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Changing Generic Skillset Associations

Started by BleuVII, October 03, 2016, 10:40:36 pm

BleuVII

Okay, question. I've noticed that the skillsets seem to be tied pretty tightly to their jobs, at least for the generics. Archers MUST have Charge/Aim, Knights MUST have Swordplay/Arts of War. If you switch the two of them, here's what happens. I'll use Knights (AoW) and Archers (Aim) for example.

Knights are able to utilize Aim skills, and Archers are able to use AoW. No problems so far. Knights, however, cannot LEARN Aim Skills. The skill slots default to the Archer class. So if I purchase Skill #1 from the Archers (in this case, Rend Helm), it will activate Skill #1 for the Knights (Aim +1). The Aim skillset is forever tied to the Archers.

Is there any way to change this association? If the answer is "Yes for PSX, no for WotL", please let me know.
  • Modding version: WotL

Xifanie

Quote from: BleuVII on October 03, 2016, 10:40:36 pm"Yes for PSX, no for WotL"

Well, more or less, but as far as you are concerned, yes. I was working on a hack for the PSX version (Steam Job Wheel), which was supposed to allow that sort of thing, but I never finished it. On the PSX version there's still my Skillset Behaviours spreadsheet which allow to manipulate skillsets to accomplish the same thing in the end. (Like how Journey of the Five moved the Charge skillset to Squires)
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

BleuVII

Thanks for the quick response!

I am playing through WotL for myself for the story right now. When I'm done, I may port my changes over to the PSX version. If I do, I'll be sure to check out your utility. I'd like to move Items over to Squires and replace the Chemist with a Red Mage. I'd also like Charge to go to the Knights (just makes more sense) so that I can do a custom set for the Archers, including poisoned arrows and so on. I'm looking forward to trying out some of your PSX ASM hacks too.

For now, I'm just happy with how much I've been able to edit WotL. If I could just get FFTactext figured out, I'd be finished!
  • Modding version: WotL

BleuVII

So.... anyone want to attempt a PSP ASM hack to change the Knight's skillset behavior to Aim and the Archer's to Arts of War?  ;)
  • Modding version: WotL

3lric

I don't want to discourage you, but no one ASMs for WotL, literally no one.

You may want to consider switching to PSX
  • Modding version: PSX

BleuVII

  • Modding version: WotL

Xifanie

You could be the first WotL hacker! Be a hero!
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

3lric

Quote from: BleuVII on October 06, 2016, 05:09:06 pm
Yeah, I know, but I had to try....


I know, because you think "well he said no one does, but that probably means very few" but no, I mean literally no one.

Unless you become the first, as Xifanie said, it's not going to happen.
  • Modding version: PSX

BleuVII

Tempting, but it's not my skillset. My background is as a professional board game designer, not as a programmer. I really wanted to replay FFT, but I wanted to see if anyone had "fixed" some of the unbalanced parts. I stumbled across FFT: Rebirth, which led me here. You guys have done such an awesome job creating the tools that it allows even someone like me with "soft" skills to create something fun and interesting. I can balance skillsets, create thematic gameplay, and force players into interesting choices all day, but without your guys' coding expertise, I'm crippled.  :)

My hack is a "vanilla" hack that will probably never be played by anyone here, but will hopefully be found by people who don't want the difficulty of 1.3 or Rebirth; they just want to experience a beloved game in a new way. That's why I chose WotL as my base. The advantages of using it, like the story and translation, far outweigh the disadvantages.

The reason that I want to switch the Aim/Arts of War skillsets is a thematic one. One thing I felt was missing from basic FFT was the idea that training in one class led to another. Why does training with a Knight get me a Monk? It makes no sense. Why does a White Mage get me a Mystic(Oracle) and not a Time Mage? Why are the Orator and the Summoner equally hard to get when one is clearly better than the other? So for my hack, I'm extensively changing the skill tree back into what I think it was during the game's development. I'll post my chart as soon as it's done, but to summarize, each job specialization tree has 3 tiers. For the Knight, it is Knight > Dragoon > Samurai, and for the Archer, it's Archer > Thief > Ninja. (Though, obviously, Samurai and Ninja will require some off-tree training.) As far as the skillsets go, Aim -> Jump and Arts of War -> Steal is a much more natural and thematic progression than what is currently programmed.
  • Modding version: WotL

Xifanie

Quote from: BleuVII on October 07, 2016, 09:46:35 pm
That's why I chose WotL as my base. The advantages of using it, like the story and translation, far outweigh the disadvantages.

Please, tell me more about those mysterious "advantages" you speak of!
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

3lric

Advantages? uhh... wat?

The story didn't change, there is no debating that, and the faux old english is absolutely horrible and inaccurate at best.

The rest is simply your opinion, I don't play any vanilla mods because I think they balanced FFT just fine to begin with. As many people do, that's not to say that there aren't some talented vanilla mod makers around here, but that's not what we are talking about, as those people have been here for the better part of the last 10 years and given more than their share back to the community.

What I'm talking about is when someone finds FFH, and gets nostalgic about modifying a game that they have some sentimental value over, while at the same time knowing they don't have the want or time to learn another language. So they want us to help them achieve these dreams, but when they get passed FFTPatcher and realize that the real stuff requires either actual working and studying, or relying on other people to do it for them, even after openly admitting it would be a for a mod that either was personal or that they didn't -expect- people here to play. So basically asking for help from the community while not offering to give anything back to said community. Most people we take the time to teach things to, end up disappearing after a while and making all that time we spend on them, for nothing. And yes, everyone promises that won't happen, yet it does, time and time again, which is why we require people to get their own feet wet now, so to speak.

When I joined here I didn't know how to make events, I had to study them and learn how it worked to accomplish my goals. Eventually, after showing my own dedication, I got help from Xifanie with events, but she still didn't MAKE them for me (aside from a few she re-coded/remade which also helped me learn a ton) she showed me what I did wrong and helped me improve my abilties AFTER I took the time to learn what I needed to learn to make events.

Your specialty in board games bares no relevance here, do you really think any of is get paid for what we do here? This is a hobby, not a job and if you don't want to take the time to learn to do the things you are asking about, then it isn't important enough for you, and in turn, less important to us, when we all have our own projects and goals. We are not a 10,000 person forum, we are a small -COMMUNITY- of about 10-20 people who actually do things.

If you want to build a house you either hire a carpenter or learn to read blueprints. Either way, you're giving something back. It's no different here other than us generally not accepting payment.


  • Modding version: PSX

Nyzer

Yeah, sorry Bleu, you're not gonna be finding a lot of help to make ASMs for WotL just to push out a small vanilla rebalancing patch. When it comes to Patcher work alone, the advantages of using WotL may very well be worth it, but when it comes to ASM work...

I think I've described it this way before, but here's my understanding based on just what I've heard from others, as I don't do ASM work myself.

ASMing FFT is like painstakingly taking a broken car apart piece by piece in your garage and trying to figure out what makes it tick. ASMing WotL is that, but in total darkness, with a bunch of rabid weasels crawling over your face. While you're knee-deep in mud.

If you need ASMs to overcome what you're trying to do in WotL, either you figure it out on your own or it is not happening. Sorry, man.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

BleuVII

You are absolutely right. I am a person who got nostalgic for one of their favorite games of all time, and came to this community to build my own vanilla hack. In 2 months, you probably won't see me anymore, as I will be finished with my hack and satisfied with the time I spent on it. I AM taking detailed notes though, and plan to leave a detailed log of my experiences that people can reference back to as a starting point. I'm not planning to just take and leave.

If you've ever played a board game, know that even if there is only 1 designer's name on the box, there were a dozen who helped them. In 2 weeks, I'll be going to a conference called "Protospiel", where I will be paying $50 USD to gather with other designers in a hotel conference room to play each others' games. I'll probably play and help improve about a dozen, including written followup after the conference. Most of these games will never be published, and a lot of the new designers will never be seen or heard from again. I will not be compensated for my help, beyond my game getting the same treatment. But I love helping them anyway because I have a passion for making and playing great games.

Now, as for WotL, there are extensive improvements. The stylistic language is a huge one; probably the main one. I remember playing the original FFT back in 2002 and just plain not understanding huge chunks of the game because of mistranslations. Some people hate it, but from a presentation standpoint, I think it rocks! The cutscenes are another advantage. They're beautiful. The polygons are also a lot smoother on the battle maps. Add on top of that extra storyline sequences (like Algus/Argath returning later in the game), more abilities, 1.5 more classes (Onion Knight barely counts), and a host of minor rebalancing tweaks, and I think they did a great job. The huge advantage for ME is that I can play the modified ISO directly on my PSP. The only three knocks against it (other than from a coding standpoint) are (1) the spell slowdown, (2) the loading times (both of which were fixed by a member of this community), and (3) the fact that the Onion Knight is completely useless.

The weaknesses really only become apparent when you start to pick it apart and work behind the scenes. I've run into my frustrations in trying to use FFTactext. Thankfully, we've discovered a fix to the crystalization crash within the past month though! Still, for my patch, I designed it in such a way that it can be accomplished using only FFTPatcher and FFTactext. I would love to use some other ASMs, but they're not mission critical. As it stands now, the gains for learning ASM hacking from scratch are just not high enough. My request above is more of a tongue in cheek request than anything. I've still accomplished what I want to, even if I can't switch Aim over to the Knights.
  • Modding version: WotL

Nyzer

QuoteThe huge advantage for ME is that I can play the modified ISO directly on my PSP


You can play PSX games on modded PSPs as well, though.

QuoteThankfully, we've discovered a fix to the crystalization crash within the past month though!


That fix has actually been around for a while. :P

I remember having to adjust the text for that all the way back in 2011, when I first joined.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Xifanie

October 08, 2016, 01:15:05 pm #14 Last Edit: October 08, 2016, 01:48:58 pm by Xifanie
Quote from: BleuVII on October 08, 2016, 12:19:52 pm
The stylistic language is a huge one; probably the main one. I remember playing the original FFT back in 2002 and just plain not understanding huge chunks of the game because of mistranslations.

Well that's just darn cute. If you want that translation, Cheetah made FFT: Complete for PSX, you can just use that as a base so that's not a good excuse.
Mistranslated? What was mistranslated in the PSX version? No, seriously. Me and my wife looked at everything in Japanese vs PSX vs WotL, and WotL is the worst. Yes, there's "Two Swords" which doesn't perfectly describe the real use of the ability, but WotL didn't even TRY to translate some stuff properly at all. The Divine Sword skills: Shellbust Stab, Icewolf Bite and so on were translated perfectly on the PSX version (well as far as the limited character space allows), yet the WotL team decided: "Wow, fuck this. Just name them Rend Armor/Helm/Weapon/Accessory".
The only part that I'll accept that was mistranslated/sounded funny/weird were the spell quotes to some extent. What did WotL do with those? OUTRIGHT REMOVE THEM. LOL!
And you had trouble understanding what was said in the PSX version? Really? You're either stupid or you're lying. I'm not even a native English speaker and I never had trouble understanding the dialogue.

Quote from: BleuVII on October 08, 2016, 12:19:52 pm
The polygons are also a lot smoother on the battle maps.

A personal choice, really. Native PSX resolution displays everything on the same level and it all blends very well. It's just less smooth if the camera is moving around. HOWEVER, since the PSP version uses a PSX emulator, you still have all the PSX jitter. So that doesn't exactly look very smooth either. So if you really care about this, you need to go with PGXP. That means using an emulator on a computer to play the PSX version.

Quote from: BleuVII on October 08, 2016, 12:19:52 pm
Add on top of that extra storyline sequences (like Algus/Argath returning later in the game)

None of which are canon. This might be nitpicking, but Matsuno is a genius when it comes to writing stories. (Not when it comes to choosing a gaming company to develop his ideas though)

Quote from: BleuVII on October 08, 2016, 12:19:52 pm
more abilities, 1.5 more classes (Onion Knight barely counts)

They use the same ability slots that the PSX version already had available.
The jobs are hardcoded like shit and you can't even remove the stupid 20 kills requirement for the dark knight.
The new items are also hardcoded all to hell.
Their sprites are quarter-assed (half-assed doesn't do them justice), and that includes all the other new sprites except maybe Balthier.


Funny thing, you haven't mentioned 16:9, which is the only advantage I'll accept for WotL over the PSX version along with cutscenes (and I really don't care about said cutscenes). The PSP just handles WotL 16:9 like shit though, everything is stretched and blurry like shit.

So, no, I'm sorry but I don't see how that makes WotL a good base for modding. At all.
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful

BleuVII

...sigh... this is why I went for weeks without putting the "WotL" tag on my profile. As soon as someone says they prefer it, you try your hardest to make them feel like crap.
  • Modding version: WotL

3lric

It's not about feeling like crap, it's about the points she made being valid.

The dialogue isn't stylistic, it's incorrect in many ways. The original translation is correct, I'd have maybe believed you if you said a typo here or there, but you didn't. There wasn't a mistranslation.

The things you described can be done in the PSX version (See: TLW) Although TLW isn't done yet, the bonus scenes from WotL were added to it, and de-wotl-lies-dialogueized to meet the dialogue style of the PSX version instead. The skillslots used to make the DK are already in the game as mentioned above, they only used what was left over to make them. Why did you think Luso had the most unoriginal and insulting skillset ever by completely copying the main hero of the game? Because they ran out of skillslots after DK & Balthier. Same reason OK was added instead of something better... but serious? Luso? Luso can be beaten to death with a rusty frozen crobar

Yes, I've made a board game, I sold my ICP monopoly board for $1,500 back in highschool at a showing we had, but I don't see how that is relevant at all. Nor do I see where you read anything I said or what anyone else was saying.

You can mod WotL all you want, I don't really care, but in the end, we know what we are talking about when it comes to what can and can't be done in respective versions of the game... it's kinda what we do...
  • Modding version: PSX

BleuVII

Guys, I'm really, REALLY not trying to fight about this here.  :? I am listening to what you guys are saying, and I agree with a lot of it. Your point of contention seems to be the facetious post I made on Oct 6th. I've been around here long enough to know that nobody was going to bite on that, but like I said, I had to try.

Now we're in a fight about PSX vs PSP version, and though I am listening to your arguments, I do actually, honestly disagree. It's not with vehemence; it's just a disagreement. You will never be able to convince me that "Salty Rage" is a better translation than "Sortliege", or that "Deathspell 2" is an accurate name for "Dispelja". The translation in the original game was pretty rough in some places, like the Germanik Scriptures. I agree that some of the retranslations are bad (like all of the Mystic's and Divine Knight's spells), but those are easily edited in FFTactext. What is NOT easily edited is the story. I can understand your preference for the "Plain English" translation, but I really, honestly like the "Faux Old English". I loved it in Final Fantasy XII, and I think it was a smart change for the PSP rerelease.

Lastly I bring up designing board games because it is a very meticulous craft, and the skills spill over into working on video games. That's why the podcast Extra Credits jumps back and forth. You have to learn how design decisions affect gameplay, how balancing works, how to force players into interesting decisions, and most importantly, how to use gameplay to tell a story without words. FFT is, in many respects, the most complex board game ever made... so complex that you need a computer to keep track of all of the data. As a published designer, I'm approaching my hack like a board game. I'm not putting things in because they're cool; I'm putting them in because they add to gameplay. I'm adding in abilities that might, on the surface, seem useless, because I know that seemingly useless abilities have their place in a game. It's a difference of approach than just running in blindly and making changes. [To give a longish example, the equipment breaks in the Knight's class are slightly out of balance, since they affect the player much more so than the computer opponents, who don't have to worry about buying back their equipment before the next battle. However, the idea behind them... sending your tank in to disable the opponent... that's a valid idea. So I have changed the equipment breaks into single-target status inflictions sans charge time. If you put your Knight in the line of fire, he might be able to do a Blinding Strike on the Archer before she can pull off her Aim +5. In fact, the Knight's abilities now include an ability targeted at disabling each class. I was then able to take the hard coding behind "Rend Shield" and give Meliadoul/Orlaneau (now the only 2 characters in the game that can Rend equipment) a 5th Crush ability.]

Now, let's put this discussion to rest. You guys have a great community. I'm glad that you've put so much work into it, and that you've built such great tools. It allows people like me to accomplish their dreams. Since you've created such good tools, you invite members of different levels of involvement. Some want to create Journey of the Five, which is awesome. Some just want Ramza to be able to learn Shadowblade, and don't really have an interest in ASM hacking. Just try to be welcoming of the second type. Even if they're only around for 2 months, they have stuff to offer this community too.
  • Modding version: WotL

3lric

Ya still completely missed the points. But its cool, I'm done discussing it.

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6125.0

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?board=17.0

I will never be welcome of the things that dont follow the first thread posted above and then end up in the second.
  • Modding version: PSX

Xifanie

You can't just tell us to shut up after writing such a long reply yourself; that's being hypocrite. :/

You still haven't told me about the PSX version's horrible "mistranslations" in the story. Story events, which by the way, are pretty easy to edit in the PSX version to create a story. If you just want to edit the text and not the story progression, my compiler/decompiler should be able to do the job just fine (I don't know the specifics though)

Please don't use the "you can just change it through Tactext" argument... We can edit text in the PSX version too you know! And with FAR more ease.

Also, talking about your board games and your mod is pretty off-topic... I understand it's FOR your mod, but we didn't ask anything about it. I mean, I can't say I particularly care about vanilla mods (CCP was fun), but I really couldn't care less about rebalance mods... It's all anyone ever wants to make here. It's also the least amount of trouble and the least effort required. It's also has the least that you can appreciate; "OMG new sprites! OMG a new story! OMG new characters! OMG Synth Shop! etc." versus "rebalance~". Regardless, I always try to help as much as I can, because people do make this community, and I don't want this community to be based on a stupid clique of veteran members. We have obtained some nice/promising new users over the years, which would have run away if we weren't polite/nice enough. And you have to understand that we've been extremely weirded out by your excuse that "coding and making board games are mutually exclusive hobbies". Seriously, we still don't know why you're talking about board games. It's great that you have a hobby; we have one too. Feel free to create a topic about your board games in The Lounge section.

You talk about the great tools that we have, yet you don't even use them because you stick to the WotL version. I'm sorry to tell you that but you really have no idea what you're talking about or it's blind praise. This community revolves around more than just FFTPatcher and FFTactext.

You really have no idea what it's like for us. We try our best to help people accomplish what they want for their mods, but no one is going to be like "I'm going to do this for you" unless they really believe in your project. And even then, it hardly happens. You could've just accepted my answer and leave it at that, but the only reason this topic is still going is because YOU wanted to give us some lame excuse as to why you couldn't do it yourself and have someone else do it for you, while both doing it yourself or switching to the PSX version would have been acceptable to us. You don't want to do it? Fucking fine. Just don't make up some lame excuses. Everything we say is "take it or leave it". I'm sorry, I meant to say "I'm converted! WotL really is the best version! Let me make your hack for you now to repent for my years of prioritizing the PSX version! Then I'll make ALL the tools for WotL!".

So... what do people who only stay 2 months have to offer? More topics in the Help section? I've created this place. I've been here longer than anyone, and I don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about. We've had just about hundreds of people who had a very short stay, and I don't see what they contributed back. Which isn't so bad. But then there are the ones who are not appreciative on top of that who make you wonder why you're even trying to help people.
  • Modding version: PSX
Love what you're seeing? https://supportus.ffhacktics.com/ 💜 it's really appreciated

Anything is possible as long as it is within the hardware's limits. (ie. disc space, RAM, Video RAM, processor, etc.)
<R999> My target market is not FFT mod players
<Raijinili> remember that? it was awful