Front Mission Deep Dive

 Front Mission 1 on SNES, mainly for the emulator quality of life improvements. I'm completely spoiled by fast forward. Games that waste any of my time are all but unplayable now.

 They say that short is the best. In fact long is the best.

 The devs claimed the counter to missiles is punches, but the real counter to missiles is missiles. Blow off their arm with guide. Blow off their torso with guide.
 Longs should have been allowed to return fire if in range.

 Long would be the best solely due to the lack of counter-fire, yet there's more. Also get fewer dead turns, aren't throttled by choke points, and it's much easier to focus fire. Finally your mechs don't have to worry about armour, so they can optimize for movement. Or they can optimize for armour anyway, since they don't need to dash forward to hit other missileers. In theory longs are restricted with ammo, and in practice grenade launchers are superfluous.
 To win the hardest, make everyone a long specialist unless they can't learn guide at all.

 Long is the best, but it's boring. Every turn is the same: blow off an arm with guide. Blow off a leg with guide. Having only one skill is monotonous, and the enemies sit there dumb and take it. At least the explosions look neat.

 Meanwhile shorts have an unfair early advantage. All the earliest computers are around 8-15, except your guys start with 40 on short. Archers and monks miss all the time while bullets don't.
 In theory shorts have rifles and MGs, meaning a choice of two kinds of attacks.

 Flamethrowers seem to gain a large miss chance when used with duel. Duel 3 + flamethrower will miss even in the arena. Likewise the 8-range rockets gain an extra miss roll when used with guide. Level 4 helps a lot. They work like grenade launchers, which are supposed to have an extra miss chance.

 Shields say they add def, but this only applies while guarding, and only one counts. They do add a small amount of agi.

 Stuns and flash prevent all misses, including misses from aiming at parts that no longer exist using duel or guide.

 Next section has a fourth hidden mechanic.
 
 In the long term guns are extremely overpowered, but in the long term everything is overpowered. A common experience with high-XP boxers: go first even on counterattack, punch torso once, enemy explodes. The game is balanced around a mediocre player who wastes money, uses the wrong weapons, spreads training between two specializations, and levels characters & grabs skills they ultimately won't use, meaning anyone who focuses ends up incredibly destructive. The devs also forgot to give skills to the enemy.
 They made damage boosts from ability level a flat number, meaning it's multiplied by the number of hits. It's probably supposed to balance against armour, a flat reduction, so the weapon damage dominates. But, uh, it doesn't. You have to try something fancy to fail to out-level the armour curve. In the end it's hard not to hit the XP cap.
 A major reason launchers and guns are so powerful late in the game is because punches don't have a multihit option, while missiles max out at 3 and guns get 5. (One unique looted arm has 8.) The insane burst late game shorts can put out is amusing; one-round an entire wanzer from full to deleted. Get upset when you unluckily hit the chest too many times and kill it prematurely, even though you're already at 9999 XP.
 That said it seems certain weapons, usually high-hit versions, can anti-crit. E.g. sun owl (3) or monstro (5), probably siege (5) too. They have much higher damage variance, or rather, much deeper variance. Their top-end damage is calculated as usual, but low-end is much lower. Unfortunately the only way to know is to go into the arena and test it. Meaning, buying two weapons, knowing you don't want to use one of them, but not knowing which one. The difference is large and you only need to look, you don't need to carefully track minimum and maximum damage. On the plus side, these weapons are great for training, since you attack so many times without destroying anything.

 In the short term, punching has skills and guns don't. Longs also get guide before shorts get anything. The hardest mission in the game is hell's wall, with the six red frost mechs, and it happens before any reasonable way to get your first short skill. The MC makes an excellent boxer, but that said, he's likely the only one to get striking skills before hell's wall, except those who start with them.
 The MC and Yang regularly get all three fist skills before second-tier shorts get their first. Getting a second short skill takes so long they're OP purely from XP damage bonuses before it happens. However, there is an unreasonably effective strategy: funnel all your XP to one ace who becomes a overlevelled death god - and doing it on a gunner is a great idea.
 I found punching with fast light mechs didn't trivialize the game the way missiles do or duel does. Punches are more engaging due to multiple skills and greater randomness, and it doesn't feel like you're crippling yourself waiting for the shorts to level. The MC makes an excellent boxer.
 
 Once acquired, skills level by random chance. It's not some hidden XP meter, it's a series of dice that eventually come up doubles. You obviously don't have to trigger duel or guide to level them up, and this tips you off that it's true for all skills. It's based solely on initiating an attack round. Even for switch and double when you have only one weapon.

 Double levels slowly, as does switch. Even slower because the chance is per attack phase. With double or switch, you kill faster, attack less often, and they don't get as many chances to level. I have one game with max level double, and it's comically lethal, but in my less sweaty game nobody even got to 3. Level three isn't remotely necessary, but failing to get there was disappointing nonetheless. Wasn't victory-lapping the later missions as hard as possible.
 Guide levels (to 3) very easily.
 

 Speaking of levelling, I found it's a great idea to level 1s to 2 in the colosseum. Doesn't take long. Levelling to 3 using the arena is painful. The chance of hitting level 4, arena or no arena, is only not-zero in the most technical sense.
 Usually I make money because I find it more interesting, but it's also possible to level skills against your clone. Buy weak weapons and let it run on auto. Don't sell piz3s, they're ideal training weapons and you can't buy them. To get double or switch to level faster, use a tonfa+rifle setup or encourage them to lose an arm.
 There's no notification for skill ups, but if you're making money the odds will shift hugely when you get your skill level, letting you stop when it works. Alt: grind skills against the top guy, spamming a and holding fast-forward.
 Warning: there's a bug in the translation that locks the game when Keith tries vs. mode.



 If you want to try a fisticuffs run, remember only the MC, Yang, and Gregorio can learn all three beating skills. Keith learns double automatically but can't learn the other two => free double retaliations for a missileer build. Meanwhile Alder can allegedly learn skills other than stun, but can't actually.
 First and double produces a lethal assassin. Often punches their weapon off.
 Double and stun (Katarina, Yeehin, Ralph) is a decent brawler.
 First and stun conflict. Every status has a 50% chance of clearing every opportunity, and if you wake in battle you immediately get a turn, meaning stun has a 50% chance to do nothing if you go first. First and double will cripple or kill outright far more often than first and stun will stick the stun.

 All are random, meaning you never know what you're going to get when you go punching. You can go in, not get first, punch once, and miss the stun. You can punch four times and they're stunned istead of getting to attack, if they're somehow still alive. You go in, get first, punch off an arm and their legs, stun them, and then they wake up and attack you anyway. Much vary, many chance, wow.

 In rare cases the stun will land after the first hit. Dunno if there's any cause, but it's still a chance to stun per volley, not per strike. Stunning an already-stunned enemy does nothing if it is possible, because the odds of waking up are 50% every turn regardless.


 
 The key to a successful short run is not to use rifles, because they kill too efficiently. Use the MGs to maximize damage spread and destroy as many components as possible. Very early the enemies are weak and you don't need efficiency, and later the extra XP will make up for the efficacy delta.
 Duel is hilariously broken. As if you're using guide, but with less miss chance and without sacrificing your counter-attack capacity. Never let arms or legs to go waste again. Duel renders rifles obsolete.
 Switch is stronger than speed at every level, but improves slowly and has support costs.
 Speed is basically weak, but levels fast and is more than strong enough.

 If not OP enough, duel + speed + flash is a combo. The stun will prevent shots that hit nothing from hitting nothing; aim at the legs and it cuts way down on accidentally destroying the body instead of the whole wanzer.



 The key to a successful long run is to use longs. I mainly use non-longs on folk who can't learn guide due to aesthetic considerations, and secondly because [all missiles] really is monotonous.




 It's a great idea to look up a list of characters and plan which 11 you intend to develop. I regularly neglect Frederick because fuck journalists.

 On hidden characters: there's a guy you need to backtrack and talk to in the bar, and later there's a guy quietly hanging out at the top of the colosseum list.

 The game is hilariously racist in places. The black guy is a bit slow to learn...but not nearly as stupid as the journalist. Just like in real life, and it lets me feel good about permanently benching the journalist. There's also a weepy fat traitorous bitch who can't fight. In the opening the MC's fiancee gets herself merked because (sub rosa) she can't even. Wat is a girl even doing in a mech, lol. There are a couple [[strong]] female characters, but anime gonna anime.
 The most movementy movers are part of the fagot set.

 When I first played the game, I carefully reserved expensive components for my elites and bought everyone else the cheap stuff. I respected the heavy/energy/hybrid classes.
 Major problem: the cheap stuff isn't cheap. Buying cheap stuff for your whole squad won't even save enough money to buy one extra component per type, in most cases.
 Second problem: the arena is right there. There's always someone with wrong odds. Find a 1.5-2.0 who you can kill 97% of the time, and make as much cash as you can possibly want. At low level the XP adds up and at high level you can use it to train skills at the same time.
 Third: I, uh, don't run out of money. I can afford everything. The way to save is to peek ahead at how many wanzers you're allowed, and not pay for equipment you'll never use. Beltchka in particular; you just needed only 8/11, it was only one fight, and now this town is state of the art for one fight of 5/11 wanzers.

 You get the best hovers immediately before a mission that traps all wheels, treads, and hovers in the starting zone. This is also after having five missions without a new town. Pacing.
 Bonus: the game doesn't tell you what kind of movement a mover is. Look at it and guess.
 Treads have extreme HP and offset their exteme weight with +energy. They're fast in deserts (1.5 missions).

 Using all your weight isn't quite free. Each 10 weight you leave free (+1) gives you 1 movement point. 89, +1, 79, +2, etc. Turn 14 into 15, 16 into 18, 18 into 21, and if you're really ambitious, 20 into 24.

 Moving up or down a level costs one movement point and one missile range. There is a convenient chart of terrain costs in here somewhere. However, the costs are wrong for beaches and for roads with treads. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ds/935704-front-mission/faqs/50365
 Height costs missiles 3 times it costs legs, meaning ironically the high ground is disadvantageous for long-range weapons, just like the low ground. Flat ground is ideal.

 There are three missions in the game where you can find loot on the ground. Two of them are mutally exclusive; it's two chances to get the same unique OP OP rifle, zeige, which is light, the strongest and most accurate, and adds 650 xp every time it shoots. The other loot mission is the train mission.

 Peewee can pick up speed 3 on his first level, but it doesn't seem he can actually trigger it. P.S. The game claims he's poorly armoured, and this is a filthy lie. That truck is a beast.
 I got tripped up by the fact allegedly Ralph can learn guide, but hint: he starts with more XP than he needs. He only has two skill slots, and they both start full.
 Certain FAQs claim you can only dodge missiles if you guard with guard, and it looks to me that's true. You still use the shield. When I tried it I countered a rocket brigade by ignoring them until they ran out of ammo.
 The quickest way to view skills is the status slideshow. The quickest way to view items is the trade menu in setup. The only way to find most information is in the pilot menu under setup.

 Double should increase damage by 65% / 131% / 246% / 310%
 Switch should increase damage by 43% / 94% / 246% / 310%, but definitely doesn't.
 Speed on a 5-round gun is 10% / 24% / 42% / 54%
 I've never seen it worthwhile to use a lower-shot gun with speed.

 The AI is highly exploitable, but it's so exploitable I'm not going to go into detail.


 
 It would be fun if the following was a good idea. Having a missile on one shoulder, a shield on the other, a bazooka in one hand, and another short weapon in the other for switch.
 In practice this is a terrible idea. If you have high level short skills, just run up and kill them. If you want a bit of bonus range, use flash grenades, which don't consume weight. And don't require XP damage and accuracy bonuses: levelling one guy in two skills is always worse than levelling two guys in one skill each. Give your missileers two missiles, so they don't run out, so they don't need bazookas, and anyway they never need to defend themselves at short range.