Final Fantasy Hacktics

NOTE: THERE IS NOT A SINGLE TOOL TO MOD WAR OF THE LIONS ANDROID/IOS

This topic will be updated when I can think of something to add

War of the Lions Inherent Limitations:

• All the new items cannot be made available outside of Multiplayer in any fashion. (Balthier's equipment was hardcoded, you will not be able to reproduce it)


• The ability/spell quotes cannot be re-enabled


• Even with the slowdown fix, the abilities' audio is distorted


• Inability to remove the Onion Knight/Dark Knight special requirements (jobs mastered & kill count)

PSX	WotL	Hacking Feature
	x	Acceptable amounts of community support
		Can edit job/ability/item flags
		Can edit skillsets/poaching/move-find items/propositions
		Can edit the game's text
	x	Has tool(s) to make editing text a lot easier
		Can edit existing cutscenes (events)
	x	Can write a new story (Missing tools for WotL)
		Can change Spritesheets and their SHP/SEQ
	x	Can import new Spritesheets larger than the original's size (The bottom portion of spritesheets is always compressed... This is a big deal.)
		Can import new formation sprites
	x	Can re-link formation sprites to other slots (Missing tools for WotL)
		Can edit existing maps
	x	Can increase the filesizes of maps
		Can edit ability animations (Effects)
	x	Can create, move and resize files around the ISO
	x	Can use PSX compatible ASM hacks (99.9% of ASM hacks; i.e. all the cool features)
	x	ASM code documentation (extensive, even)
	x	ASM: New/Altered ability formulas
	x	ASM: Soldier Office Upgrade
	x	ASM: Make Charge, Elemental, Jump skillsets act as regular skillsets
	x	ASM: Synthesis Shop
	x	ASM: Different requirements than "sword is equipped"
	x	ASM: Only get randoms when you desire them

What is a casual bugtester/betatester?
[indent=2]One in, usually, hundreds or thousands of people testing the game/software.
The sheer volume of testers allows to easily spot bugs even if testers really suck at their job: i.e. finding bugs and reporting them so that they can be fixed.
As a reward, people tend to get reduced subscription costs or even get the game/software for free.
Usually, they don't give two fucks about reporting bugs, and just want the early access, and well, the reward is always welcome.[/indent]

What is a professional bugtester/betatester?
[indent=2]Someone who goes through a game or uses a software actively attempting to break it.
They, at the very least, have a basic understanding on how video game works. This is very important to know what to try to break. Trying to think about something the programmers missed.
They have to write very detailed reports on how the bug was achieved, if it could be reproduced and so on.
They are paid in money for their work (yes, it is work, pretty boring usually), and will likely keep the material they were testing.[/indent]

Where do we stand?
[indent=2]Fixing bugs on the way, here and then, reported by people who feel like reporting them is far from an ideal solution, but it's all anyone on FFH ever had access to, because quite frankly, having one person being a casual bugtester and not reporting anything is really of no help. So far, as far as I am concerned, we've had less than a handful people apply for a position of bugtester for JotF (I doubt any other mod ever had that "luxury"), and 100% of them never reported back.
From our perspective, they're just a bunch of people who abused our trust and only wanted to play the mod before everyone else. We don't need them.
We can't afford to have a thousand betatesters; we might as well not even try to fix the damn game before releasing it and call a public release a "betatest". We just want our mods to be as bug-free as possible when first released. Modding consumes a lot of time and most people can't commit themselves to that. Like I said, we've never had a proper bugtester here on FFH, and having one would be so very welcomed! But if you're not... please don't waste our time and abuse our trust.

Thank you.
[/indent]

What is it?
[indent=2]It allows you to create a completely new File Index for PSX CD Images (not just FFT), Import/Export files, and automatically associate Files and their Sectors + Filesizes to data locations inside the game.[/indent]

Requirements
[indent=2]Microsoft Excel 2007+[/indent]



Overview

We often assumed that if you were not mentioning that you were planning to mod WotL, that you wanted to mod the PSX version. Unfortunately, nearly every user would just assume that we magically knew they wanted to mod WotL, and it led to huge wastes of time, frustrations and so on. We don't exactly want to reply to 90% of topics by asking which version they want to mod either.

So, I decided to add a field on your profile; just follow this link and you will see it at the very bottom: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?action=profile;area=forumprofile
You only need to change it if you are using the WotL version (every existing account has been defaulted to the PSX version). This will allow us to know which version of the game you want to edit without having to nag you about it. Unfortunately, this likely won't work with old users because too many will not bother to edit that field even if they do use WotL. Thankfully, we more or less know who's using which version over time.

As for new users, they will be forced to choose one or the other, but it would still be nice to mention it in your help posts, because I still haven't figured out how to make the option appear in forum posts.

If you want to see which version someone else is using, you can do so by viewing their profile -- it will be displayed at the bottom, above their signature.

I'd like to see what everyone thinks about which games have the strongest emotional moments... scenes that you can't help but cry every damn time.
Quite a few games have pretty emotional moments, but for a few reasons I somehow can't get myself emotionally involved; I don't understand why I block that way, it's like I can't take the game seriously or something.

My list of most emotional video games moments

[indent=2]Legend of Mana


Valkyrie Profile


Grandia


Unfortunately, these are the only ones I can think of right now... but those first two are always the ones I go back to if I need a powerful emotional release.
[/indent]


My list of worst ruined moments

[indent=2]Final Fantasy IV


Disgaea

[/indent]

Use any format you want, but do use spoilers.

Download Here
FFT Mod Helper 1.03.xlsm

What does this do?
It rips data from your FFT Image... then will give you loads of useful information:

• Easily find duplicates of Inflict Statuses and Item Attributes
• Easily find unused slots for Jobs, Skillsets, Abilities, Inflict Statuses, Effects, Item Attributes, Sprites and ENTDs
• Easily figure out where each of those are used

You need my FFTText Editor to be able to import text into this spreadsheet.

How to use

• Click Load FFTText, then select your "FFTText Editor.xlsm"
• Patch your .fftpatch to your FFT Image and apply other modifications
• Click import and select said FFT Image

Why this tutorial?
[indent=2]To show people how change the graphics and palettes of Effect files (ability graphic animations)[/indent]

Requirements

[indent=2]
For every user:

• An image editing program such as GraphicsGale or Photoshop (or even MSPaint if you are that masochist)


• CDMage or cdprog


• HxD (or any Hex Editor of your choice)

For 32bit Windows users:

• TIM Utility

For 64bit Windows users:

• DOSBox


• Windows 3.1 (includes TIM Utility)

[indent=1] [/indent]
[/indent]

Tutorial

• Getting started


• Editing the file


• Reducing colors while maximizing quality (optional)


• Creating a 4bpp BMP (optional)


• Creating a TIM file


• Importing the new Palette (optional)


• Importing the new Graphic (optional)


• Finishing steps

[indent=2]

Getting started
[indent=2]Visit http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Effects. This page contains very important information used through this tutorial. Also, make sure you grab the .BMP version of the Effect file you want to edit.[/indent]


Editing the file
[indent=2]Just change the colors and graphics as you want... unless you know what you're doing, do not change the dimensions, and if the wiki page states that the Effect file is "4bpp Multi-CLUT", do not use any color other than the first 16. Feel free to edit the colors; but don't use them in the graphical area.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will be using this "Bloody Sword" edit I made:

[/indent]


Reducing colors while maximizing quality (optional)
[indent=2]* This is a lot more for 8bpp effect files than 4bpp; since you only have 16 colors per palette, chances are, using this method won't change a damn thing, in fact, it could become a hindrance

What it comes down to, is the TIM files that will be generated for 8bpp effects are in fact 15bpp + 1 byte for the transparency channel, but indexed. 15bpp means 5 bits per color. So instead of the usual 0 to 255 Red, you'll have 0 to 31 Red. Or, if you prefer, 0-8-16-24-32-and so on... i.e. in increments of ~8. Unfortunately, the best way, by far, to achieve this, is using Photoshop. So, if you don't have Photoshop, sorry because I don't know how any other way to do this.

Assuming you were working with a .psd (and you should), save your file as a BMP, but select 16bit (which is really the 15bpp I mentioned earlier).


Next, open that BMP in Photoshop. Then, we want to reduce it to 8bpp, so head over to "Image"/"Mode"/"Indexed Color"


Make sure "Preserve Exact Colors" is checked! Otherwise, new colors will be generated, and there WILL be conflict, making similar colors becoming the same when creating a TIM out of it, and you WILL lose quality. Otherwise, just adjust the Dither and its % as you wish.


Just save as a 8 bit BMP and you're good to go!
[/indent]


Creating a 4bpp BMP (optional)
[indent=2]* This section is only necessary for Effect files that have a "4bpp Multi-CLUT" color depth, and only if the Graphic was altered.


[/indent]


Creating a TIM file
[indent=2]WARNING: If your Effect file's color depth is "4bpp Multi-CLUT", and you want to import a new graphic, you will need to create a 4bpp TIM file. However, if you edited the colors beyond the first 16 (i.e. the other palettes) and want to import those changes, you will need to create a 8bpp TIM file. Obviously if you want both new palettes and new graphics, you will need to create the two; a 4bpp and a 8bpp TIM.

Simply use TIM Utility with the right settings as displayed below. You can preview your file using the "Preview..." button; if it doesn't display properly, something's wrong. If everything looks good, close the Preview window and click "Convert...".
[indent=2]
4bpp: For 4bpp files (Graphic)
8bpp: For 8bpp files and 4bpp files (Palette)[/indent]
[indent=2]
Translucent except black
Transparent for black
[/indent]
[indent=2]
Write Type: TIM
[/indent]

[/indent]


Importing the new Palette (optional)
[indent=2]
* If your Effect file's color depth is "4bpp Multi-CLUT", use the 8bpp TIM file that you created for these steps. If you only edited the first 16 colors, you can instead use the 4bpp TIM file with the range 0x 14 to 0x 33.

• Open your TIM file and the E???.BIN file in HxD


• In the TIM file, select 0x 14 to 0x 213 (Use "Select Block..." [ctrl+e] to help)


• Copy (ctrl+c)


• In the BIN file, Goto (ctrl+g) to the "Palette Offset" specific on the wiki page for that Effect


• Paste Write (ctrl+b)

[/indent]


Importing the new Graphic (optional)
[indent=2]
* If your Effect file's color depth is "4bpp Multi-CLUT", use the 4bpp TIM file that you created for these steps

• Open your TIM file and the E???.BIN file in HxD


• 
  
  • 8bpp: In the TIM file, select from 0x 220 all the way to the end of the file (Use "Select Block..." [ctrl+e] to help)
  
  
  • 4bpp: In the TIM file, select from 0x 40 all the way to the end of the file (Use "Select Block..." [ctrl+e] to help)
  
  


• Copy (ctrl+c)


• In the BIN file, Goto (ctrl+g) to the "Graphic Offset" specific on the wiki page for that Effect


• Paste Write (ctrl+b)

[/indent]


Finishing steps
[indent=2]

• Save your edited BIN file


• Import it using CDMage/cdprog


• You is done!

[/indent]

[/indent]


Advanced hacking notes
[indent=2]
Let's say your file changed filesize... Normally you'd use the wiki, where I was nice enough to compile a list of all the offsets for you guys, but here is how it is actually calculated:

4bpp:

• Graphic Start: File Size - ( Image Width × Image Height ÷ 2 )


• Palette Start: Graphic Start - 0x204

8bpp:

• Graphic Start: File Size - ( Image Width × Image Height )


• Palette Start: Graphic Start - 0x404

[/indent]

You might have heard that I'm making a job wheel hack, allowing to replace any generic job with a special job under given conditions, and even forbid them.
The hack currently allows making Bard/Dancer not gender restricted anymore if you wish, and auto-masters any job that replaces Mime (because there is not RAM allocation for the learnt abilities flags).

I'm also considering adding the option to have more auto-mastered jobs past Mime. Of course, they would have no requirement, which is a downside (it would be possible, but I'd rather not use a lot of precious SCUS space). I'm reluctant to add this because of all the trouble involved, and its usability into regular mods.

I also wish to add the ability for monsters to change job, but I want to hear people's opinions about this. My wife and I thought about it; it could be job level based, yes, but also plain regular level based... for example: Chocobo (lvl 1), Black Chocobo (lvl 25), Red Chocobo (lvl 60). It might not be possible to please everyone, but I want to find a good middle ground. So everyone's opinion would be welcome.

FFTText Editor v1.1
NOTE: WotL is not properly supported yet with the current version




What is this?
[indent=2]This tool allows to conveniently edit a .ffttext file generated by FFTacText, then generate a new one to load in FFTacText and easily + quickly generate/update your resources.zip. It is used by many of my tools to directly fetch text data for my hacks so that you know what is what without typing everything yourself.[/indent]

Requirements

• Microsoft Windows
• Excel 2007 or higher (with macros enabled)

Instructions

• Extract Altima_8.ttf from FFT_Font.zip to C:\Windows\Fonts
• Open FFTText Editor.xlsm
• Check out the tutorial in the next post

Download

I still don't know after all these years, because apparently no one can be bothered to test...

Which version of the duplicate bug was fixed? Or was it both?

Version 1: Requires Dual Wield, only works on dual-wieldable items (fewer than those even). You have to pay to acquire the item. Only 1 time per unit per Fitting Room entry.

Version 2: Requires nothing. Works on any weapon or shield. The item is automatically added to your inventory's stock. Only 1 time per unit per Fitting Room entry.

Instead of trying to explain the methods myself, I'll just link a video which covers both:

It is taking you hours to patch a ppf file?

I've decided to investigate and finally once and for all get rid of this issue.
It turns that ppf-o-matic just hates fragmented ISOs. But don't worry: there's a very simple to fix. You just need the right program. It's called "Defraggler" and it allows to completely defragment individual files.

1. Download, Install and Open Defraggler
[indent=2]http://www.piriform.com/defraggler/download/standard[/indent]

2. Open your FFT Image


3. Patch away!
[indent=2]The process should be way faster now. Enjoy![/indent]

I'm making this topic not because we have too many talented people available, but rather, the lack of dedicated and talented people applying.

As project leaders, we know we can do shit.
So when someone is proposing to help, which means a potential of countless hours of work lifted from our shoulders, it sounds awesome! Thank you! Except... the vast majority of people require us to babysit them only to see them quit after a few days. This happens very often and it is incredibly tiring.

I understand that some people have very valuable information that not many are knowledgeable about, but there are tutorials for almost anything. Please look up tutorials and get your hands dirty before saying you'll do anything for us! (spriting, eventing, ASM Hacks, etc.)
Unless you played with those things beforehand, you have no idea what you're in for.

So please, if you're only going to make us waste our time, just cut it short, try those tutorials and see for yourself how much work modding really is.
And if you do get past those tutorials and are still willing to help? Good! This proves you have dedication, and you are exactly the type of person we are looking for.
Our time is precious, we have busy lives, and modding is a heavy commitment. Consider the possibility that while trying to help us, you might slow us down. Show us that you're not all talk! Please!

Yes! We'd love your help, but...

→ → → Tutorial Link Index ← ← ←

Requires Excel 2007+

---

Code it yourself!

---

[indent=2]ARH2 removed all tables and you are pretty much forced to ASM in the requirements that you want. It is, however, as friendly as possible for coding that I could think/manage inside of Excel's limitations. Why did I do this? People kept requesting different things for the ARH, and ultimately, bending to everyone's needs would have created needlessly huge data tables, consuming absurd amounts of space when most people hardly use any of the ARH's capabilities. Now with all that junk gone, the ARH was trimmed down from the equivalent of 831 Kanji space lines, down to ~350 Kanji lines + 22 SCUS lines, including major upgrades.[/indent]

---

A Bonus Abilities skillset

---

[indent=2]Its main new feature is a skillset innate to every unit in the game, the "Bonus" skillset, which can contain ANY regular action ability in the game (i.e. not chemist/draw out/charge type abilities). All you have to do is configure the requirements for those abilities.[/indent]

---

Available AI abilities recalculated on new turns

---

[indent=2]Before, the only way these could be recalculated was if the unit used equip change or had a piece of equipment stolen/broken. Now, at the start of every turn, and during them, abilities recalculate their conditions, so that requirements of status based nature and the like aren't Player only abilities anymore.[/indent]

---

Vanilla requirements are already coded in!

---

[indent=2]This probably isn't a consolation to many people, but Swordskills and Limit Breaks have their requirements already set up like they were in vanilla. If anything, at least it shows you how to code it yourself.[/indent]

---

Some custom routines just for you~

---

[indent=2]Just use some very convenient routines that I made myself to very quickly determine if an ability will be enabled or not. I figured other routines were pointless due to how few lines they would actually require without much complexity involved.
Includes:

• Count # of Skillset ID Equipped


• Count # of R/S/M ID Equipped or Innate


• Count # of Item ID Equipped


• Get First Weapon's Type


• Get Weapon(s)'s Elemental Attack


• Get Item Types

[/indent]

---

A convenient spreadsheet

---

[indent=2]Of course, it isn't perfect, but you have options to save directly to your pSX quicksave to see the results of your coding LIVE, immediately.
You can also copy the xml's contents with a single click, on top of functionality like bookmarks to save your positions in code.[/indent]

Ok, so basically I trimmed a routine from 1120 lines to 677... which took hours. Then I was curious to see which routine would call upon this one because I could never breakpoint the damn routine. Turns out only one routine does... and that one doesn't seem to have a reference.

The routine in question is at 0x8002705C.

I could not find 5c700280 (0x8002705C) in the entire ISO.
I could not find 179C000C (jal 0x8002705C) as a properly aligned word in the entire ISO.

Am I missing something? We're talking about a LOT of potential free space.




Of course, there are probably more like these, but I just gotta make sure I'm not wrong first.

If a game doesn't follow these rules, it is not a true Japanese RPG. Feel free to add your own!

1) You need a doctorate's degree to manage sewers
2) Your first boat trip will not go well
3) You will be thrown in a prison cell and escape (easily)
4) At least one town will be destroyed

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.square_enix.android_googleplay.FFT_en2&hl=en

It happened! We don't know how easy it will be to mod yet, but just letting out the news that the release is now official!

Thanks to Aadarm for pointing it out.

PS: Of course, it comes with all the issues from the iOS release... given that they "patched" the slow effect issue, I don't have a clue how hard it would be to revert the fix (will probably never happen), on top of adding Archaemic's slowdown removal.

Yes, AGAIN.

This is about the fifth time I change mail servers, and I'm getting sick of it. Microsoft seems to hate my guts or something, because I always get blocked out of my mail servers because of them from what I gathered. I'm guessing it's because we are called Final Fantasy Hacktics. We respect their policies, but still end up blocked every single time. And every time it takes me hours to move to another mail server to fix it.

So yeah, sorry to Microsoft e-mail users, but you won't be able to register on FFHacktics unless you use a different e-mail; otherwise no one receives e-mails for weeks.

Banned e-mails: (only when registering)

• @hotmail.com


• @outlook.com


• @live.com


• @msn.com


• and variants

If you can see this, it means you have successfully transferred to the new server!

Thanks again to kivutar for providing us a server.
Please warn me of anything not working properly, I might very well have forgotten something.

Also, sorry it was down for so long.

King of Ivalice
[indent=2]This mod is meant to immerse you into the world of Final Fantasy Tactics, but seen from the eyes of the second main character: Delita Hyral. Of course, this mod will not be Matsuno's original story because it won't be written by him. However, we will try our best to keep faith to everything that is canon and take some liberties where possible. Not being Square, we can feel free to include all sorts of content it would be illegal for them to add.

[/indent]

King of Ivalice Revolution
[indent=2]This version is just like the original King of Ivalice, but heavily alters the vanilla (original) aspects of the game, like generic jobs, generic monsters, items and abilities in order to give a different, new flavor to the mod for players who are interested in that kind of experience. These edits are meant to make the game fun and different; not to give you a hard time, but still challenging enough. This idea is inspired by Celdia's Complete Patch.

[/indent]


Credits

[indent=2]
Development

• Xifanie

Events

• Xifanie


• Elric

Sprites

• Xifanie (French Maid)


• Toshiko

Mechanics

• Xifanie

ASM Hacks

• Xifanie

[/indent]

Those are only ideas for jobs for recruitable characters; nothing is set in stone yet.

Recruitable Characters
[indent=1]

Squire
Holy Knight
Divine Knight
Archeologist	Uses artifacts found/dug around the world to fight. When artifacts break, he/she needs to return to his/her workshop in Goug  to repair them.
Leader	Support abilities
Harlequin	Luck related skill; invoke random abilities
Special Chocobo	Weak, but incredible as a mount
Succubus	Causes confusion, blood suck, drains HP/MP
Great Flan	Instant cast spells: basic black magic, cure, drain MP.  Innate protect and Defense Up.
Shinto Priestess	Uses sigils/seals (single target disable 100% hit vs physical evade)
Chaos Mage	Uses forbidden magic (harms the user/inflicts bad statuses but very powerful)
Slayer	Expert in anatomy. With the right weapon deals incredible damage to monsters/humans. (Axe VS minotaurs, Bow VS juravis, etc. / Innate Equip Change) Status infliction also increases with the right weapon.
Mystic Knight	Channels the power of a spell into his weapon somehow? Using Defend as Runic?
Magus	Powerful attack spells
Sage	Powerful recovery spells
Assassin	Skillset at disabling and making quick work of targets. Agile.
Minstrel	Uses harps for useful AoE effects
Telekinetic	high range, weak damage, wind elemental, knockback effect abilities
Phantom Thief	Excellent at swordfighting and stealing
Maid (French)	Love and Devotion!
Blue Mage	Blue Magic
Kirby	Enough said
Trainer	Great at handling monsters

[/indent]

Foes

placeholder

Steal
[indent=2]Double accuracy when attempting to steal from dead bodies[/indent]

placeholder

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This topic lists the new items in King of Ivalice. Some items can be sacrificed without taking the game away from the original version, because Delita isn't supposed to have access to them. Despite the list below, some items might be still kept because they are relevant to a certain character, or it seems normal for Delita to be able to acquire this item in a different way than Ramza did.

Timeline:

• View the .html version (badly converted, but I couldn't find a better tool)


• Download the .xlsx version (Excel 2007+)

Do not Private Message unless it is a Private Message
[indent=2]Why ask a general question on the forum where everyone can answer and you would provide the answer to anyone else seeking it in the future? Because that would be the smart thing to do. PMing an admin about general modding will have severe consequences.[/indent]

Talking about 1.3 is forbidden
[indent=2]No really, it's been years already and we have things far better on FFH to offer than that lame "difficulty" mod. If you're coming on FFH for 1.3, goodbye.[/indent]

These new rules are now effective immediately

These things seriously get old, and it's very annoying to repeat ourselves over and over again. We have better things to do than personally babysit every newcomer. We're doing our best to help, but it would be much better if you made the effort to not make us want to cleave your head right off.

Ahhh, the wonderful lengthy flowery dialogue!


Bestest, deepest love story ever! So romantic!