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Use of ePSXe before 2.0 is highly discouraged. Mednafen, RetroArch, and Duckstation are recommended for playing/testing, pSX is recommended for debugging.


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Messages - drbretto

2
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 11:41:28 pm
Yep. The whole thing will be up in the next couple of days. I just got the subforum set up and it's late, plus working all weekend. Gonna take a few hours to write up, there's a lot of ground to cover. I'll post a link when it's done.

edit: There would have been a decent outline up already but I spent most of the day arguing over why I was arguing with arch over the subforum to put it in, which sucked the energy out of me.
3
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 05:19:12 pm
I only mentioned Arena because someone had told me that it was already set the way I wanted the generics to be in another discussion a few days ago. I have a pretty concrete outline of what I want the generics to be like. So basically, when I mentioned Arena meets 1.3, I meant basically that I would like to set up a patch that is like a spiritual successor to what I was told Arena already was and the idea behind 1.3. And I have a decent, if not slightly jumbled outline on exactly how I want to implement it.

And yeah, I guess I was being naive about the community part because I wanted it to be something we'd all like, but just dealing Arch right now, even before going into detail on the whole plan, I can see how nothing will ever get done if everyone's arguing over a different vision and compromises would basically destroy the original idea in the first place, so I'm going to have to just make the patch the way I think it should be like it's my own and will be happy to hear anyone's input once I've put the whole thing down on paper.
4
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 04:31:16 pm
RoR, I only mentioned the Arena patch because I was under the impression that it was something designed for skype based PvP. I'll start it from scratch and I absolutely CAN make something that you can play through the story with 1.3 type difficulty, while taking your actual crew out for rendezvous and fairly balanced PvP. It absolutely can be done.

When it comes to tournaments and whatnot, no grinding is necessary. There can easily be a save file with empty generics for people to set up their team before the fight.

edit: and it's not separate pve and pvp items. It's just that items that would be too poswerful for pvp will have an asterisk on the description so you know they shouldn't be used in any serious pvp fight. Anything that would basically only be useful in pvp can just be bought in a store. There's no grinding there.

QuoteLike FDC said - if you try to make things "community" based, they go south quickly because no one likes to agree on anything, and compromise usually leads to terrible mechanics, items, jobs, and abilities.  Even when I make 1-player FFT patches on a team, such as with Journey of the Five, the work that had been there and made "communally" when I arrived was really, really bad, and I took over the mechanics as a monarchy to fix it all.  You can see some of this in FFT: Arena too - Lots of arguing and text walls over the smallest of mechanics, and because a lot of the mechanics ARE decided based on these compromises instead of just going "Fuck you, we're balancing it on these principles, not your ones that don't match what we're doing", a lot of the results of those compromises are... bad.  Even ones I've tried to salvage myself back when I gave input on Arena were very subpar in the end due to compromise instead of just having one overall mechanical guru fixing problems as they're brought up by the players.


I just want people involved so things get done right. Mostly because one person can't think of everything. But if I have to think of everything and do it myself, I'll do that, too. And on the opening screen it'll have a giant DRBRETTO over the FFT logo in neon pink. But I'd honestly just rather make the better game.
5
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 01:34:49 pm
Elric: I agree, there should be no problem with the combined efforts. Everyone who was actually involved has moved past it, so as long as no one brings up stuff for no reason, we should be fine. We are all doing this out of the love for this game, and I want this to be a product of that passion.

FDC: How far is too far? The idea I have is that gameplay is the only thing that matters. I know that doesn't answer the question exactly, but it's the golden rule here. Ideally, as long as the jobs are based on the actual jobs that they are, it should be ok. I do want to keep some diversity between job growths though. It adds to gameplay. But I would like those job growths to be a little more normalized. We have been discussing this on ID for a little bit lately and I don't think it's that hard to accomplish.

Basically, you set a growth value for best, good, and OK, and set them according to class style across the board. Thieves would still have the best speed growth, for example, but Mystics could have their growths adjusted to not be a complete waste of a level by upping their MA growth to OK level and HP growth to good (which would be high for a caster) so that no job is a complete waste.
6
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 01:11:10 pm
Well, the specifics on that are still pretty hazy in my mind. I figure the FFH community has a better idea of what would be needed to make the pvp portion of the game balanced, and if combining some job's abilities into single units is the way to do it, then that's what we'll do. I'm opening up a forum on ID right now (or when arch gets off his ass) and I'll make separate sticky threads for each aspect of the game for exactly this kind of discussion.

My vision for PvP is that there should be some reason you could want to bring in just about any class/job, and all severely overpowered skills should be removed (blade grasp, move +3, etc). I want the primary focus on level 35, secondary on level 99 for "official" tournaments. The tournament rules I have in mind include a set amount of JP being allowable for each job and JP costs set specifically to limit overpowered combinations both at level 35 and level 99 so during a tournament "season" (a la fantasy football), we can host a save file with generics leveled in each class with set amounts of JP to spend and set equipment available.

After all of the PvP stuff is relatively balanced, we'll tackle the PvE stuff.

edit: One sticky for each aspect, then a thread for each job so we can figure out all of the specifics as a community, one by one, until we have a decent balance to start with. I want as many (intelligent) people as possible contributing.
7
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 12:56:10 pm
It will be a completely different patch.

First and foremost, the generic jobs will be balanced specifically for PvP, including growth and modifiers, abilities (and specifically JP costs), and equipment options, starting from scratch with vanilla FFT:WOTL, but balanced to be modeled towards 1.3 style, like a useful basic skill skillset, maybe the longer range on YinYang, etc.  I will have a separate forum on ID for discussion of this stuff.

Once the generics are in, I will have a separate discussion on ENTD changes that take into account the PvP generic changes to keep the single-player game interesting. In this case, it will start with directly importing the ENTD from 1.3 and editing accordingly.

After that, I will go into the WOTL specific items/rendezvous/melee stuff and optimize accordingly.

Then I will create recruitable special units to fill in the gaps for PvE and to reintroduce certain aspects of 1.3 that won't work with PvP.
8
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 12:33:28 pm
I think you're overthinking it. AI vs AI is more of a vanilla thing, if you're referring to, like the AI tournaments. That's not part of this proposal at all.

I'm talking about balancing the generic classes for LIVE player vs player combat over the internet, and combining it with 1.3-like PvE regular storyline gameplay.

This is far less complicated and doesn't even necessarily require any actual hacking beyond the modding tools that are already created. We balance generics skillsets and approved equipment for PvP, then build the PvE experience around that, and add in some fun special units and equipment for PvE (that you can choose to use when dueling a buddy but won't be permissable in an official tournament).

Then, when it's time for a tournament, you don't have to create a specific memcard file, etc. You just have people take their own save file with their own stuff and have them meet their opponent online at a specific time, bring in their units, someone records it and uploads it.

Or, if you're mid-game (single player) and you want to pick up some new WOTL exclusive items, you an a buddy can team up for a live rendezvous and you take your new, shiny, WOTL exclusive item back with you to the regular game.

To be clear, this is not a direct combination of Arena and 1.3. It's like if Arena and 1.3 hooked up and had a baby, and that baby's name is Awesome.
9
New Project Ideas / Re: FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 12:16:08 pm
I am trying to accomplish a single patch that will:

-Allow for balanced, live PvP, including official tournament rules and just plain PvP fun
-Allow two people who are just playing the game from different states/countries to group up and do rendezvous for WOTL exclusive equipment to take into PvE
-Allow people to enjoy the difficulty and class balance of 1.3 through the regular game
-Allow people to experience the main game with some new and interesting skills/jobs/items and game mechanics while still feeling like FFT
-get more actual hackers involved in ASM hacks for WOTL :)

All of this is doable. If it's just one guy doing it, you get half a patch. If it's a combine community effort, you come up with the single greatest and most complete version of Final Fantasy Tactics there has ever been. It's about the game, not about us. And I have plans for the structure and execution of the patch's creation.

The emulator and netplay are a ways away, so we have a lot of time to figure out exactly how it's going to pan out, but it doesn't hurt to start now.


edit: All of this will allow for a single ISO and single memcard file. Basically, it just takes FFT:WOTL 1.3 and allows for seamless Arena-style balanced PvP within the same patch. And rendezvous that actually matter because you take what you've earned with you into the regular game.
10
New Project Ideas / FFT: Ultimate Edition
July 26, 2013, 11:43:34 am
This is a proposal for a future project. A collaboration in which I'm willing to do as much legwork as is needed but I don't need to put my name on it. FFT:Ultimate made by the FFT enthusiast community.

There is a PSP emulator that is on the cusp of running FFT:WOTL at the same kind of speed rates as epsxe can run FFT (I was getting frame rates in the 220 range, but crashes on world map screen). I have been tracking their progress for a few weeks and asked the developers about the possibility of netplay, and they said it's a ways off but it absolutely is on their list of things to do. Netplay, and WOTL, would allow us to play rendezvous and melee battles over the internet without the need of convoluted save files and skype-based execution.

What I'm aiming to do is sort of combine the PvP balance of the Arena patch (with any necessary tweaks) with the difficulty and flair of 1.3, with my PvE tweaks for WOTL like the activation and placing of traps, redesigned poaching, etc. I believe this can be accomplished.

Basically, the plan is to have the already established Arena tweaks added directly to all generics, have all items deemed usable in Arena tweaked and balanced exclusively for PvP, throw in the 1.3 ENTD (with tweaks to counter the generics). Newer flair like sage job, etc, can easily be added back to the game for PvE only by adding in recruitable generics.

I can do the legwork. I've done it before with WOTL (my PPF is up to over 5 MB and there aren't a lot of sprite changes) so it's not like I'm just some guy who just discovered the site and is all like "hey guise! Let's make a patch!". This is legit and has a chance to be something pretty special. I don't need my name on it. I don't want anyone's name on the front. Just individual credits where credits are due on patch notes and FAQs.

This WOULD require a collaborative effort with ID. Please, please keep all old grudges out of the discussion. You are not dealing with Arch. You are dealing with me. I will be the mediator between the two parties if necessary.

It's a long way off, so we have a lot of time to plan. But let's make this happen. Who's in?
11
Spriting / Re: Looking for Gau in all the wrong places.
February 07, 2013, 08:29:54 pm
Hmm... I browsed past those a few times but they didn't grab me, but I think there's promise in the ones wearing the wolves on their heads... thanks!
12
Spriting / Looking for Gau in all the wrong places.
February 06, 2013, 07:19:52 pm
Hey, FFH. It's been a while since the last update, but I'm replacing Luso for WOTL 1.3.1.3 (coming *soon* with some really nice new features, over at the devil's site if you want more details). It's not necessarily Gau, now, brown cow. But it is based on some kind of animalistic human. Like an intelligent. feral hunter. The skillset is called "instincts" and he does mighty roars that boost the party and goes into beast mode, but mainly, it's about the monster skills he can learn.

Anyway, I know a new sprite would not mesh well with the FMV preceding the rescue mission, but it has always been about gameplay over style. But that doesn't mean style isn't important and that's why I am here.

I am not looking for anyone to make something for me. I am just asking if anyone has something viable I could use. If not Gau himself, anything comparable. I'll even let you name him (or her for that matter, though he/she can't equip shirts so...).
13
Help! / Re: older versions of tactext
May 07, 2012, 12:40:16 pm
The only problem I've had with quick edit is that sometimes it won't let me paste into certain fields for some reason (restarting the program fixes that occasionally).

PM me if you want an ISO.
14
Help! / Re: older versions of tactext
May 07, 2012, 10:22:01 am
Eternal, could you get someone to re-host that file? It's in my dropbox and it's small enough that I'm not likely to take it out any time soon, but a link in the download section with a quick subnote about how you may have better luck with it on WOTL might help prospective WOTL modders, especially with the slowdown fix being out (I'm still in awe of how awesome that is)
15
Help! / Re: older versions of tactext
May 07, 2012, 10:02:55 am
I don't know who Kourama is (unless it's lynx on ID) but if that's the case, then most likely.

I had to do some digging in google a while back to find that version and it was a link off an old post from this board. It's not on the downloads page anymore and as far as I know it's the ONLY version that works.

To be clear, you only need this version to create the fftext file. Once you have that file, you can open that file and edit it and patch the ISO in the latest version as long as you never import ISO.
16
Help! / Re: older versions of tactext
May 06, 2012, 11:49:56 pm
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/49392591/453.zip

This one works. It's still a huge pain in the ass to work with though.
17
hahaha, well, yeah :P
18
I really, really want to change up some RSM abilities. There are so many completely useless movement abilities and I want to do a complete revamping so there's always a legitimate choice. I just don't even know where to start.
19
War of the Lions Hacking / WOTL: ASM and R/S/M's
April 26, 2012, 02:29:20 pm
I was kind of hoping there would be renewed interest in WOTL hacking now that there's a slowdown fix. Has anyone been working on anything recently? (Or are these somehow changeable already).

I have no actual hacking experience and don't even know where to begin, but I'm willing to help out where I can. I learn fast :P
20
War of the Lions Hacking / Re: WoTL items
April 20, 2012, 11:56:13 am
You will not. At least unless someone does some serious patching updates.

However, I accomplished this feat for my patch, but I had to edit over several less interesting items to make it work. You can take a regular sword, for example, and copy over all of the attributes of your favorite rendezvous weapon and it will work. The only exceptions are items flagged as onion knight or female only. I haven't tested it, but I would not be surprised if editing a female-only item would still make that item female only, but that's about it.