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General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Calunio on July 23, 2008, 12:10:45 am

Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Calunio on July 23, 2008, 12:10:45 am
A mod suggested me to post this here, so...

I'm a big fan of the entire Final Fantasy Tactics series, and recently I found this huge doc file on the internet describing with precision and details the mechanics/mathematics of the game... information enough to turn it into a board game.

It should be pretty easy turning it into a board game, shouldn't it? Not only easy, but it wouldn't take away much of the game's fun. I mean, a videogame has animations, sounds and all... but the main fun factor of FFT is strategy, not animations.

Doing it would be basically writing a rulebook, a list of jobs (expandable), list of items (expandable), and doing the graphics. Graphics could be directly ripped from the game... visually, the game would look like any board game using paper miniatures.

So... before turning this into an actual project, what do you think?
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Marcus on July 23, 2008, 01:08:53 am
Uh what do you mean by board game?  Are you talking Avalon Hill "confusing as fuck" strategy game here?  It could work if you dumb down the very components of each class to something basic otherwise you're better off just writing a Tabletop RPG book. 

I don't know what you're asking here but I'm thinking you want to create an actual computer game that looks like a board game based on Final Fantasy Tactics.  With that assumption in mind, if you're really serious about using someone elses game rules and characters, then just make your own version of the battle system alone.  Tactics is pretty much 90% battles so the game could revolve around creating battle only situations.  There's little point in dumbing it down to specific board game rules like rolling dice and stuff.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: something bizarre and impractical on July 23, 2008, 03:23:55 am
I think it's an interesting idea, but I'm not so much into just recycling Final Fantasy Tactics onto another medium. If you were looking to form some kind of indie dev team with a few people to work on a board game LIKE Final Fantasy Tactics I would be interested in helping though.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Ryan on July 23, 2008, 03:28:11 am
this sounds like far too much effort for something that will probably be not very fun.

i love FFT etc but yeah
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Farren on July 23, 2008, 04:25:17 am
What about FFT monopoly MAKE AMOOGLE DR.MONEYBAGS
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: goldenratio on July 23, 2008, 04:32:28 am
i tried making a board game once and it's pretty hard!
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Marcus on July 23, 2008, 04:47:49 am
What about FFT monopoly MAKE AMOOGLE DR.MONEYBAGS

moogles are dead.

unless you're talking about final fantasy 12's fake-alice.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Farren on July 23, 2008, 04:50:57 am
I never played FF12  but what happened to the moogles? I swear to god I'l punch those japanese fuckers out.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Feldschlacht IV on July 23, 2008, 05:15:03 am
Hey, I'd check it out.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Blitzen on July 23, 2008, 06:07:05 am
I think that FFT would work as a board game, but you'd have to dumb it down considerably. As it is, the gameplay is really complex, and to make it accessible, it would have to be simplified. Stripping away the more complex elements like the zodiac system or a full companion of weapons and armour, the units would have to be understandably simple. What you might end up with is something more like Warhammer or on the more casual scale HeroScape, and aren't there enough of those kinds of games already?
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Marcus on July 23, 2008, 01:26:32 pm
I never played FF12  but what happened to the moogles? I swear to god I'l punch those japanese fuckers out.

Moogles never existed in FFT outside of the summon but FFTA introduced all the stupid races like viera, bangaa, and moogles and then FF12 made Ivalice and FFT/Vagrant Story's Ivalice canon so moogles go extinct somewhere between Revenant Wings and FFT's storyline.

But Square will probably never release Final Fantasy Apocalypse or whatever that shows how humanity lost their star wars technology and every monster race dies.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Mateui on July 23, 2008, 03:09:49 pm
Yeah, I was going to say, Heroscape is pretty much FFT. You can come up with your own units and give them different skills and then play Heroscape.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: The Dude on July 23, 2008, 03:10:36 pm
Moogles never existed in FFT outside of the summon but FFTA introduced all the stupid races like viera, bangaa, and moogles and then FF12 made Ivalice and FFT/Vagrant Story's Ivalice canon so moogles go extinct somewhere between Revenant Wings and FFT's storyline.

But Square will probably never release Final Fantasy Apocalypse or whatever that shows how humanity lost their star wars technology and every monster race dies.

If you really want to consider that all Ivalice games took place on the same planet throughout its' history, then either consider that the moogle evolved from the creatures found in the northern random battles near the end of FFT's game, or that they did not exist in that Kingdom. Perhaps the old king exiled them during or before the 50 Year War? It doesn't really matter, since it was a different region to host the various FFT worlds. Vagrant Story pretty much took place in a magical city anyway.

... What were we supposed to be talking about here? Oh, uh, would you use golden poker chips as Gil?
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: local_dunce on July 23, 2008, 06:23:20 pm
I was kind of hoping you meant like, a dumbed down FFT "boardgame" that could be played between players through TCP/IP.

Basically a dumbed down, bad gfx version of FFT without the story. Just a couple of different "maps" to choose from with terrain and stuff and you battle parties against each other.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: EvilDemonCreature on July 23, 2008, 09:49:49 pm
I'm a big fan of the entire Final Fantasy Tactics series, and recently I found this huge doc file on the internet describing with precision and details the mechanics/mathematics of the game...

Woah woah woah, wait.
Where did you find this? Do they have them for other games aswell? Is this a common thing? Do you have a link? (Can you google search for theese with reliable accuracy?)

Either way, I've thought about such ideas before. Adapting or re-inventing old memorable games to get some new appreciation/fun out of them. If you want to know if your adaptation is worthwhile, you have to ask yourself "Ok, if I make this into a board game, what will it offer that you cannot get by simply playing the original?" and once you have that answer, then it's a simple matter of counting for all the work it would take to make such a thing possible, and based on that, decide for yourself if it is worth your time.

Either way, I want that doc (I know I want to do something great with that information. FFT is one of my all-time favorite games. I'm just not sure what yet...)
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: local_dunce on July 23, 2008, 10:18:28 pm
Yeah can you make this available to us?
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Calunio on July 23, 2008, 10:25:07 pm
Actually, the file I was talking about is already a rulebook for the game. It's been made. But I wanted to make it more generic, removing things that are specific to the PSX game (like zodiac stuff, faith, etc.), and leaving it more generic. Maybe slight modifications.

And by board game, I meant a table top miniature-like game, not a computer game.

Anyway, here is the link to the file:

http://www.fftrealm.com/content/fftinto.shtml
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Marcus on July 23, 2008, 10:43:35 pm
Quote
Woah woah woah, wait.
Where did you find this? Do they have them for other games aswell? Is this a common thing? Do you have a link? (Can you google search for theese with reliable accuracy?)

I'm surprised you didn't know about this.  Pretty much every popular rpg will have a spoiler guide that breaks into fine detail every single algorithm.  The first one I read was the calculator guide back in 2000 and I never want to meet the dedicated nerd that spent however long it took writing down formulas for every single combination of characters as well as the stats that were influenced by their opposing/supporting zodiacs, male/female compatibility, brave and faith attributes.  Every Ogre game also has a FAQ somewhere detailing the algorithms and those games are 3x as detailed as FFT was since shit like terrain was thrown into the mix.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: EvilDemonCreature on July 24, 2008, 12:04:04 am
Oh yeah, I'm actually surprised myself. I always assumed the reason I didn't already know about them was because they simply did not exist.

And thus I never bothered to look for them. (Do people attempting to make fangames normally go through theese methods of analysis in order to keep their engine/game design more true to the original?)

Yeah, I was going to say, Heroscape is pretty much FFT. You can come up with your own units and give them different skills and then play Heroscape.

I have actually seriously thought of adapting FFT units as custom Heroscape units before. This doc would most likely help if I were to ever persue that notion more deeply.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: randomuser83 on July 24, 2008, 12:07:10 am
For this to work, I see it being a cross between Stratego and Warhammer.  I think it could work though. I'd like to see what you come up with :D
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: The Milkman on July 24, 2008, 02:54:03 pm
I would love to see FFT on the next gen consoles with online multiplayer implemented. FFT is my favorite game.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Blitzen on July 24, 2008, 08:05:06 pm
They have that on FFT for the PSP, don't they? Where you can take your party and face it off against someone else's via wireless?
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: DE on July 24, 2008, 08:11:36 pm
There are already such games; they are called tabletop wargames.

There is a handful of fantasy games which simulate small skirmishes similar to FFT battles, e.g. Confrontation 3, Hell Dorado, Alkemy, even GamesWorkshop's Mordheim.

Straight transfer of FFT mechanics would create an utterly unplayable boardgame. The system is too complicated, the game would require such an enormous amount of dice rolling it would get tiresome after the first turn. Not to mention HP's and MP's above one hundred points in a boardgame is a no-no.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: big ass skelly on July 24, 2008, 08:22:30 pm
I'd rather play a twinfoxtails board game.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Calunio on July 25, 2008, 02:58:05 am
They have that on FFT for the PSP, don't they? Where you can take your party and face it off against someone else's via wireless?

I think you can do this on FFTA2 (for nintendo DS).
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: goat on July 25, 2008, 11:40:21 pm
I like the idea of a board game on it (even thought of something similar after the first FFT came out). But even now, as I currently enjoy FFTA2, I can say with confidence that that would make the game longer, more confusing, and way too damn close to DnD board games, which I swore to myself I would never get into. However, I'm definitely not against a game based on the mechanics for PC. Sure it wouldn't be FF universe, but if it was done well enough, and had great multiplay which EVERY FFT lacks, I would totally play it.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Evangel on July 26, 2008, 01:06:53 am
Sounds kinda pointless.  It would be just like playing the game, except you have to do all those calculations your fucking self.  If you want to go through the trouble of that, you might as well make something new/unique.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Hundley on July 26, 2008, 08:04:56 pm
gobble gobble bored game gobble gobble
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: datamanc3r on July 26, 2008, 08:29:55 pm
Not only would you have to calculate every attack (Ranging from 1-3 minutes of looking through stats and doing work), you would have to do it for all of your characters. As fun as tactics is, you shouldn't bother, unless like other people mentioned here, you dumb the game down considerably. And that wouldn't be fun at all.

Besides, with my Calculator+Mime combination and jacked up agility after deleveling, you would all be screwed.

(Thank god squeenix did something right when they released FFT for the PSP with MULTIPLAYER)
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: The Dude on July 26, 2008, 10:58:25 pm
I'd rather play a twinfoxtails board game.

Would you have to roll dice to see how many dicks you get in your hand?
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: XxSylverxX on July 27, 2008, 06:15:31 am
no you have to level as ninja to get two-swords ability. jesus christ your dumb.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Kitsune Inferno on July 28, 2008, 10:06:28 pm
Quote from: EDC
And thus I never bothered to look for them. (Do people attempting to make fangames normally go through theese methods of analysis in order to keep their engine/game design more true to the original?)

I am doing this exact same thing with Crystal Crisis' CBS and Final Fantasy VI's algorithms.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: goat on July 29, 2008, 11:45:46 pm
I just realized, even FFT at 100% speed on emulation seems slow at times, and I uncap the FPS on boring/easy parts just to get by them. If I had to do those calculations in real time, I would feel like shooting myself in the face.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Madolah on July 31, 2008, 06:52:57 pm
I was kind of hoping you meant like, a dumbed down FFT "boardgame" that could be played between players through TCP/IP.

Basically a dumbed down, bad gfx version of FFT without the story. Just a couple of different "maps" to choose from with terrain and stuff and you battle parties against each other.

http://www.tacticsarena.com/play/


here you go



I think this would be a neat idea and a tabletop version would be the only tabletop game i would pay intrest too!
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: datamanc3r on July 31, 2008, 06:56:00 pm
no you have to level as ninja to get two-swords ability. jesus christ your dumb.

Omgwtf. You can't beat casting flare 3-5 times in a row on (most of) the other guys. I would allow a relevelup as a ninja to get the agility, but I certainly wouldn't keep them as a ninja. Wait what, am I ranting?

Oh well, I might as well say this --
CLOUD SUCKS GOD DAMN IT COCK SUCK WHORE FUCK.
Title: Idea! FFT board game?
Post by: Farren on July 31, 2008, 08:53:49 pm
I remember doing all that work to unlock him and he fucking blew, I was so pissed off...