Story mode changing my party set up

[Dragnmastralex]

when I play through Glenn's group story even if I have a solo party saved with the set up I want the story keeps changing my parties equipment to what it wants it to be instead of what I want it to be.

how do I fix it so that the story doesn't control my builds? I'm sick of changing the gear manually every single stage.

[Stormtr8per]

The story doesn't change your gear and materia automatically, unless you press on the Recommend button.

Only at one point in the game, will the story "force" you to change outfits, but that's that.

[Dragnmastralex]

Originally posted by Stormtr8per:

The story doesn't change your gear and materia automatically, unless you press on the Recommend button.

Only at one point in the game, will the story "force" you to change outfits, but that's that.

mine does. I don't press anything every time I go into the next story... its back to what it wants it to be. i have to manually change i back every.... single... time.... and it's getting very very very annoying

[Stormtr8per]

Originally posted by Dragnmastralex:

mine does. I don't press anything every time I go into the next story... its back to what it wants it to be. i have to manually change i back every.... single... time.... and it's getting very very very annoying

I just need to be clear: You haven't played any other mode besides Story Mode, have you? Because if you haven't, and the game automatically changes everything, then I can understand that it's getting very annoying for you.

Which chapter are you playing right now?

[Dragnmastralex]

Originally posted by Stormtr8per:

Originally posted by Dragnmastralex:

mine does. I don't press anything every time I go into the next story... its back to what it wants it to be. i have to manually change i back every.... single... time.... and it's getting very very very annoying

I just need to be clear: You haven't played any other mode besides Story Mode, have you? Because if you haven't, and the game automatically changes everything, then I can understand that it's getting very annoying for you.

Which chapter are you playing right now?

it does it in every mode even in the character story mode. I just finished chapter 3 in the story. but it always uses the recommended even when I have saved parties and if I change what they recommend. nothing sticks it always changes wither I do the story mode back to back or do different things. nothing matters it's stuck automatically using the recommended.

[Stormtr8per]

Originally posted by Dragnmastralex:

it does it in every mode even in the character story mode. I just finished chapter 3 in the story. but it always uses the recommended even when I have saved parties and if I change what they recommend. nothing sticks it always changes wither I do the story mode back to back or do different things. nothing matters it's stuck automatically using the recommended.

That doesn't happen to me. In that case, you'll need to send Square Enix/Applibot an inquiry about it.

[Pixel Fusion Productions]

Just going to point out that Stormtr8per is wrong here. The default behavior of the game in story mode is to automatically change your party selection to the recommended, which of course, messes up what each of us build. Early on it isn't a huge problem, but as things get more difficult, having to change things every single time is very time-consuming.

I can't believe this hasn't been addressed in the year the game has been up.

[Cedarva]

... there's 20 party save slots. Use them.

[Abradolf Linkler]

The party save slots are ignored in story mode.

It's weird that so many people don't realize this or just finished the story and then forgot it happens. Go do literally any random story battle, even a red special danger one. It will equip stuff that doesn't make much sense.

It is especially annoying if you are trying the extra battles because some of them are very hard, and every time you lose you have to set your party up from scratch from the random junk they automatically equip.

Even when you first start playing, one battle you'll put lightning materia on cloud and 2 battles later barrett will suddenly have it instead.

I tried to get a friend into this game and it was one of their first complaints.

[Cedarva]

You can change characters in story mode (some are static, some aren't). When running through a story, you're generally running an entire chapter with the same comp so you're not changing often enough to matter.

Party save slots aren't touched during the story mode - so they aren't "changed". Just like many other games, some battles are defaulted to 'whatever' setup in the game - this is no different. If you can't change up how your characters play on the fly and learn how they coexist, doing anything at a higher level will be more of a problem than anything else.

Source : I did everything except the B90/B100 Cetra achievements and that's mainly cause there's currently no incentive to do them *yet*.

[Miesmann - allkeyshop]

it does for me too, evrytime i want to start new main story i need to manually adjust party's main/sub weapon gears and try, if i have bad luck and fail, game again automatically equips worst possible gear i have and its manual placement again xD but fear not, square enix sayd that the aniversory patch thats coming very soon will fix the bad equipments on main story missions or atleast they are trying to fix it better.

i kinda find it amuzing myself, having 30 weapons close to be max upgreaded possible, evrytime i go story missions game wants my party members to have equipped red13's gear thats 3 stars and lv 1, instead those powerfull lv 120 gears xDDD

[Abradolf Linkler]

Nobody said you can't manually change it, just that it's annoying that you have to every single time. It could at least save the loadout for the party you just used and died with... that's like the minimum.

Some people decided to act like this doesn't even happen though which is the part I found hilarious. It's not the end of the world sure, but it still actually does happen, and is mildly annoying at best.

Also unless you are actually clicking "best equip" button, there is absolutely zero need for it to be happening.

The sub-equip slots are the worst optimized by the way, it will see you have 2 physical weapons and 3 physical materia and equip magic attack as sub weapons, or healing. If you don't pay attention it gimps you pretty heavily.

[Cedarva]

While not perfect, sometimes that "level 10 weapon" actually *is* better than that "level 120 weapon" for the fights' needs.

I feel like there needs to be a "Masterclass" of why the system chooses certain weapons, even lower leveled ones, over others here .. but that'd be a long-winded post that warrants it's own thread entirely.

[Abradolf Linkler]

I feel like you didn't read my previous statement, it would be one thing if it chose a level 10 item that gives + attack or physical attack over a 120 item with mag att when you are equipped with all physical skills, but it doesn't do that. It chooses based on power and has hidden weights that sway it like health being more valuable power rating wise than almost any other stat. ( see the other thread about how equipping a healer for co-ops is a problem because + healing gear has almost no power-weight. The game thinks you are stronger with 2k additional health then being able to heal for 70% more).

Also again it would be fine if it only did that to you if you hit the recommended equip button, but it just does it regardless and that is the problem. Then if you lose the fight, it does it again. It's still not the end of the world but it is rage and or headache inducing at times, and it doesn't need to be.

EDIT- This "other thread" I mentioned might have actually been on reddit and not here, whoops. Still true though.

[Cedarva]

I read it, but I was more referring to Mies' comment when they added the last part (with the xDDD).

The "Masterclass" comment was more directed at you. ;) The game isn't perfect, but why it chooses things (again, MOST of the time) aren't really hidden. It used to be (WAAAYYY) worse before about 6 or 7 months ago before they redid the systems, but now they're a lot better at choosing what will help with buffs/debuffs along with weaknesses. I don't know how long you've been playing but there was a time the things just wouldn't heal. Like - at all. 1 dedicated healer would be at 50% HP and the other 2 at 20% and the "healer" would still be throwing out DPS - even outside of a "symbol phase" where timing wasn't an issue.

I'll reiterate, it's not perfect - it'll never be perfect as each player has a different meaning of what "perfect" means, but it's functional now and even using "recommended" (which I hate, btw), will get you through things effectively - even if you have to take it off Auto for a moment or two to manually get things where you want them.

As for the healer Co-Op thing, I've never seen that - then again, I'll usually play the healer when I do my 1 or 2 Co-Ops dailies cause I don't have much faith in anybody else (sad but true). That said, I know I'm ahead of the curve in power level than the majority of other people, so I'm probably more bias in that way than trying to do things at a lower combined power level. My Aerith, Matt, (and sometimes Tifa), does some decent DPS and healing at the same time without me or my party having to worry at all. At least I know my biases. :(

[Abradolf Linkler]

That's fair, sometimes the game still prioritizes heals really bad btw. Like it will heal the guy at 90% of his health instead of the one at 40% when an AE is coming, usually better to manual control the healer. Thankfully that's rare and it will usually heal fairly well.

I actually haven't played for that long (little over a month.. month and a half maybe), but long enough to finish all story content + most of the extra battles, at floor 70 of cetra tower and floor 20-30 of the other 3 towers, and I have all summons and all the summons second attacks except for leviathon ( clearing very hard leviathon to unlock tidal wave is brutally hard). Also cleared all crisis dungeons at S+ ( except for the 30 day one that unlocked for clearing the rest).

I only mention those things to show you that I do understand the importance of buffs and debuffs, because you can't get that far if you don't.

I don't play on auto though and this isn't my first foray into rpg mechanics. A lot of that content was challenging ( and still is, I haven't beat a lot of the tower battles yet after all).

My co-op comment was more about how 85K power will be required, but to get aerith to 85K I have to unequip the correct weapon ( like guard stick / sun umbrella / mythril staff... and slap on the egg staff). Because that gives way more power rating then the things that are actually optimal. And that's relevant to the discussion because the auto equip functionality that story uses does similar things... it isn't really a problem for me since I only have a few extra battles to deal with it, but I do remember how annoying it was and probably still is to people working on the actual story.