there way to get skill to activate more? is there good build guide?

[It's Just Eeyore]

i know there the computer setting, but not sure how effective that is since very little info on the net how to get constant strings

[Pharnabaze]

Excellent question. I have no definitive answer. We're not talking about skills that have special requirements. My guess is that we have to see how it worked in different FM games to get a hint.
In Front Mission 3, higher lvl skills required more slots. This would drastically decrease the activation rate and the combo chain.
The general rule of thumbs is : the more skills you have equipped, the better. Quoting a post of reddit about FM3 : the basic activation chance seems to be around 15%, which seems about right.
https://www.reddit.com/r/frontmission/comments/184i0ty/front_mission_3_skills_activation_and_chain_rates/?rdt=65064
I read somewhere that chains were formed by having skills of multiple types (power, speed,...).

Now about increasing the activation: I'd like to know the mechanics as well. Someone would have to look at the game's code. My hunch is that your computer's "skill" level plays a role (and maybe your pilot's general level). I wager as well that each pilot has a hidden proficiency mechanic (based maybe on their base stat (Control, Sight, aso).

Mechanically speaking, skills and especially chains are like critical hits. If you were able to increase it considerably, it would trivialize the game.

To sum it up: 1) your computer mode 2) the proficiency of your pilot 3) maybe your general level.

Feint seems to be the base of every chain from 2-4. Feint, better position, critical and whatever has worked very well for me with Sayuri, Amia and Rocky.

However, in the end, everything lies in the hands of RNGesus

[king_of_jamaica]

I don't think so. I think skill activation is completely random in this game, but you can increase the likelihood of chains by using Feint.

Going by guides, it seems like the optimal setup for "short" characters is Critical, Feint, Switch, Unique Skill. Each character gets a unique skill. For example, Ash gets Sniper, Sayuri gets Super Lucky, Amia gets High Speed, etc.

[Anarch16Sync]

This is based on the old guidebook from the original ps1 release, so take it with a grain of salt.

Skill activation is random, and each skill has their own activation chance, that may be as low as a 5% chance or a 30% chance, but this value is hidden and not all guides give the value for all skills.

Skills have a "skill chain" preference, on what kind of skill they are more likey to trigger next, for example, Feint has Power Skill type preference, so is likely to chain Power skills after activating, this is also hidden and only appears on the guides. There are also skills that don't have a chain preference and will always finish a chain, like Final Break.

Also, while it isn't mentioned, some skills seem to increase their trigger chance on higher Lv for example, First, Escape, Dash and others that don't have any value to scale.