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Topics - The Damned

1
PSX FFT Hacking / ASM Requests
October 29, 2014, 09:16:45 pm
Feel free to request any ASM here for the PSX version; you will not be judged.
If you have an idea that would benefit more than yourself and understand video game mechanics, feel free to post it in the proposals thread instead.


Who knows, someone just might look into it if it interests them. If you really need a hack done, you should try to avoid relying on luck and do it yourself.

What is ASM?
ASM stands for assembly. It is the compiled language that FFT runs on, and it's what we alter to make hacks to enhance the game. ASMing is literally altering the code of the game; it's not easy like changing the WP value of Excalibur from 21 to 30.

If you don't understand the mechanics behind video games though, don't be surprised if anyone tells you your idea is either impossible or far too much trouble to accomplish.

As a quick note, look at my signature to have a better understanding of what ASM can't do.
2
(I guess this means I'm technically the first after that redaction. Hunh.)

So, I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days even though now I can't really remember what brought it up due to getting constantly distracted by TVTropes: Would there be any interest at all in a patch that combines FFT with the good elements from FFT:A (and lesser elements of FFXII)?

I'll explain what I mean by this.

First and foremost, this would be a class-change-"only" patch since those tend to be the only patches that get finished around here (so far). Other things like items and abilities would get changed by association, but there would be very little story alteration here. There would be some story alteration though, if only in the form of minor references to (long) past events and now-extinct species and perhaps the Rafa/Rapha and Malak/Marach sub-plot.

Given the sheer amount of player classes in just FFT:A--there's like 35 not counting its sequel--and the only 20 spots available for Jobs in FFT, there would obviously be some class consolidation and combination going. This would apply even for the classes that weren't represented (by any one class) in FFT:A at all, such as Mediator. For example, Juggler would likely end up combined with, say, Thief. Not every class can make it even when consolidated, obviously, and a few can't make in it in anything but name onl due to programming issues that would be way too much trouble to implement. This namely affects Beastmaster, Morpher, Gadgeteer and to a degree, Alchemist, Dragoon and Ninja. (Jump and Throw are going to have to die by "necessity" to replicate FFT:A Dragoon and Ninja respectively, but Chemist's Items trumps Alchemist's Item + other stuff focus for now, so that's likely to stay. Meanwhile, Draw Out, Elemental and Math Skill are also likely to die).

And then, of course, some classes just kinda suck, like the aforementioned Gadgeteer and the boring FFT:A Illusionist class. Elements of them will show up in other classes still, but not necessarily player-available ones and the classes themselves won't show up at all.

Similarly, when I say the "good" elements of FFT:A, I am exempting the broken aspects of a lot of the classes thereof. So while Juggler elements may exist as part of Thief as aforementioned, egregious crap like Smile is getting euthanized.

When it comes to other "goodness", it's probably easier to make a list here off the top of my head:

1. No Obnoxious Law Cards That Penalize You For Playing the Damn Game: Rather self-explanatory. Even if monsters aren't figured out yet, partly due to trying to be realistic about sprites--*unfairly looks at Choto*--and such, you'll at least be able to damage them without having to worry about crap like "Damage to Animals" auto-losing you the battle.

2. No Judges: At least not on Chocobos.

3. No Instant Spellcasting: Debatable whether this was "bad", but it certainly made things less "Advanced" in terms of strategy.

4. MP will Regenerate for Every Unit: Finally, something that isn't goodness through absence. It's a good way to solve the "MP" problem and not make everything so damn dependent on Ethers, Chakra, Angel Song and Move-MP Up. If it works well enough, I might use it for Embargo.

5. Units will be Able to Die Permanently Outside of Jagds: Again, debatable whether this was a "bad" element or not, but it made things less strategic. Also, since Treasure and learning through Crystals will probably stay around here unlike in Embargo, it will also be beneficial. (Units that are Always: Undead will be immune to both things though.)

6. No Learning from Equipment: Partly since that's currently impossible as far as I'm aware, though now I'm reminded that I think I need to bug Xifanie about something....

7. Opening Classes Will be Relatively "Easy": Given that most of the classes in FFT:A generally opened after you learned 2 skills, I've already worked out a job tree that branches and opens relatively early without the need to really grind for levels. Nothing's official yet of course, but outside of perhaps the four "Complex" classes, it's unlikely the requirements will go beyond "get to Level 3 of [Insert Class Here]" at most. Might be as low as Level 2. As in Embargo, Mime, which is sticking around due its "uniqueness", will not be as obnoxious to open as it was in vanilla. It similarly won't be the be-all, end-all class though.

8. You'll Get to Be Assassins. Maybe: I'm currently thinking about making the absurdly busted Assassin class the Female-only replacement for Dancer, primarily as a challenge to see if I can make them not break the game. If this somehow manages to happen, then it almost goes without saying that Celia and Lede will be getting buffs to "compensate".


So...yeah. Any potential interest in this? For several reasons, I figure I could use a "lighter" project to work on while still slowly working on Embargo. (Yes, I am still working on Embargo. I just keep stuck on redoing equipment, which is almost done again and perhaps competently this time, and monsters.)

P.S. It pretty much goes without saying (explicitly), but due to the aforementioned attempt at practicality, all of the sprites would be Humes/Humans. So none of the other Job-species from FFT:A would be showing up. Closest thing would be different versions/colo(u)rs of Chocobos beyond the three represent in Vanilla, but I haven't thought about monsters too much yet despite Blue Mage being guaranteed a spot.
3
Help! / A Curious Case of Status Effects
March 29, 2012, 07:45:46 pm
(Hmmm...I'm going to have to delve into Help's depths at one point if I find such useful old threads just by lazily searching.)

Alas, the search function could not help me solve at least one mystery, though. As such, I figured that I should create a thread about status effects in general since I have multiple questions about them both at present and in the future (since some will doubtless come forth over time); I really don't want this to be a one-of thread if I can avoid it--Help has too many of those already, if somewhat understandably.

Right now, I have three questions, one of which is a lot more pressing than the others. I'll ask that one first, especially since Razele is no longer around to ask (read: bother) about it:

1. Does anyone know how Death Sentence status interacts with Dead status? Does it just add Dead when the countdown ends? Or is there something more complicated to it? (Basically, I'm asking this: If Dead for some reason didn't exist, would Death Sentence still do anything once it reached its countdown? Keep in mind I'm talking about before and after Razele's ASM that makes Death Sentence ignore Block: Dead.)

2. Although it has its own status slot, is Invite actually a "status" per se? IIRC, it never shows up in the status screen even when you successfully use it as the "afflicted" becomes a Guest immediately. So it recently occurred to me that I'm not even sure it needs its own status space unlike, say, how Defending actually has a status that shows up when you Defend. (Basically, I'm asking this: Is Invite's "status" condition more akin to Quick [or Golem] in that it doesn't really need an actual slot for it to still exist?)

3. What is the order that statuses occur in when applied? Is it in reverse order to the designations they're given in FFTPatcher? I vaguely remember that it is, but it's been forever since I've been able to test anything else myself, so.... (This is straightforward.)

3a. Similarly, is that order the same one that they occur for those relative few that have end-of-turn effects after they've been successfully applied? For instance, say that I had a condition like Sap that drained HP and could co-exist with Regen, which obviously heals HP. Would they occur one after the other in the order that they would otherwise be applied? Or would something else determine the order? (This is straightforward too.)

3b. Similarly, would the above occur if it were Sap and Poison, which both damage HP (by differing amounts)? ...Actually, has anyone even tested or at least been made aware of whether you can have two different types of damage from end of turn effects? For that matter, of healing or healing & damage? (This is straightforward three. ...I mean, also.)


Yeah. That first one is the one I care about the most, but thanks in advance to any useful replies. I plan to ask more later, especially once/if I can try to get my emulators back up and running so I can actually test & play things and thus answer some of these myself.
4
Help! / A Glitch in FFTPatcher?
March 20, 2011, 01:12:45 pm
It's something of a minor glitch, but it's more disconcerting than it should be given that I only noticed now and I have to assume that it occurred some time ago (if it hasn't always been present).

While finishing up my revisions of Malboros/Morbols, I noticed that for some reason the FFTPatcher displayed that they, quite naturally supposedly, had a Jump of 131. I've already fixed it back to the initial Jump of 3--thank you BGM--but it shows that as being a "change" rather than the correct original value. I'm wondering if this has happened to anyone else? Or if it's even always been a part of FFTPatcher that just never gets mentioned because it's so damn easy to change?

Regardless, as I aforementioned, it's a bit disconcerting to only realize this now after seeing that it didn't correct when I reloaded my patch (and briefly undid my work on Malboros), which leads me to believe that it's been like this for a while. I'm somewhat paranoid that "it" has affected other, not as noticeable stats in a similar way since it seems to be doing this from Malboros through Hydras and then skips to do the same to Steel Giant and only Steel Giant.

So...yeah?

P.S. Is it possible change the text of FFTPatcher itself? I could have sworn that I've seen it done and it would really help so very much with me changing the name of at least 75% of the abilities among many other things.


Regardless, thank you in advance and such.
5
Well, besides me using Microsoft Excel.

I didn't really want to make a thread for this, but between the search function not really turning anything up and Xifanie/Zodiac not being around to bug at present, I guess I'll have to.

So, Celdia was helping me finally understand the ARH last night (since I am an idiot) and we noticed, after much trying on my end, that for some reason Excel won't output the necessary data from I2. Where should be the longish string of As and 0s is just "Name?" when I try to copy it. Given that Celdia informed that the I2 more or less is the ARH, this is...problematic.

At present, I am using the (rather large, large enough to have eaten up what little memory I had on this computer when I finished downloading and then installing it last night) program OpenOffice. It outputs everything, but the table with restriction parameters if horrifically squished.

I wouldn't mind having two things open, but if I could just fix this "error"--changing macros and stuff has availed nothing--in Excel, then I could just have open.

(Ugh, I am an unnecessarily long-winded bastard.)


TL;DR: Panel I2 doesn't output what it should in my Microsoft Excel, though everything else appears to work with regards to the ARH. Does anyone know how to fix this?
6
New Project Ideas / Final Fantasy Tactics: Embargo
February 21, 2011, 08:06:11 pm
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS: EMBARGO


Salutations. It is I, The Damned, using my 1000th post (like that means anything) to finally making a thread for that patch I keep mentioning incessantly like an annoying bastard.

Anyway, due to philsov, RavenofRazgriz and a few others re-igniting my interest in FFH, I figured that I would have another try at doing something productive with a patch that I feel is actually quite doable compared to the absurdly lofty one I wanted to do with "On the Skulls of Dragons".

EMBARGO OVERVIEW


Embargo is (tentatively) named so because along with calls for "balance" and "change", one of the calling cards of this patch will be excising most foreign elements. Conceptually, it's the polar opposite of Lydyn's Shuushin patch.

I think that the concept not only allows more focus on Ivalice's internal politics and workings, which are rather hazy throughout vanilla, but also conveniently removes three of the most problematic generic classes. Monk, Ninja and Samurai all die because of this, with Oracle being an unfortunate casualty, though I figure that very few people will miss Oracle more than I.

(Chemist is also currently dead, partly because it's problematic as well; like the above, only its skill set, Item, might return. Thief and, technically, Knight are now enemy-only classes. You'll still be able to Steal and Break most things with generics, though.)

With that said, the game will be much the same for Chapter 1, though moderate changes have already been planned. Major changes are planned for Chapters 2 and 4, though the endgame result will likely be familiar. Chapter 3 is a rather...iffy area between the whole Rafa & Malak storyline, so I'm not sure about that; the beginning of Chapter 3 will be changed if I can, though.

Inspiration-wise, beyond the removal of most foreign elements, the patch will take many cues and references from past (and future) Final Fantasy games. It takes the most from Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy XII at present.

EMBARGO CHANGES


While things will constantly change, I can list the things that I've generally planned that more or less are going to happen before jumping into any rather specific details about anything.

1. All elements will generally be a lot more numerous than in vanilla and be more important. All Elemental absorption is resisted at present. (However, I plan to, whenever mechanically feasibly, reduce halving to a .75 resistance and weakness to a 1.5 boost.)

2. Zodiac signs will, on the flip-side, generally be less important. 25% difference will only apply with Best and Worst; 12.5% difference will apply for Good and Bad. However, zodiac sign diversity will be more important--Virgo isn't going to be so damn prevalent throughout the game now, even if it is Altima's/Ultima's sign. This applies to both enemies and allies.

3. Gil won't be thrown at the player (as much as I'd like a "Gil Toss" ability). It will be A LOT more scarce.

4. A lot more abilities, mostly spells, will be learnable via Learn on Hit. Many abilities besides Blue Magick are Learn on Hit Only.

5. The level 4 versions of elemental spells and level 2 versions of most status spells have been replaced.

6. Monsters are buffed to hell with innates in exchange for generally having their stats lowered closer to humans and will now differ more even within families. Monster Skill is dead and monsters will show up at least slightly more in storyline battles now. They won't be able to breed, though.

7. Lucavi are similarly buffed in addition to having been buffed in a more...indirect way. They all have signature attacks and are more like their FFXII selves. Fear/Dread has been overhauled.

8. Berserker replaces Monk, Illusionist replaces Oracle, Paladin replaces Ninja and Acolyte replaces Samurai. Calculator is now Dimensionalist, while Animist (Blue Mage), which Calculator used to be, now takes Thief's spot. Scholar takes Chemist's spot. Squire is overhauled into Soldier; Mediator, Archer and Time Mage have been changed to Orator, Marksman and Temporalist respectively.

9. I generally want characters to do less damage at higher levels, so that damage isn't so OHKO-crazy and there should be less need for revival sandbagging. At the same time, more skill sets will have (expensive) revival options so that it isn't monopolized by just 4 skillsets. At present, no less than 7 human generic classes have definite revival options and 1 or 2 more might get them.

10. Equipment will generally not completely obviate another piece within the same category. Most things will more or less be of use throughout the game.

11. Ninja Swords have, with Greatbows' deaths, become just misc. weapons like how Bags did; all characters can equip Clothing and, as of June 2012, Shields; all accessories generally give some type of evasion; magic Guns are dead at present and the other Guns aren't usable by generics. Shuriken and Bombs are dead because Throw is (presently) dead. As of the latest update, Chemist Items are currently dead.

12. Status effects interact more and have generally been "buffed". There also many new ones planned--at least five--that have let to some dying like Treasure, Blood Suck & Confusion. Wall and Dark/Evil-Looking now show up in-game as Mist(y) & Curse(d) statuses, respectively, and will stay unless they cause massive AI problems. There are two other key status changes at present: Invite is only available through Train; Silence was changed to Addled, but is now back a more forgiving yet dangerous form of itself in "Silenced".

13. Like other Orator (Mediator) abilities, I've attempted to buff Finger Guard, now called Steel Will, rather significantly. We'll see how that goes.

14. Finally, special characters are getting changed. At least three 3 new ones are planned, with there possibly being at least 3 more.


1. Death Sentence ("Doomed" here) ignores "Cancel: Dead".

2. 46 Undead Oracle is mountable. (Guess what class Boco is replacing.)

3. AI attacks Transparent units.

4. Defending reduces physical damage by 25%.

5. JP scroll glitch fix.

6. Mighty Sword ignores equipment presence and hits monsters.

7. Buying items at Fur Shops cost 1 x normal price.

8. Poison damage from 1/8 * Max HP to 1/4 * Cur HP. (Might be slightly lessened due to likely increase in difficulty of Queklain/Cuchuulain and Balk.)

9. Change Demi and Drain formulas to use CurHP.

10. Performing gains evasion and receives 150% damage from physical attack. (Charging will no longer receive 150% damage, though it will lack evasion.)

11. Undead units ignore Phoenix Down. (Keeping this even if Phoenix Downs don't exist anymore.)

12. Soldier Office can rename any units (including humans and special characters).

13. Oil takes 2x damage from Fire; Blind takes 2x damage from Dark. (I'm still unsure if this works.)


1. Attack UP bonus becomes 25%.

2. Magic(k) Attack UP bonus becomes 25%.

3. Defense UP bonus becomes 25%.

4. Magic(k) Defense UP bonus becomes 25%.

5. Crossbow formula becomes WP*WP.

6. Rod formula becomes MA*WP. (I'll likely keep this one now, even if I don't want magical classes to have formidable weapons like Oracle's being able to OHKO people with Two Hands in vanilla and such. Still, what I've done with Tomes is questionable enough....)

7. Pole/Stick formula becomes PA*WP. (For the exact above reason, this one will likely stay.)

8. Instruments, Tomes (Books) and Cloths become MA*WP. (This may or may not stay. I'm not sure. Cloths are kinda dead now.)


1. Sets the title screens default option from "New Game" to "Continue".

2. Removal of permanent Brave(ry) alternation.

3. Removal of permanent Faith alternation.

4. Spell quotes always pops up. (At least for testing purposes when I start changing a lot of text.)

5. Forces any unit to automatically recover HP/MP when it steps on a crystal. (Given all the Learn on Hit stuff I'm using, I don't see any other choice. I can't just get rid of Crystallized period as I considered given that Treasure/Looted is dead now....)

6. Generic Skillset ability fix.

7. Weapon Guard innate all.

8. Converts Knight Sword formula to PA*WP. (Might go back to use Brave.)

9. Axes & Flail damage becomes (Rdm{0..PA-1}+PA)*WP.

10. Weapon Strike Fix.

11. Global C-EV.

12. (#+1%) chance of Critical Hit.

13. (#+1%) chance of Knockback for Dash/Throw Stone.

14. Selling Items at 1/4 Price.

15. Constant Brave/"Fury"/[Redacted]. (I appear to have lost the code for this again. Oh bother.)


1. Formulas that use (MA+X)% become (MA*2+X)%.

2. Silent Walk becomes Flee - Adds XX move when unit is in critical. (That "XX" will probably be 02, maybe 03 though I'm pretty sure I'm going to kill Move +2.)

3. Haste is 25% Speed bonus. (This might not be necessary, especially since I'm letting Slow go back to 50% Speed penalty for now.)

4. Throw Item Range edit. (Drops down from 4 range to 3 range; keeping this for now even though Throw Item is currently dead.)

5. Support 1/2 spaces below Non-Charge increase/decrease damage/healing done by/to unit by XX/ZZ. (Will probably be 20% and be named Overwhelm & Unyielding like in ARENA.)

6. Units with reaction between Counter and Distribute have front evasion for sides and back. (As in ARENA, this will be named Alertness or Awareness.)

7. Wall does "nothing" and AI attacks units with Wall status. (I think I need this for Mist[y] to not break the game/AI.)

8. Damage Split returns 25% instead of 50%. (Currently a possible "placeholder", but a great one.)

9. Minimum Brave and Maximum Brave for all units. (Just increasing Minimum from 00 to 01.)

10. Minimum Faith and Maximum Faith for all units. (Just increasing Minimum from 00 to 01.)


1. Untruth bug fix. (Since Faith[ful] could stand to actually be, you know, usable.)

2. Work formula can take elemental and status assignments. (Dark Knight suddenly becomes a lot easier to do, even if the AI is rather dumb with these types of abilities....)

3. 0 Gil for Level Bonus after battles.

4. Individual weapon proc percentages.

5. Formula 13 becomes Heal HP (Attacker's Current HP) Hit F_(MA+X)%.

6. Formula 2D becomes (PA + Y)*XX/ZZ*WP.

7. Formula 28 (Steal Exp) becomes (100 - Target Faith)*(MA*Y). (This probably needs to be toned down.)

8. Formula 5E becomes (PA+Y)/2*PA Hit_(1+X). (Unsure of what to use it for still.)

9. Wall becomes "Mist" ("Misty" here) or MP Regen that restores 1/4 of Max MP. (I'll probably want this as 1/8 by time everything is said and done.)

10. Elemental Weakness reduced to 3/2.

11. Formula 11 becomes Damage = Y.

12. Constant Faith. (Even more necessary than the Fury hack, in my eyes.)

13. MP Switch Overflows Damage to HP.

14. Remove Female-Only Equipment. (Probably not necessary since already done manually.


1. Change brave gain by chickened units. (Changed to +5.)

2. Change brave gain by Brave Up. (Similarly changed to +5 for now.)

3. Change faith gain of Face Up. (Similarly changed to +5 for now.)

4. Blind and Confuse overrides concentrate/transparent accuracy bonus and now divides accuracy by 2 (v3).  Will affect monsters and humans equally. (Seems to obviate FFMaster's Blind hack, at least if Blind was to 50% accuracy loss. Haven't decided as to whether this will transfer to Imperiled in Confuse's case.)

5. Guns take bow accuracy penalty at night.

6. Don't Act/Deep Water cancels W/S-EV.  Don't Move cancels C/A-EV. This is only the physical half for now.

7. Abandon sets C-EV to 60% instead of 2x.  Intended to work with Xif's global C-EV hack and the above DM hack.

8. Remove Item Duplication (v1).

9. Defend is +25% to A-EV during Battle. (A "start", but that's more because of what I intend to do with Defend now.)

10.De-hardcoding of Chemist through <Default>.


EMBARGO PLANS


Using spoilers for this because it'll save space.

Let us first look at the job tree:

1. Soldier (Squire) (all generics start as a Soldier).

2. Soldier leads to Fencer (Knight), Marksman (Archer), Orator (Mediator), Wizard and Priest.

3. Marksman (Archer's new name since my original Marksman class is no longer around and this is consistent with 1.3), as the main class, leads to Berserker, which are Axe-toting Monks that I hope will be a lot less overpowered than the class they're replacing.

4. Fencer, as the main class, leads to Paladin, currently a sort of preventative tank, thanks in part to losing much of its healing. It's still trying to find its place, especially now that it comes much earlier (when it used to be the female-only class) and yet still has to be balanced against Agrias's Queensguard class in some aspects.

5. Orator (consistent with PSP), as the main class, leads either to Animist, which can gain certain monster abilities on hit, or to Scholar, which is pretty much support-only class like Chemist, except it can't directly heal but it can actually attack things that aren't Undead.

6. Wizard, as the main class, leads to Geomancer, which is decidedly less physical than vanilla as its more interested in using the elements that Wizard never got around to. All their Geomancy (Elemental) abilities actually having elements now, have been condensed into 6 attacks and are only available through the reaction Gaia Revenge (Counter Flood).

7. Priest, as the main class, leads to Illusionist, a class that has finally found its place as supportive status-based class with a few nasty directly damaging, if conditional, skills.

8. Berserker, as the main class, leads to Dragoon, which is just a renamed Lancer due Jump's uniqueness being unable to be replicated at present.

9. Paladin, as the main class, leads to Acolyte, the primary anti-magic class in the game now.

10. Geomancer, as the main class, now leads to the "newest" class, Dimensionalist, which basically took all of Vanilla Time Mage's damaging abilities & offensive statuses, invented some more and teleported ran off.

11. Illusionist, as the main class, now leads to the "newest" Temporalist (Time Mage), which like Illusionist and Acolyte is trying to pick up Oracle's lost slack when it comes to inflicting status on people. It's arguable more supportive/"toothless" than Scholar, though the two damaging abilities has aren't to be trifled with.

12. Mime is much easier to open as it is now the opposite of Summoner, which has become a lot like its FFV and FFX selves when it comes to gaining half of its Summon Magick through "trials"; Mime used to be opposite Animist. Mime thus no longer is the end-all, be-all class that only really gets used for stats grinding and, maybe, for completely obviating Oracle by giving negative statuses the finger ala 1.3. Presently, Mime can't mimic Summon Magick, Bardic Song or Battle Dance because of this; it can mimic Blue Magick now though.

13. Bard and Dancer round out the class by remaining as the sex-separated classes. Bard will actually focus on magick, MA and support now, while Dancer will still support somewhat, but be aggressive about and focus on PA & physical ability.


Next is a list of RSMs removed from generics. I'm still unsure about ALMA, but I hope I can "save" more than just Finger Guard without it. At present, all classes have about three RSMs on average outside of Bard & Dancer, which share the same five.


1. Blade Grasp.

2. Gained JP UP.

3. Move +2.

4. Move +3.

5. Teleport.

6. Move-Get Jp.

7. Gilgame Heart (in terms of getting money they aren't supposed to & being readily abusable while being completely worthless to the AI).



1. Ignore Height.

2. Jump +1.

3. Jump +2.

4. Move in Water

5. Move on Lava.

6. Weapon Guard. (Now innate on everyone.)

7. Catch.

8. Equip Shield. (Now innate on everyone.)

9. Auto Potion. (Currently no such thing as Items.)

10. Throw Item. (Currently no such thing as Items.)


Let's talk about monsters, the Lucavi and their potential changes. Since Lucavi are the game's bosses, I don't want to give too much away:

1. All monster families at least one elemental weakness and one elemental resistances; some have two of one or both, though those are usually are the ones that have two Absorbs. Speaking of Absorb, of the 48 normal monsters, 40 absorb an element, with each element being absorbed by at least 5 different monsters. The only immunities to element of Earth, which occur for the few Always: Floating monsters (read: Bombs & Floating Eye).

2. All monsters will have their stats decreased to help balance Animist (Blue Mage), though they should all be better than Animist with the ability that Animists take from them, at least in most instances.

3. To make up for the above, most monsters have four (or more) innates and some number of status immunity as well as possible starting status or even innate status.

4. Chocobos have changed a bit beyond being loaded with innates. They've arguably gotten at least a bit weaker between gaining an elemental weakness, possibly losing Choco Meteor (to Boco) and generally having to compete with a suped-up, actually special Boco. They did, however, gain some differing resistances and all have some innates that Boco doesn't have.

5. Goblins are monster pugilists now. The closest thing that game will see to generic Monks, though with recent changes, they're more like monster Soldiers. (They still don't have Martial Arts, though; least at present.)

6. Bombs are possibly still overpowered between new resistances both status-wise and element-wise and new abilities, which make use of the fixed Oil status. They probably won't show up early game because they'd kick your ass rather effortlessly, especially with the Gil issue.

7. Panthers are speedy, status-based bastards who have effectively killed off the need for Ignore Height with their absurd Jump stat and show you why most big cats don't hunt in "packs".

8. Flying Eyes are basically the Acolyte of monsters when it comes to being anti-magic...or should be according to plot. At present, they're just focused on direct-status gazes.

9. Aevises are, like Bombs, possibly still overpowered at present between their range and unavoidable signature moves. However, they'll be on the slower end of monster families now.

10. Treefolk are still guardians of the forest, though at present they can actually kick your ass rather than just being lumber fodder even if they are still largely clerical units.

11. Bull Demons were originally like Skeletons something of a failure, though I've managed to "salvage" them by having them be more than brute-force. They're now more like monster Orators...that can cave your head in. This should make something I'm going to do in Chapter 3 more interesting....

12. Malboros are still fouled-mouth tanks that you don't want to get close to, though you won't have much choice now; Animist at least gets rewarded for it, though. The Ochu is something of an experimental narcoleptic tank, though, to prove a reprise from the onslaught of halitosis; it might even lose access to Bad Breath eventually, even if Bad Breath isn't going be a potential auto-Game Over--multi-target, instant Petrified is dumb.

14. Behemoths are, comparatively, cursed tanks that bring elemental disaster like Absol from Pokemon. They need more Draco Meteor, though.

15. Given my plans for Dragon type creatures and the likely absence of Reis, all three generic Dragon creatures are quite varied at present, being threats on both physical and magical fronts.


1. Uribos were initially replaced replaced by Lamias, half-snake women-looking monsters who use lust and other emotions to beguile their prey. Uribos are pretty much entirely excised from the game by this point, though their sprites are...well, see below.

2. Hydras will likely be getting combined into one monster or two monsters--one of them at least being Tiamat--since getting replaced by Tonberries, knife-wielding stalkers of the dark who creep slowly towards their doomed, immobilized victims.

3. Wolves join the fray as the first newest replacement after the Undead and Squid defection. They are planned to be the weakest of the newest monsters and thus appear early on since they appear in large numbers, meaning they're mostly going to be stuck with single-target attacks. They're going to be rather quick, though.

4. Flans join the fray as the second newest replacement. These overachieving desserts are basically the sturdy monster version of Wizard now that Skeletons are special monsters; oddly, they arguably still have more in common with Dragons at present, which has led to some design conflict.... (They will currently be represented by Tortoise sprites.)

3. Cactuars join the fray as third and last of newest replacements. These spiny little bandits will likely retain their crowns as the most evasive monsters in FF's lore. Be grateful that they'll mostly be restricted to deserts. Mostly. (They will currently be represented by Uribo sprites.)



1. Byblos and Apanda Demons will likely be merged into one class, though Byblos might still show up as a named boss; I'll probably use the appropriate name of "Reaver" overall.

2. Archaic Demons and Ultima Demons will no longer be merged into one class as originally planned.

3. Steel Giant, like everything, is still in the process of being changed. It's become even more tanky to make up for losing most of its elemental immunities.

4. Holy Dragon class will most likely still be used even though I'm planning to most likely get rid of Reis (and/or Beowulf).

5. Boco has become a special Chocobo, though I'm not sure whether to make him a White one like everyone else or use a Red palette since I've replaced the Red ones with (light) Blue Chocobos.

6. Illithids (the "correct" name for Squidlarkin) are the first "new" Special monster. These mental monsters who are quite hardy because of their deep-sea capabilities, though they're still frail up-close. At present, I'm still unsure if I might combine them all into one special-type monster, though I've at least decided on the special issue given something I wanted to do in Chapter 4.

7. Skeletons are the second "new" Special monster given that they are supposed to be more human-esque and are now the magicians of the monsters. They also will get back up if you drag the battle on long enough.

8. Ghosts are the third and last "new" Special monster since they have also become more human-esque, though they're less decided than Skeletons in that department. They remain hard to-hit and even harder to put to rest because they will get back up if you drag the battle on long enough, but they'll have the lowest HP of all monsters because of this.


1. All fights against them will be rather different outside of maybe Hashmal(um) and Altima/Ultima. Let's just say there's a balance reason they're going to generally have lower stats beyond planning to have everything do lower damage....

2. Relatedly, all Lucavi will have their genders be uniformly "Monster" and not randomly be that or male or whatever. There's a couple of reasons for this that I won't be getting into just yet.

3. They will generally be slightly more susceptible to status, though you may pay dearly for inflicting certain status on them....

4. All Fear abilities are now no longer just basic 100% guaranteed to hit if they're not prevented and they will cost MP now. However, in exchange for this, they will generally destroy you even worse now if they hit; they are still instant presently. I should point out here they are part of my attempt to buff Finger Guard, now called Steel Will: Steel Will/Finger Guard weakens all Fear abilities.

5. Fear will no longer have its own skill sets--ugh, there are so many wasted skill sets, it's absurd--and Lucavi will generally have much more skills available to them.

6. In addition to being more like their FFXII selves and the other numerous changes, they will be using their FFXII names, sans maybe Altima; I feel "Ultima" as a name and both a spell could create confusion, even if the shared name makes sense here.

7. Not much else I can say that won't spoil my plans, though I suppose it wouldn't hurt much to tell you that Velius/Belias and Queklain/Cuchuulain are going to have sub-par Speed (for) now, with Belias planned on being the slowest of the bunch as well as possibly being able to be Slowed. It won't help you.

8. Given what I plan to do with the story, including with Elidibis and another NPC, it's quite likely that you will face up to an additional two Lucavi in-game outside of Deep Dungeon. At least one of them is definitely going to be a mandatory, in-story battle if I make the change.


With that said, all that's left is special character changes. I'll include Deep Dungeon here just because:


1. At present, I'm considering reducing the special character space to 12 characters so that the player can keep 4 generics if they want. I'm not sure about that, but personally it's always been something that's annoyed me since I tend not to use special characters that much outside of vanilla. The recent 20-character allotment hasn't swayed me to bring back special characters either.

2. I still want special characters to be better than generics, but I don't want them to blow generics away, at least by a large, obviating margin.

3. Additionally, I'm going to try to have more magically-based specials this time around, just because I've always found swords rather boring and, outside of the unreliable Wonder Twins, Reis (somewhat), and arguably Byblos, every single special character is physically based. Beowulf I'd argue is more in the middle since even though his skillset is entirely MA-based sans Shock, he still needs a freaking sword to do them. At least two of the already selected replacement special characters will be magicians.

4. Ramza: I've been rather annoyed trying to think up his new set given the complete overhaul to Soldier and the lack of room for any more moves in it. I think I've decided on a viable route rather recently, though.

5. Roderick (Rad): Ah, yes, the first of three "special characters" you get before Agrias and Mustadio who are just glorified generics. First and for most, Rad's name is being changed to Rod(erick) because the "correct" name of "Ladd" is stupid. Rod will not only be getting his own unique class (Red Mage), but he will be a lot more pivotal to Chapter 2 and actually have his own personality rather than just being "there".

6. Alicia & Lavian: The other two generic special characters aren't as lucky as Rad to understate things. I've already decided on their replacements, though they aren't entirely removed from the game....

7. Boco: As aforementioned, he will be made into a special Chocobo, which means that at least the first fight against Wiegraf will likely be a bit more difficult. Alternatively, he might not join you in Araguay Forest and instead be replaced by Alicia's replacement there, though she might not join you there either.

8. Agrias: Still around. As also aforementioned, she needs to be balanced against Paladin and vice versa, which is rather annoying even though Paladin's skillset is less all over the place than it used to be.

9. Mustadio: He is getting an entirely new skillset given that Marksman now has his abilities of Aim: Leg & Aim: Arm and Acolyte has Seal Evil.

10. Rafa & Malak: They will have a completely different moveset now, which they currently share for the most part. They need something to differentiate them without being as overpowered as their 1.3 counterparts, though they'll be more useful than the vanilla versions of themselves.

11. Orlandu: Rather recently, I've humored perhaps killing him off, but for now he'll live since I don't want to change too wildly from the main game and Delita sparing Orlandu is one of the (few) things that proves that the Once and Future King hasn't become a complete bastard after Teta's death.

12. Meliadoul: I haven't any plans for her beyond "must be able to hit monsters". I'm still too busy trying to think about how to make Zalera really dangerous without verging into 1.3 or invincible territory. She has seen some change, though how takes is largely still dependent on how her father, Agrias and Orlandu develop.

13. Beowulf: I'm currently waffling on whether I want to get rid of Beowulf completely or not. He has three potential replacement characters already lined up, but at the same time I sort of like the idea of exploring Beowulf as a broken man because he wasn't able to save Reis this time around.

14. Reis: She too likely is beyond saving, though she might still show up as an enemy. Please deal. If she shows up as an ally, then it is Beowulf who will likely be beyond saving.

15. Worker 8: As aforementioned, he will be more tanky at the cost of being more elementally vulnerable and more specialized. Thanks goes to Panda_Tar for the idea.

16. Cloud: I've already decided on a replacement for him, which is definite now that Blue is no longer a candidate.

17. Byblos: He/it is similarly gone, with no decided replacement at present. Even if Byblos does get a replacement, you'll get your last special character well before you ever reach END and probably before you (can) even open the Deep Dungeon.

18. Deep Dungeon: It is more of intended to be a den of bosses from previous Final Fantasy games than strictly uber teams. It won't be as difficult as 1.3, though the things I've planned (if I still have the space) will generally kick your ass the around first couple of times and still be challenging enough afterwards I would hope. There will still be teams, though, given that a bunch of 5 vs. 1 would eventually be boring after all while, even if...heh, almost gave something away. Anyway, Elidibus is no longer the end boss of this place, but instead there now resides another.... Here's a hint: It's not Omega.

19. Elidibus: I intend for him to have a much more active role in the game rather than meditate at the bottom of the Deep Dungeon and then try to kill you for intruding on his solitude. At the very least, he'll be extremely interested in the character slated to be Cloud's replacement and actively show up at around that time of the game, which is before Deep Dungeon. He'll probably be in the shadows before then, though....


EMBARGO MISCELLANY


Okay, we're coming to the end now. Thank you for reading this far. All that's left is a list of potential things that I want to do that I haven't done/begun implementing myself and potential problems I see.

Let's talk about the potential things I want to do first since additional problems might stem from that:


1. I want Brave(ry) and Faith extremes to be detrimental. As such, I want 90-100 Brave and 90-100 Faith to be BAD things, even without permanent Faith and Brave alteration. I plan to try to do this by having those extremes trigger (neutral) status, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing, especially if Brave and Faith can't be made to "tick down" like minimum Brave ticks up. Also, even if I can have things tick down, then that might mean that separate statuses themselves might be tied those extremes and ONLY those extremes, which...isn't good.

2. Similarly, I want Brave and Faith to only be go as low as 01 and not 00. Innocent/Atheism (now "Doubtful") status completely negating most magic is stupid. At least with 01, it would mean that magic can still potentially hit and affect the "atheist", though Doubtful status would probably be better served at 10 Faith now. I'd want minimum Faith to "tick up" below 10 Faith like how Brave currently does.

3. Related to the above, I want to fix that damn glitch that makes it so that the Untruth formula think that 100 Faith is 0 Faith. (It would appear that Pride has already fixed this. Everyone say "thank you" to Pride.)

4. When it comes to statuses causing weakness to a certain element, I'd much rather have negative statuses furthered as negative aspects rather than a detriment be attached to a positive status already doesn't see use like Float(ing). I still might tie some elemental aspect to Floating, though....

5. I want to add a couple more in-story battles and fiddle around with the script quite a bit, but I'm not sure if I've the room. (I still haven't looked. Sigh.)

6. Additionally, want to make use of all skill sets and ability slots, though with changing generic monsters like that, I might have a lot less room than I planned to, though that will affect Deep Dungeon plans more than anything else. (Currently already having space issues. Sigh.)

7. As aforementioned, I want to add at least one other Zodiac battle, especially given that it will take the place of at least one other boss battle thankfully--Chapter 4 is already loaded with boss battles though, so....

8. Speaking of the glut in Chapter 4, I want to make Chapter 3 have more of...everything, somehow. At present, outside of Rafa & Malak and two "you can't leave" gauntlets, it's pretty lacking on both attainable special characters and bosses.

9. Finally, I want to learn how to hack and use ARH and such so I can do most stuff myself. I'm not sure about sprites, though, because I've always sucked at art. Sprites are pretty much the last priority for me as such.


Of course, nothing good can ever last:


1. Balancing this game is going to freaking atrocious between wanting to keep most equipment relevant, wanting to add more elements and have more element interaction, wanting to add more status and have more status interaction, probably allowing for Lucavi to be Demi'd and Life Drain'd, wanting lower speed, wanting lower damage, making it so that magic-users being mid-charged doesn't mean an sure OHKO, changing Silence to Addled and then back to Silenced and other things. It's like...balance itself is an eldritch abomination, but I already knew that.

2. Similarly, having all classes and equipment stay relevant is easier said than done, especially when trying to balance them against special characters.

3. I might still have too many immunities on things (both equipment-wise and class-wise) to the point where, even having made Ribbon one-of, I might have still obviated a lot statuses and elements ultimately. In redoing my equipment around December 2011, I think I've fixed most of these issues, but it still is a potential worry.

4. The elemental thing might have been gone overboard with regards to what has it weapon-wise and directly offensively ability-wise to point where things might be obnoxiously difficult to attack. While I want damage to be lower, I don't want battles to drag on forever or, worse, become Sisyphean. See above in addition to the recent monster elemental simplification in March 2012.

5. Despite all the reuse and consolidation of ability, job and skill set, I might still run out of changeable space, at least for the things I want to do with random battles and DD. That would be...annoying.

6. Finally, there's perhaps the chance that I'm still being too ambitious about this, especially since I want to do it by myself. Even having had such free time (unfortunately), I simply might not actually be capable of such still.


Thank you for your time.

To make navigation easier:



03/11/2011 EDIT: Much thanks to RavenofRazgriz for trimming things down initially.

05/21/2011 EDIT: Typos completely eliminated. Some restructuring and clarification.

07/07/2011 EDIT: Excel "Class Tracker Ver. 1" attached.

07/10/2011 EDIT: Fixing of more typos and more restructuring.

09/25/2011 EDIT: Fixed yet more typos and updated some obviated things.

09/27/2011 EDIT: Added navigation given how messy this thread is. Might run out of room soon.

10/14/2011 EDIT: Added another redacted spread sheet to show horrible my weapons where.

12/03/2011 EDIT: Added redacted spread sheet of all old/initial equipment to show horrible that was.

03/18/2012 EDIT: Redid entire beginning to make note of changes to generics, both human and monster.

04/30/2012 EDIT: Linked to the new monster list that is one part rather than two, as here with Part 1 & Part 2. Similarly edited a few other things like monster and job order and updated some other misc. things like special plans.

07/08/2012-07/09/2012 EDIT: Updated everything, though mostly class and ASM stuff. Then added "stat" after a bit of failure on the 9th.

04/21/2013 EDIT: Finally updated monsters, again, from this post. Now let's do some actual work next time.
7
I was going to do this on December 1st or even later than that, but I figured that I'd keep putting of posting this thread when it's one of the only things that's going to keep me motivated. (That I wanted to needlessly be the 100th thread. Yay uselessness!)


First and foremost, even if no one is really interested, I'm doing it anyway because I want to. Although I'm sure that I'm going to end up putting off for a while, so I'll need people to help kick me in the ass when need be.

(I said when need be. *glare*)


Secondly, I suppose I should say why I'm doing a prequel. Well, even before the various Ramza-based sequels/spinoffs popped up (sans Mercenaries, since that was underway even before I joined the forum), I've been more interested in the past of FFT, especially since not much is disclosed. (I'm currently a History major, so this isn't really surprising.) I then spurred to action by Lydyn's "Shuushin" patch, which, yes, I am still playtesting, albeit very slowly due to having only one resurrection skill right now, which is Faith-based and tends to cause me to reset if it misses.

Particularly, I wanted to focus on how the East came to Ivalice to since it's not really touched and there are just randomly Ninja and Samurai and Martials Artists (oh my!) smack dab in the middle of my (post-apocalyptic) medieval fantasy.

(Granted, it's from Japan, but AFAIK, Fire Emblem is pretty much strictly medieval European as are a lot of other Japanese games; I haven't played any of the Fire Emblems, though, so I may be wrong.)

On top of that, I also wanted to focus how some monsters, particularly the Dragon, are really rather weak and stupid compared to the cliche fantasy counterparts. I always found that odd despite not being a fan of dragons much.


Next, I guess I should say that tone for this game is currently meant to be a more tongue-in cheek thing, a sardonic love letter like I Wanna Be the Guy, though I'm not sure if I want it to be as unforgiving as that game. (I want it to be pretty unforgiving, though, especially since I have a particularly nasty last set of battles in game, one after the other after the other. :wink: )


Then, with that said, I suppose I should get into specifics before this post gets any longer since I know how lazy some people on the Internet can be.

Most importantly, with specifics, I will say this: Due to the nature of this game, all Eastern-based classes will be removed from player-based control, meaning that on the job for players, Monk, Samurai, Ninja, and Oracle will be replaced by something else as to be specified below. Similarly, once I get Chemist to stop being a whiny little cunt, I intend to remove all things Item-related, i.e. Auto Potion, store-bought Items, move-find Items (though not Move-Find Item itself), Throw Item, etc. Unlike the above four classes, it will probably be impossible to actually find a Chemist in-game outside of story purposes since I'm going to have them be greedy little bastards.

I've yet to decide if I want to get rid of Calculator entirely since I don't want Math Skill around and yet I just don't want to blatantly copy 1.3 Calculator.

Specifically, the aforementioned classes will be replaced by:

  • Chemist --> Illusionist
  • Monk --> Hunter
  • Oracle --> Blue Mage
  • Ninja --> Berserker
  • Samurai --> Gambler (As of December 12th, 2008, I have decided that Gambler will be fifth and final new generic class for this patch; now, if only I can get Samurai, Ninja, and Chemist to work--also, Lancer.

I've done quite a lot of work so far, but only with regards to FFTPatcher and, even then, I haven't touched ENTD yet or anything since I've been learning about it slowly. I've mostly changed monsters (who will actually leave up to their name, now) and classes and abilities and have just recently started to screw around with equipment seriously.

That said, pretty much all classes got something new or at least some make-over outside of Geomancer (at the moment):

  • Squire: Completely different now. They have 16 skills since they are only-base class now. They are meant to actually be useful without having Accumulate now, but will probably still end being middling like they should be. After all, their begins.
  • Knight: Gained one new skill alongside the 1.3 Ruin skills to replace the stat Breaks. They'll probably get two relpacement skills since I'm going to...well, I won't spoil that since I'm paranoid as is.
  • Archer: Completely different since Charge sucks ass. (I'm still currently annoyed that we can't use the Charge or Jump or Item or Math Skill spaces for anything. One day....)
  • Mediator: Not really changed so far. Unfortunately, most of the changes I've made, due to the current restriction with Talk Skill formula, means that most of their abilities aren't blocked by Finger Guard, which greatly annoys me since that skill was already useless.
  • Black Mage: Lost the Tier 4 spells and gained 3 "new" spells to compensate. They may lose Death eventually as well along with Poison.
  • White Mage: Lost Cure 4 and gained 2 new spells. They may well probably lose Protect 2 and Shell 2 since those are still kind of useless.
  • Time Mage: Currently haven't lost anything. Meteor has been changed a bit, though they may lose it anyway. Gained two new skills. May lose Haste 2 and Slow 2.
  • Summoner: Currently have lost Lich, though they may get back. Golem has currently been completely changed and nerfed to Hell. Gained a test spell that may be traded out for a new non-Summon ability. A few elementals changed.
  • Thief: Currently have gained 8 new skills, but they will probably not keep all of them. I've yet to play test these new abilities.
  • Lancer: They are going to lose all Jumps (unfortunately) and be far more-oriented towards Dragons. They will, however, NOT be Dragoners.
  • Bard: A lot has changed, though I've yet to play test them yet. They've been buffed with regards variety, but have been nerfed with regards to distance.
  • Dancer: Same as Bard, of course.
  • Mime: Same as 1.3 Mime, except, unlike Voldemort7 currently, I remembered to make them immune to Dead and Undead as well. They won't be able to mimic everything that generics can do, namely the Berserker class, but have gained some additional Mime-fitting abilities from two new Innates.


Speaking of which, to some degree, every class has had their R/S/M moved around and certain R/S/Ms that I've currently deemed "broken" or close to it, like Two Swords or Dragon Spirit or HP Restore, will not be available to players (or at least generics).

Some of the physically weaker classes got new Innates.

Oh, and everyone currently has Innate Defend.


Finally, with all that said in done, I guess I should say what's already obvious: the main character(s) will be completely new. None of them will be Bevoulves, though a few of them....

Bah. I've talked too much as it is. More later.
8
PSX FFT Hacking / Freeing Up Room for Abilities
October 27, 2008, 12:39:04 pm
I was wondering if there was someway to use the space of abilities like that otherwise non-Normal, like Items or Throwing (Star) Items or some of the lesser Jumps, that are located towards the end of FFTPatcher.

When it comes the ability page, I'm hesitant to get rid of anything, even the blank spaces right before Item section that just say they apparently "Crash The Game". Given my reference discovery that Items are currently not working in other classes how I want them to, I've decided to get rid of them and it would be useful if I could also use their ability space for new skills instead of only being able to use their "physical" Item space for new weapons/equipment.

TIA.