Final Fantasy Tactics & Combat Initiative Systems | Game Design Guide

The clock is god. It always has been, always will be. Every frame is a turn, and if you don't move, you've wasted a turn.

Thank you for this great content btw, I can't believe I didn't see it for 6 years...

This video is amazing

Bro just made one banger of a video and then vanished.
I haven't been this sad sense Spongebob Skin Theory.

You convinced me to use the FFT approach. I'm currently doing research for one of my future games 😁

This is a lot better than I was expecting from a channel with 1 video. Good job.

When i found out the first time playing the game that you can check when the magic will happen by pressing right in the dpad = 🤨😠🙄😂

Lol, thought I found a cool new game design channel to binge watch... 1 vid XD

I never played the original Tactics, was a huge fan of FFTA in the GBA and gave the DS one a try or two. not a bad idea to pick that up once im done with my current runs of Pokemon Conquest and Fire Emblem 7

This was really good, wish you made more :(

Dude the one video you made has 30k views and you don't continue with the channel??? Nuts! Great video btw, I love FFT so much

u guys have a new channel?

Dude Why do you have one video ???

A game you should try out if you ever get the chance is Vandal Hearts. It came out the year before final fantasy tactics, and it's utterly beloved of everyone who plays it. You'll see that in how difficult it is to buy a cheap, second-hand copy of it anywhere.

FFT is very, very similar, but Vandal Hearts was released the year before in 1996. I loved that game.

Chrono Trigger Action System rules

i need more of this pleaseee

This is pretty cool and you probably could have summarized the FFT system with "ATB but with distinct turns." It's definitely my favorite way to do turn based because it lets the "speed stat" be on the spotlight. Compared to SIAS, it allows multiple turns per character and compared to MAAS it still has a back and forth element to it because your opponent could also have a fast character. And compared to the ATB system which never really justified itself since the game was still not real time, there's a lot less ambiguous situations of whose turn is it and waiting for ATB bars to fill.

But as a disadvantage you can't let a unit be idle and then let another of your unit go first. So if you have a combo where one character has to go first, you need the proper speeds. I don't think I've played a game with this system that allows you to keep a unit idle but let them insert themselves between turns because they technically have full CT. Even FFT reduces your CT if you choose to wait. And I get why there's no video game like this, it would be very annoying having to go back to this character each time since he technically hasn't take his turn but this sounds doable on table top where passing priority in games like MtG is easy so maybe there's a table top game that does this?

You know you're talking too fast, right? Hahahaha

Wait, is this it? A single video, three years ago? Am I missing something? I would totally support this channel on patreon.

Great video!! Why is it the only one?

Thorough breakdown on design. Thank you for the mental invigoration. Subscribed!

What happened to the Channel? I checked and there's one video up and no further activity. Was this Channel purged or something?

Is this the only video you made?...you did a great job and should continue

Awesome video. Highly appreciate you referencing tabletop!

Not going to mention the fun math of Dancer vs Bard speed manipulation?

What happened to this channel?

high quality video that i happened upon. would watch more.

subscribed only to see zero other videos :'(

MORE VIDEOS PLEASE ❤️❤️❤️

I would presume the front units go faster to avoid units with low movement getting stuck unable to do anything behind a wall of allies. The CT system is my least favorite part of FFT. Characters scale in speed but spells don't scale in level at all. With nothing to mitigate that, players mostly just change to instant abilities at high levels. I love Burning Wheel also :) You seem like the kind of person I would like in real life.

Try shadowrun rpg 2nd or 3rd edition. It has a initiative mechanic that rewards quicker characters.

Anima: Beyond Fantasy (tabletop RPG) uses a system, where each player rolls a new initiative each turn, during which things like equipment and what they are about to do that turn effects their Ini roll. Then everyone declares their actions before the turn begins and decides on how many attacks they are going to make during next turn.
Every action and attack you declare gives you penalties to everything you roll that turn, but you can only make the actions you've declared and the number of attacks you said is the maximum number of attacks you can make, including attacks of opportunity and counter attacks.
Aside from the main actions there are also "Passive actions" which are things like drawing weapon, speaking, taking few steps etc. that can be performed without declaring them and do not cause player to take penalties.
It's a really interesting system where you can fiddle around with what you are going to do and makes all of the actions matter, because you need to think a bit ahead of time what might happen each round because initiative order is constantly changing and if you want to do something big, it's better if you dedicate your whole turn for doing it rather than jump and swing around before doing it.

what the FUCK

this is your only video? 10/10 would hope to see again

Burning wheellll!

Please make more content!

I like the concept of this video (even if the channel seems dead), but it's just too much talk with no visual support.. This could have been done in a much better way.

Please make more videos! This channel is amazing.

Oddly enough I was working on a Tactical RPG & a Miniature Wargame that uses a system like Mouseguard. One issue I found was getting it to actually flow well while also having randomized chance of success.

That said I love FFT & Tactics Ogre for their system. A lot of early Tactics style games used the multi-activation alternating turns system. It really made things kinda drag on while the FFT/TO system made it feel more dynamic.

The con about how easy it is to abuse is more a fault of the game's skill design than of the type of system. Haste is fine, since it even has a cast time and a limited duration, but Yell is broken AF! Useful when you want to grind JP, though.

Subbed great video

Very helpful and entertaining.

Played FFT my whole life.
Still consider Let Us Cling Together better.

Thanks for nothing.