FF12: is there a good method to manage equipment upgrades?

[magomago]

This part is somewhat driving me nuts: I have characters that are clearly under-geared, however getting the right item is difficult.

Obviously you pair the license with the equipement...but logisitically this isn't easy.

This is how I'm struggling with it right now:
- Check what the store Has. Write down the name of an item, and make sure its exactly what you want
- Go to the Liscense board for each Character, and see if I have a match.
- Half the time I can't find it on the liscense board, and I go back to the store to see something else. (This part gets repeat 10 times over)
- Its a bigger mess when you don't know exactly what type of weapons each class should be.

Its a confusing mess; is there some streamlined approach that I don't know about?

edit:
Sigh, I just looked at buying a heavy lance or a lohengrin but my breaker and hunter and ninja cannot use it. What else it supposed to use these things? I'd love to distinguish between what can I buy for a character(that I don't have a liscense for) and what is simply not compatible with that character. :'(

 

[Zodiark1593]

In the upper right hand corner of the screen when you shop, you should see your character icons. Character icons that are darkened do not currently have the license for that item. Character icons that are lit have the license for that item, and character icons with the E next to it have that item equipped.

Definitely doesn't stick out, but it's there. I'll upload a picture when I get the chance.

 

[magomago]

In the upper right hand corner of the screen when you shop, you should see your character icons. Character icons that are darkened do not currently have the license for that item. Character icons that are lit have the license for that item, and character icons with the E next to it have that item equipped.

Definitely doesn't stick out, but it's there. I'll upload a picture when I get the chance.

I totally get that, however, how do I know when I COULD equip an item with the appropriate license that I lack? LP points don't come easy so I'm prioritizing them on everything besides items; it would make sense to only get licensees for the items I will use, buying every license seems like a great way to waste a lot of LP.

 

[Zodiark1593]

On the license board, there isn't a surefire way to tell what a particular license will let you use unless its readily available to be unlocked. However, licenses of a certain class of weapon and armor are usually grouped close together, lessening guesswork. For example, when you unlock your Bow licenses, the next ones needed are right beside the ones you unlocked. Same for the 1H swords, magicks and most armor.

As for earning license points themselves, its actually relatively easy to gain compared to exp as most enemies only give one license point regardless of level, and each of your characters gain that LP even if they are not in your active party. Grinding on enemies in the Estersand for a little bit can bust out the licenses in a hurry, and the item Golden Amulet doubles the LP earned.

 

[dagamer34]

Yeah, it sounds like you need to grind a bit. This is one part of FFXII I didn't like quite as much, it didn't have the smooth item flow that FFX had (then again, completely different development teams).

Hopefully if FFX/X-2 HD Remaster sells well (on sale in Japan tomorrow, which is technically today), they'll do a FFXII HD Remaster too.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Ehh, grinding in this game isn't nearly as bas az most rpgs with random encounters, especially when you can one shot the early enemies. Levels you need to grind the tough enemies for, but thankfully levels don't have quite the same relevance as your equipment.

 

[jdobratz]

If I recall correctly, this is the one where you can, with the correct party and equipment, just tape the buttons down and have the system auto-fight battles. I seem to recall reading it online and doing it myself. I just let it overnight once or twice and boom, max level while I slept. It's technically cheating, but whatever, I would have ground out max level myself anyway, this just saved me time. Only bad part is you have a max inventory, so while you do get lots of gold from selling all of the drops after a night, you lose out on much of it because after a few hours you can hold any more in your inventory.

 

[artemicion]

I totally get that, however, how do I know when I COULD equip an item with the appropriate license that I lack? LP points don't come easy so I'm prioritizing them on everything besides items; it would make sense to only get licensees for the items I will use, buying every license seems like a great way to waste a lot of LP.

As long as you are consistent with 1) upgrading equipment at every new shop, and 2) focusing your characters on just one type of weapon (daggers, swords, spears, etc.), the license/shop progression is fairly predictable. I.e., if Vaan is using daggers and the shop has a new dagger that Vaan does not yet have the license for, the license is probably 1-2 squares away from the last dagger license.

One strategy is to make sure your characters are one step ahead of their licenses before you get to the next weapon shop. I.e., if you just bought Vaan a dagger from the Daggers 2 license, make sure to unlock Daggers 3 before you get to the next town.