Tag Settings

In the fourth article of the Version 5 Focused series, we go over one of the bigger aspects of what this newest update focuses on: major quality-of-life changes that improve and add various aspects to not only the PvP Patch but to Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions in general. There’s a lot to cover, so we will focus on the bigger highlights you want to know once the public beta is out. Just to note, though Campaign received several QoL changes, we will focus on that in a separate article later this week.

⚙ Customized Options

PvP Patch v5 will add a requested feature that is scarcely available in other FFT mods; the ability to change your team’s battle color via the new “Battle Palette” Option! Helmed by @Tzepish, this modifies the previous Cursor Repeat Rate setting to now allow you to change your generic unit’s color according to the various enemy factions you encounter in the campaign. You’ll be able to finally put some extra customization with your team in addition to being able to change your unit’s name via the Warriors’ Guild from a previous update.

Additionally, with Spell Quotes being reintegrated, the “Display Ability Names” setting is now named “Ability Names and Quotes” which disables or enables ability name display and Spell Quote pop-ups. This setting is enabled by default.

The “Display Earned EXP/JP” setting now affects the enemy team’s EXP/JP display as well as disabling or enabling the celebration they do when they gain a job level as a means to speed up battles.

💬Spell Quotes Integration

A feature disabled in the original War of the Lions, Spell Quotes have returned and are fully usable in both Campaign and Multiplayer modes. There are a few caveats with Spell Quotes returning to ensure it doesn’t impact live gameplay performance in general. Thank you to @Tzepish and @3lric for the translated text and optimizations!

• Spell Quotes can occur 35% of the time
• Invisible, chicken, or toad-status units or Mimes cannot quote
• Some generic abilities, such as Steal and Speechcraft, do not have quotes set
• Quotes, when triggered, are fairly short-lived so that they do not take away much time from Melee. Note that quotes do not consume a player’s timer while being displayed

☠ Status Effects

Version 5 introduces Curse status – a new negative effect that reduces the target’s damage dealt and healing received by 33% while affected denoted by a new status bubble. Curse status is a new form of “damage reduction” that affects mitigation-ignored sources, like Axes or Knight’s Mow Down, and lowers the HP restored from sources like Regen or Elixir. Additionally, Curse is a permanent debuff until removed via Esuna or Holy Water. Curse is accessible via the following abilities:

• Curse (NEW Black Magicks) – variable status chance to single target Inflict: Curse, instant cast
• Ama-no-Murakamo (Iaido) – 19% status chance to Inflict: Curse in an AoE
• Unholy Darkness (Mystic Arts or Ebon Blade) – 19% status chance on hit
• Accursed Umbra (Ashley’s Break Arts – Axe) – 100% status chance on hit

Float status increases your effective Height from 2 to 4; this change affects Longbow’s variable range by 1 depending on targeted tiles, allowing your bow and arrow to go further distances even if the map is not as favorable!

Reflect status now has a status bubble to show units affected and Veil additionally displays a yellow-invisible tint to improve status messaging. Poison and Vampire’s status bubbles have been removed to allow for Curse and Reflect, but these still have their respective status color.

⏰Updated Melee Mode Timers

As part of efforts to speed up gameplay and overall competition total time-per-game, Tactics League’s Standard ruleset will now use a 12-minute timer with a 20-second reset time instead of the previous 15-minute timer with a 15-second reset time. Though the initial time window is shortened per player, the 20 seconds on reset if you reach zero on the main timer gives a bit more flexibility with decision-making making and the extra 5 seconds surprisingly cuts down on those “nail-bitter” situations where you only have a few seconds to spare to commit to an action. I will be monitoring these timer changes as a whole going into the beta and am hopeful that it will help game time and reinforce the need to think ahead more off-turn.

Conclusion

With v5 being the final series of updates, Quality of Life changes are a bit focused on ensuring the final product is ready for the future and beyond. There are a handful of other lesser-important QoLs (but still impactful nonetheless!) that will be mentioned going into v5’s changelog.

With the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta launch, the existing map pool has also received some updates to spruce up and adjust maps based on community feedback. Let’s look at which maps are joining and which are being retired in their stead.

Sal Ghidos (replaces Dorvauldar Marsh)

Sal Ghidos is a new medium-sized map that will replace Dorvauldar Marsh entirely. The issue with Dorvauldar is that the host side can have a mobility disadvantage if they are not using movement options, such as Fly or Levitate. Though it is an incentive to use these abilities, a player shouldn’t be pigeonholed to needing these abilities to be able to engage with their opponent. Sal Ghidos features a shortened distance but with many housing or rooftops to utilize and is a great map for archery and other ranged abilities.

Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary (replaces Monastery Vaults – Level 2)

Mullonde Cathedral Sanctuary is a new small-sized map joining the rotation and replacing Monastery Vaults – Level 2 (the map with the bookcases). Though the host and guest spawns appear close, the coffin in the middle actually prohibits forward movement, so players will need to work around the sides to engage. The spawn heights between both players are also the same, so there aren’t any tactical advantages unlike Monastery Vaults. This map feels and plays great as a small map and is likely to be the best “small”map to play competitively on in the future.

Limberry Castle Inner Court (replaces Goug Lowtown)

Limberry is another medium-sized map that will be replacing Goug Lowtown. Though Goug is fundamentally playable, it does have some odd advantages for the guest player being able to get an early, vertical position on the guest. The map also didn’t feel the best to play on as echoed by several community members, so the change is to replace it with a map that promotes engagement, shorter distances but still reasonable set up time, and even some space to work off of for builds that enjoy higher sight-lines.

These maps are officially entering the map rotation on March 12th during the PvP Patch v4.0 Beta! Join the Tactics League Discord and check these new areas and all of the changes coming with this update!

Today, we are beginning community testing of our upcoming Tactics League PvP Patch, a way to improve certain aspects of Final Fantasy Tactics without changing fundamental or core features, unless it wholesomely benefits the competitive environment. This patch co-exists with the official save data in mind, allowing us to tweak stuff like abilities, gear, and other things to further strengthen their viability in PvP while weighing in on how these changes affect the current formats. For now, the current 2.3.1 save version will be the save to test on, but once the patch is official we will release a save data update to compensate or adjust where necessary.

To view the current status of proposals and implementations visit Tactics League: PvP Patch Updates | Trello

Proposals

Proposals are the “ideas” for improving the patch. Community members in the Tactics League Discord can provide a concept of what to change, such as adjusting clock ticks of cast-time abilities or improving certain weapons for better overall choices. Once a proposal is posted and there is some discussion around it, the proposal will then go through the following phases:

• Proposal – The idea or concept a person would like to see implemented into the patch.
• Testing – The proposal is set into the patch for testing purposes. Feedback is key to moving forward.
• Implemented/Not Implemented – After testing and upvoting or downvoting it, depending on any further iterations needed the proposal may be fully implemented into the PvP patch for official use once it is fully released. If a proposal does not work out in the end, it will be moved to Not Implemented and shelved for the meantime (but this does not mean it cannot be iterated on and put back into Testing).

Cycles

Of course, we cannot put every proposal into a patch each time it is brought up otherwise we could never get proper testing done! Cycles are a way to set a timeframe to thoroughly test everything in the Testing phase so we can get some real-time responses on how they feel and play in PvP. For now, each Cycle will be set for 2 weeks, subject to change depending on the activity with playtesting.

These are the following start and end dates for each cycle as of this post:

• Cycle 1 – 9/20 – 10/3
• Cycle 2 – 10/3 – 10/17
• Cycle 3 – 10/17 – 11/1
• Cycle 4 – 11/1 – 11/14
• Cycle 5 – 11/14 – 11/29
• Cycle 6 – 11/29 – 12/12

Be a part of the community and help us shape the future of Tactics League competitive PvP! If you have not joined the Tactics League Discord, join us today, get set up for multiplayer, and experience our PvP offerings!

The Tactics League official game settings and map pool is getting some changes today that we are going to go over. As a reminder, these settings are for use with our official save data it isn’t necessary when playing a few casual games with a friend.

Game Settings Changes

We have added a 40 Action Limit to all premade and starter formats. This was done in preparation for future tournaments; to reduce stalling and make each turn more impactful in the course of the game. The new game settings are as followed:

Map Selection – Manual

Time Limit – 15 minutes

Action Limit – 40

Special Controls – Off

Trap Placement – None

Arithmeticks – Allow (this setting needs to be allowed for premades that use it)

Map Pool Changes

We have also changed our map pool selection. We have removed maps classified as large-size as they tend to cause games to take much longer and can also be used to promote stalling. We have also added 2 new maps and re-classified Gariland as a medium-sized map, making its return instead of being removed. Here are the changes:

Removed large maps:
Araguay Woods, Balias Swale, Monastery Vaults – Level 3, Zeklaus Desert

Added maps:
Mandalia Plain (small), Dorvauldar Marsh (med), Gariland (med)

We hope that these changes provide positive changes to PvP Tactics. We are always looking at feedback, so make sure to post in our Discord if you have any.

For the new map pool and game settings, visit game settings.