Spell chanting can take multiple turns

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KFCrispy
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Spell chanting can take multiple turns

Post by KFCrispy »

I never knew this, but slow spells can require multiple casting confirmation turns before the caster actually executes the spell.
I wanted to verify the spell ranges (fixed quite a few I had incorrectly written years back because I forgot to account for the S-grade skill that was adding 1 to the spell range) so I put a bunch of runes on some max level mages with no skills and just had them cast some powerful, slow spells like Earthquake and Final Flame for no particular reason in order to move on to the next mage's turn for more spell range checking. To my surprise, I had to use 1 turn each to "reconfirm" whether to continue chanting or cancel the spells, and it took a 2nd confirmation to actually execute them. I know that the MAG stat affects chanting speed, so it may be possible a really poor MAG stat (like Pablo when you first recruit him) might require 2 or even more re-confirmations to continue chanting before you can actually get to the spell execution confirmation.

this is similar to Suikoden III, but that game plays differently, since everybody gets an action each round and you always have to input new commands.
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Sasarai10
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Re: Spell chanting can take multiple turns

Post by Sasarai10 »

Actually I've noticed in the first turn when the battle starts, spells are always slower and even if you have S-ed your Magic Skills your character will cast the spell at the end of the turn.
Wolkendrache
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Re: Spell chanting can take multiple turns

Post by Wolkendrache »

In Suikoden Tactics there is no dynamic action bar like in Grandia 2. In ST you can only see the order of characters. But still, the speed system works very similar. There is an action bar of a certain length (we haven't figured out yet what exactly defines the length of that bar), and there is a point of execution at the end. In Suikoden Tactics, all characters are placed on the point of execution at the beginning of the battle, and the order of actions is defined by the Spd stats. This - as well as the length of the bar - prevent too fast lapping. That's the reason why no one can lap another one in the first "round".
Moreover that's why you have the impression that spells are slower in the beginning. Imagine your a decent marathon runner, and at half of the way you go pee. Afterwards some runners passed, but there are still many behind you. Your impression is that not much has changed. Now imagine you go pee right at the start. Afterwards you're on the last place. Seems like a big thing, but in fact in both cases you've lost the same amount of time.

About multiple casting confirmations: my guess is that this occurs if the delay is more than 100%. Let's say the action bar is 500 units long, and your character has a Spd of 100 (making "steps" of 100 units). It's that character's turn, so he's at the point of execution. If he waits, then he'll move full 100 units from the start of the action bar. If he's taking an action that has 60% delay, he will only move 40 steps, and thus needs longer to reach the point of execution again. Now, if he's casting a high level spell with high delay, plus little delay from moving, plus penalty delay for not having activated that magic skill, maybe the delay exceeds 100%. On the action bar this would mean that he would move a few steps backwards from the point of execution, so he could practically cast the spell almost immediately. This wouldn't make sense. It seems the programmers realized this and solved the problem by adding a "pre-confirmation". Just an idea.
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