FFTA2 Quest editor or Enemy unit editor

[lepiton]

The functional part of the program is basically done, what I'm doing now is trying to store all the data(offsets, hex values, strings that are associated with them so you know what you are looking at) required to edit every quest in the game(instead of hard coding data for 1 or 2 to test it). Problem is I need to associate each property with a quest, and some properties (such as units) have sub-properties(jobs, abilities, equipment etc). This is something I would normally do using a database(a text file would be too long and a the search operations would increase run time and the required length of code by too much) for a personal project or web application, but this is supposed to be a standalone editor,. I'm not really willing to type up text files that long and even developing an algorithm too peel the info and sort it into something remotely efficient of lennart's spreadsheets would be a pain. So I can either make a more specialized application that only edits enemy units for each quest and their properties with internal resources or I can make an all around quest editor that can affect all the properties of a quest(law, loot, ap , exp, rank, clan stat requirements etc), but would require the user to download and setup a database on their local system server that the application can reference.(I'm not willing to host an online database since my aws free database usage is nearly maxed out already because of some other stuff I was doing) I'm not sure whether or not the community would be willing to do that so I'm asking here before I make a decision.

Note: the database application would most likely take a similar time frame as the specialized one so that's not really a factor, and either way since these are winform applications developed in visual studio you will need the .net framework to run it, but if you are playing any games on your computer chances are you already installed it, and if not it takes like 5 minutes.

[Eternal]

I feel like the Enemy Unit Editor would be more immediately beneficial in the meantime, unless Xif/FFH would be willing to host the database, in which case that would be the better option (since it would have everything in the Enemy Unit Editor plus more).

On a sidenote, we really appreciate you doing this. I know it's tedious work, but you're filling in one of the biggest gaps in A2 modding at the moment, so kudos to you on that!

[chocolatemoose]

I agree with Eternal that the enemy data is the higher priority problem to solve and makes it easier for modders to work on the game (fewer obstacles to figuring things out).

Unless you really want to heavily micromanage when players could get certain loot, thereby affecting when they can get certain items at the bazaar, the other variables don't seem as impactful to most battles. Laws could be interesting! But, unlike FFTA, the penalties for violating them aren't severe enough to make modifying them a game changer.

[Baron Samedi]

I'll third the enemy editor idea. As cool as it would be to edit quests, I think being able to edit enemy equipment and abilities will have a much greater impact in most hacks. One of the most frustrating things about A2 hacking is how pathetic most of the enemies in the game are. Almost none of them have more than 2 or 3 skills and they mostly have garbage equipment making stealing and breaking enemy hear useless. In addition, some enemy jobs are so rare to fight against, they're practically player only.

This editor would solve all three problems at the same time, and would even allow hackers to make a true 'hard-type' hack for players who know the game inside and out and just want a challenge.

Really looking forward to seeing how this progresses, thanks for putting the effort in!