that you actually controlled all 3 characters. If I wanted them to use a specific spell to attack a specific enemy they did it. If I wanted them to use magic on an enemy they did it. If I didn't need them then they could do whatever they wanted(which was usually a help).

You would be surprised just how much control you will have over the AI actions.

It didn't work for kingdom hearts.

[DMKA]

All this stuff I'm hearing in these threads about the battles is making me sad...

No seriously, I'm a 19 yr old guy whos sitting here about to busts into tears over this. :(

[Cloud_99]

you aint the only one devilmaykickass. I too am about to burst into tears over the use of AI to control your players.
The whole game is just going to end up being one long gay training game. Sounds like crap to me. :(

[Cloudane]

I've only ever had bad experience of AI allies in Sword of Mana and Summoner. It's not too bad that you can switch between them, but in the mean time while you're working on the warrior the casters are sat wasting mana on some spell you don't want them to use.