A Sequel

[Hazzard]

Wait, are you planning to send these ideas to Square-Enix, sorry, but I haven't read the previous pages only this recent one, and the ideas seem relatively impressive, I must say.

[Wolf Kanno]

Nothing but Exp and AP, right, Wolf?

Those item ideas work much better.

I will definitely include these missions, as they are just too much fun to leave out. However, I am going to switch their purpose from what they were originally planned for. While these missions are awesome, I just don't think they will work for the out of Ivalice free area missions. So I'm still busy trying to come up with new scenarios for that chain. Not that I'm upset or anything. I love side quest chains, and these are great fun. If you have time, try to work up a new one for the Seeq. They will be in FFTA2 as well, and we wouldn't want these newcomers to Ivalice to feel left out, would we?
Correct on the awards. Item and gil should be awarded only after the missions are completed.

Certainly, I'm happy you enjoy them and I'll try to think up a Seeq scenario as well. I also have the special mission for Clan Ultima...

P.S. for Hazzard: Definetly read the whole thing, it's quite impressive what Skyblade and the others have put together (I'm a late comer to the project) though I believe your answer lies in only a page or two back I believe...

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Seeq scenario: Treasure Map Stolen! Yes apparently a thief disguised as a young girl stole a valuable treasure map from our Clan. The treasure is a dangerous item that has the power to defeat our entire Clan! Our Clan once engaged in civil wars to obtain this item for it's power and value are so great! You must track down this thief at once and make sure the treasure does not fall into the wrong hands!

Author's Notes: The first mission has the party catch up to the thief, a ninja by the name of Yuffie. Yuffie seems a little distracted cause the party seems to have a come at a bad time unless you're an angry ninja/thief wanting to let off some steam for being swindled! Yuffie is a Ninja with Thief sub abilities. You must successfully complete the mission with all equipment intact.

After her defeat, Yuffie explains she no longer has the map. She was ambushed by two monsters and they stole it from her. She points you in the right direction to find them and escapes with a sizeable amount of your hard earned gil...

The second mission has you face off against Mr. Typhoon. You must defeat him before he removes your entire party from the battle with Sneeze. (I don't know what enemy sprite to use for him though... perhaps a Bomb?)

The third mission has you catch up with the master of the scheme. A Flan by the name of Ultros! Ultros is a little irked by the treasure it seems and wishes to do battle to let off some steam... Ultros uses powerful magics and is will only attack woman so a Ritz and Viera match with one exception... Ultros actually thinks Marche is a girl...

With Ultros defeated, the party discovers that the Seeq treasure is actually a shiny glass trinket. Apparently the Seeq have a weakness to shiny objects and sealed the item out of fear... Marche destroys the item to save the Seeq clan.


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Clan Ultima Secret Mission! The Zodiac Braves Story!

This is not a traditional mission but a side quest involving three missions. Montblanc is fretting cause he's learned that a close friend of his, the Nu Muo named Durai, has lost track of his little brother Olan. The clan is now been asked to help look for him.

Marche finds Olan, along with his two friends the moogle Mustadio and the Viera Teta, by a river. Olan tells Marche that he can't go back cause he's on a secret mission to help save Ivalice. Olan and his friends are looking for the 12 legendary Zodiac Stones to summon the Zodiac Brave, a legendary hero of Ivalice. Marche asks to explain.

Olan tells Marche that he read about it in a book his brother read to him when he was younger. The story was about a boy from a noble family who forsake his lineage to save Ivalice from a civil war. He battled 12 fearsome beasts who were manipulating the war for their own ends. Before Marche can ask any further, the children find another stone by the river but they run into Piette's Goblin flunky Biggs (I forget which is which actually :sweatdrop: ).

A mission ensues where Marche and company must face off against a small group of Goblins. They are all of high level. Biggs himself is level 99 (note his stats just need to be high but he probably shouldn't actually be level 99) Magic does not work and all Goblins counter physical attacks with Goblin Punch. Biggs' version of Counter Goblin Punch should even hit enemies farther than it's normal range meaning even spamming Monk and Fighter based techniques won't work. Biggs' version should also have a 50% chance of missing or doing max damage.

With Biggs defeated, The children acquire the zodiac stone Aries! Marche asks to examine the book Olan is using to look for the stone as well as the stone. The book turns out to be a children's book of fairytales. the Stone...

Aries: A simple rock with the symbol of Aries scribbled on by a child's crayon.

Marche plays along and tells Olan and the others that everyone is looking for them and they need to go back. The children agree with Olan being quite happy with himself. Olan mentions he has to find a few more stones...

The second mission begins with Marche finding the three once again looking for the stones in a forest. Olan tells Marche he needs only the Virgo stone to have all twleve. He goes on about how thegreat hero will appaer and end this horrible war and his brother won't have to fight anymore. Marche becomes taken back by this and tries to tell him that the story is only a fairy tale. He's interrupted by Teta finding the Virgo stone which is also found by the Bomb Wedge...

The mission involves a battle with high level Bombs with Wedge being lv 99 (once again rules with Biggs are implied) Only magic hurts them and Marche and party only have a few rounds to defeat them before every surviving bomb uses Chain Reaction to all explode at once and ending the mission in failure. Wedge should counter physical attacks with Explode that does max damage and does not remove Wedge from battle or decrease his HP.

After the battle, Olan picks up the Virgo stone and places it with all the other stones. When nothing happens he begins to wonder why. Marche explains to Olan that the story is a fairy tale and that he needs to go home. Olan tells Marche he's lying, his brother used to tell them that if anything bad ever happened to Ivalice that the "Zodiac Brave" would appear and save the land. Olan says his brother would never lie to him and he runs off.

In the third mission Marche finds Olan in a cave looking for the secret thirteenth stone Serpentarius. Marche tries to explain once again to Olan but Olan refuses. He tells Marche that Ivalice needs a hero more than ever and he was going to do his part. Olan finds Serpentarius but runs into Piette and his two henchmen. Piette has also heard of the story and hopes to collect the stones to gain their powers over the demonic Lucavi, and rule the world! The battle begins.

In this mission the party only fights Piette, Biggs, and Wedge. All three are Lv.99 but former rules still apply. The battle begins with both Biggs and Wedge talking about their defeats to Marche. Piette mentions that now that they are all together the power of friendship will help them and the three gain a strange aura...

Piette has the "Friendship paling" that protects him from all damage. If he's physically attacked, Biggs counters with Frindship Punch that does max damage to whoever attacked Piette. If Piette is hit with Magic, then Wedge counters with "Explosive Friendship" which does max damage to whoever cast the spell. Attcking the other two garners Piette to use "Friendship Power" that targets a random opponent and does normal damage for his stats. It should be significant damage but not "auto kill" like the other two. You need to kill the two flunkies before you can even hurt Piette. After they are gone. Piette attacks normal but with his high stats he should still be a handful.

With Piette defeated he retreats with his cronies and Olan gains the Zodiac Stone Serpentarius. Olan's friends appear with Durai and watch as Olan puts the thirteen stones together. Nothing happens and Olan walks away. Marche and Durai try to comfort him but Olan retorts. "I knew it wasn't really going to work, but I desperately believed. I'm okay though cause it did work in a way. Marche, you are the Zodiac Brave! I have seen you through all this and can see that you are the hero that will save Ivalice! Hurry and end the war so my brother can read me more stories." With that the party leaves except for Marche who leaves last and sees the stones glow...

Author's notes: The glowing stone's mean nothing, it's just a moment where Marche begins to wonder but nothing is supposed to come of it. You gain the Zodiac Stones as an event item which will be traded in for an item presented to you by Durai.

[Skyblade]

Hmm... Some interesting new limitations on some of those. Biggs, Wedge, and Piette may be a little too powerful, but that can be fiddled with some.

Nearly done with my assitance missions for the out of Ivalice free area quests. Should be up on Friday.

Edit: Sorry, it's taking a lot longer than I thought it would, and I couldn't work on it at all yesterday. The basic format of the missions will involve allies from other clans in Ivalice. The missions will range from basic combat to some far more complex objectives, like rescuing prisoners, sabotage, espionage, protecting other clan units, and assassinating leaders of the opposing army. I've worked out several ways to implement these in the battle system, and if it works out well, they should be great fun.

[Wolf Kanno]

Sounds good so far. Take your time and have fun with it for now. ;)

[Skyblade]

For those wondering why this update took so long and doesn't contain information on the out of Ivalice Area Free missions, it's because much of that information is too tedious to put up here. Information on enemy positions and abilities, mission objectives, etcetera.

This update deals with the new Totema. I finally thought of a way to bring the missing Espers from FFXII in without messing up the plot. As I said before, my little Mage General will get his hands on the Gran Grimoire. He creates the new Espers and looses their power upon Ivalice. Unlike the Totema, these new Espers are not protectors. Far from it. Crafted from the shattered fragments of the Crystals, these creatures are incarnations of destruction (I use the term Totema to refer to the old Espers, that were protectors of the crystals. Both the old Totema and the new summons can be referred to as Espers). Thus there will be two Espers per race (which, if we include Seeqs as a new race, leaves us with only one left over, Zodiark, who I'll talk about later). In addition to the standard damage/MP damage, several of these new Espers will inflict Status effects. Zalera, for example, has a chance of instant death, while Cúchulainn will inflict at least poison.

Esper Battle: Belias, the Gigas
Belias is a primarily fire based creature, and his battle takes place in a highly volcanic area. In addition to his heavy hitting Fire area of effect attacks and standard Esper moves (like those wielded by the Totema in the original FFTA), he can also trigger an eruption for a full map attack. Heavy hitting, but definitely not the strongest you'll face, especially given how easy it is to get Fire Shields.

Esper Battle: Cúchulainn, the Impure
Cúchulainn's battle introduces a dangerous new aspect of the gameplay: terrain shifting (and, no, this isn't the only battle you'll see it in). Cúchulainn's mere prescence poisons the land around him, and every turn the tiles will shift, and many tiles will become poison tiles (a character standing on a poison tile takes a damage hit, like the poison status, but the effect is not persistent, so stepping off the tile stops it). In addition to Esper techniques, he has several annoying status causing effects, and quite a bit of HP.

More battles yet to come.

[Wolf Kanno]

Well I'm certainly impressed. Can't wait to hear about the other Espers to appear. So even Chaos and Zeromus...

[Skyblade]

A quick update on the free area missions. One change I am making to the Free Area missions is to how they'll work with the cities. Any area can come under attack, and, should a city fall, not only will you lose its discount at the shops, but you'll lose access to the city as well. You can lose the Prison, the Clan Center, the Monster Bank, Ezel's shop... These losses could be quite a pain if allowed to stack up, so you'll probably want to keep your cities out of enemy hands. Unlike the original FFTA, when an area that has already been freed falls under the control of enemy forces, you don't have to go to a pub to get a mission to get the area back, you just have to go to the area in question. Normally, when you move onto the area, the mission will be highlighted ready to be selected to free the area again, but, if it's a city, as soon as you move onto the area, the engagement to free the city begins. This can cause difficulty because, if there are enemy forces in the city, or that move onto the city during the same turn, they'll be there to support the city's garrison. So watch the battlefront carefully.