Does Throwing Cost Energy by Default

[Xenolith]

The FFX Manual doesn't say it costs energy to Throw, but I just realized that some tactic is burning energy and I suspect it is Throw.  If so, is there a way to make the defalut Throw cost no energy?

[bearded]

what are his attributes? some attributes cost energy.

[Xenolith]

Good point.  He has Body Armor.  I'll have to read up on that attribute.  I didin't think it used energy.

[Xenolith]

In watch mode it appears that my "no energy cost" ranged attacks cost energy, so I guess it was also the "no energy cost" melee attacks costing energy, and not Throw or Body Armor.  Anyone have insight into this?

[stumpy]

I just tested this and throwing objects does not cost EP, zero-EP-cost special powers do not cost EP, and zero-EP-cost melee attacks do not cost energy.

My test was to start a RR session with a hero. Set his energy stat to 0, so he does not recharge EP. Print his EP at the start (105.0, as it should be in FFX). Have him use a low-power power and print his EP after (72.0 as expected, 105.0-33.0), then have him run around and throw things, checking EP after each thing and then the same deal with a zero-EP-cost special power (speeding bullet in this case) and then the same with a zero-EP-cost melee attack. His EP never changed from 72.0 after using any of those.

I'm not sure why you are seeing energy loss from zero-EP-cost powers and throwing things. It is worth keeping in mind that the rate at which EP is recovered is lower when attacking, so maybe you are seeing the EP recharge slow when your character is doing something that lowers the game's internal multiplier for how quickly recharge occurs. It's even possible that the game continues to recharge while a character uses a zero-EP-cost power and then subtracts some of the EP recharged while the power was executing, to reflect the lower recharge rate during power use. That might be noticeable as a slight blip on the character's energy bar, particularly if he has a high enough energy stat.

[Xenolith]

Thanks for testing and responding, Stumpy.  Just to be clear, were you in one of the watch modes, like Team Mode?

I did some more testing last night and my 0 cost powers are indeed using the "low" energy setting.  I even modified their AI files to force "energy=None," but that didn't work.  I probably accidentally messed something up at somet point. 

Rather than dabble with a bunch of code I don't understand I simply doubled everyone's energy, and although the 0 energy cost powers still burn energy, they recharge fast enough that it doesn't make much of a difference.

I also have the game set at "Normal" difficultly.  I know the number of hit point scales with the difficulty setting, so maybe the energy use is tied to that as well?

Thanks--

[stumpy]

I did my testing in the default session, the one called Battle In The Rumble Room or something like that. I wanted to be able to control what my test character was doing (i.e. force him to only use his zero-EP-cost powers).

I don't know if the AI for the watch mode sessions handles energy use differently. It's possible that it does.

I just ran a quick Watch Mode session and I didn't see the character's energy points diminish when using his zero-EP-cost powers, but my test character has lots of non-zero-EP-cost powers, so it was tough to keep track of.

[Xenolith]

Thanks again, Stumpy.