Do Caits alter combat order?

[mOnocularJohn]

I have Cyrus' speed at 496, Therion at 300, Cyrus goes first pretty much every time in any combat without a Chubby Cait. Any battle with a Chubby Cait he goes 2nd after Therion (which of course means the Chubby Cait goes after Therion and flees).

Hmmm.

[mOnocularJohn]

Sigh.. Read somewhere to use the Hunter class with Leghold Trap, which Olberic (the slowest party member was using) so I switched that class to Therion, and now Olberic goes first when Chubby Caits show up.

[Malcefious]

if you use an elemental damage item they always hit.

[Burdpal]

Speed increases the chance of a party member of acting first. It doesn't guarantee combat order. There's always going to be some randomness involved. I've had Primrose act second to Alfyn sometimes.

If you're hunting for Caits I'd recommend Maw of the Ice Dragon. The higher volume of enemies means you can encounter 1-3 Caits at a time if they do spawn, though only one will be Chubby. Make your fastest characters either a Sorcerer or Starseer for the triple-hit spells, or stock on large Soulstones for your slower characters.

Don't worry about missing a Cait, you'll get another chance.

[mOnocularJohn]

The more I study it, the more it seems that speed is just a quaternary consideration in determining who goes first. Character level, class/subclass, and composition of the enemies encountered seem to all have much more determination.

After gaining a few levels it's all reversed. For some reason Ophilia goes first now, and her speed is slightly higher than Olberic's.

It's like the game was intentionally designed to make sure you can't optimize the order in which members of the party get their turn.

It also seems like different classes have invisible background bonuses and penalties that make sure you can't, say, equip Olberic with items enough to get 999 Elemental Attack and do the same as Cyric with the same stat at 999. Same reversed with Cyric and Olberic with physical defense.

Wish they still made in depth instruction booklets with all of this information in it like they used to do back in the days of 16 bit.

It's not as random as some would think though. There is a pattern. I can spend a few hours in an area and get to know who's going and when depending on what set of enemies pop up, and it seems to only change if somebody levels, with ever so slight variation.

[archmag]

引用自 One Eyed Leftist：

It's not as random as some would think though. There is a pattern. I can spend a few hours in an area and get to know who's going and when depending on what set of enemies pop up, and it seems to only change if somebody levels, with ever so slight variation.

It's funny how human brain manages to find different patterns in randomness. It's sad that some people actually believe that and start making theories based on those patterns and start spreading rumors about them without doing actual testing.

Didn't have anything better to do and tried 30 battles with only Therion (258 speed) and Ophelia (123 speed) (fled from battles so that they don't level up and change their speed). Result: Therion was first 18 times (60%), Ophelia - 12 times (40%). There were some fights with the same group of enemies and they didn't have same character moving first, which means that it is still a spread, not a guarantie depending on enemies, and if it is a spread then there is no reason to believe that it actually depends on enemies. Speed affects only chance of character having first turn, it does not guarantie it no matter how high it is, if you want to kill caits effectively make sure that any of your characters can kill them.

It also seems like different classes have invisible background bonuses and penalties that make sure you can't, say, equip Olberic with items enough to get 999 Elemental Attack and do the same as Cyric with the same stat at 999. Same reversed with Cyric and Olberic with physical defense.

It's very easy to test.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1838438023
Cyrus with Pole Mace - 259 to 310=51 points in elemental attack.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1838438406
Olberic with Pole Mace - 144 to 195=51 points in elemental attack.

Same item, same stat increase, number is written on an item. No hidden background bonuses or penalties...

They have different base stats and stat growth because they belong to different classes but this is kinda obvious.