Final Fantasy Hacktics

Modding => PSX FFT Hacking => Topic started by: Xifanie on August 14, 2014, 05:30:56 pm

Title: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on August 14, 2014, 05:30:56 pm
- Do not request hacks in this topic. This topic is here to discuss ideas beneficial to everyone, not just your own personal patch. To make a request, go HERE (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10678).
- People's opinions are welcome, but mostly modders', because after all, they're the ones who will use the hacks. Speak up!
- If you don't understand how video games work, refrain from mentioning your crazy extravagant ideas.



Current list of proposals:
No progress (#post_) - In progress? (#post_) - Completed (#post_)


Why this topic? I think we need to discuss more about the hacks we make rather than just being like: "Here, I made dis." I'll update the topic as people submit their ideas.

With this topic, you can:





October 15, 2015 new!
Remove Monster Skill by Xifanie



Description:
Remove Monster Skill. Do not make it innate, remove it entirely. Should be simple and allow permanent use of Monsters' 4th skill without any issue unlike making it innate.



November 20, 2014 No progress
New Options by Xifanie



Description:
Reallocate "Battle Menu" text to add more space for entirely custom new options for custom ASM hacks.
Of course, this would only be used for player-related options, and the ability to turn esthetic hacks on or off.

For example, a new option for Excessive passive recovery is not displayed (#post_Excessive_passive_recovery_is_not_displayed):
15 Display excess passive recovery
[indent=21]Full
Limit
Never[/indent]



October 29, 2014 In progress?
Alternate Animations by Xifanie



Description:
Assign a different animation for abilities based on the sprite type to allow things such as flawless animations for Blue Magic (humans using monster abilities), monsters using human reactions, and others.

I would suggest a half-word for the ability ID, one byte for the sprite type (1 bit per type), and all the regular animation bytes. I've never messed with those, but I'm guessing that's all there is to it.



October 8, 2014 No progress
Alternate to Crystallization by Choto
In progress? by Choto (last updated: October 25, 2014)



Description:
When a units death timer runs out, it's set to "knocked out" or the alternating stars over guests when they're dead. At this point the unit would not be revivable for the rest of the battle, and when the party returns to the formation screen, their character would be blacked out and set to "missing" (which would probably be changed to "injured" or something). After a some amount of days, the unit would heal and become usable again. It could be done pretty easily using the vanilla proposition data.

So this would effectively be a temporary time-out when a unit dies in battle. It would encourage building a larger party and allow you to play more loosely and let units perma-die knowing they won't be erased, just unusable for a short while.



September 20, 2014
"Reflect" Reaction Ability bounces offensive spells back to the caster by DuxorW



Description:
% Brave trigger, would only work with offensive spells.

Discussion:
Would it require the reflect status to have a chance of activating?



September 8, 2014
Cancel "Move" after confirmation by Vaan and Toshiko



Description:
Allow the player to cancel their "Move" if the targetable area doesn't suit them after all. This would only involve pressing X (Cancel) once more, as it is how it works in all other SRPGs with the feature.



September 4, 2014
Soldier Office Upgrade by Xifanie
COMPLETED by Xifanie (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10622.0)





September 4, 2014
Treasure Box Upgrade by Xifanie
In Progress? by Pride (last updated: October 23, 2014)



Description:
As it stands, if a unit turns into a treasure box, it will pick any of the equipped item to be chosen as the reward. If no items are equipped, a chemist item is randomly generated.
The idea would be to give monsters and generic humans new drops that would be based on their level. The higher the level, the least likely to randomly get a lower level item.

For example, these chocobos would only ever drop one of those items.:

Chocobo:


Discussion:
I was wondering about how to have the item randomly generated; here's just and idea.
Level 1 to 12: 1/1 Potion
Level 13: 12/13 Potion, 1/13 Phoenix Down
Level 26: 12/26 Potion, 13/26 Phoenix Down, 1/26 White Robe
Level 50: 12/50 Potion, 13/26 Phoenix Down, 24/50 White Robe, 1/50 Feather Mantle



September 4, 2014
Treasure Hunter and Jewel Hunter support abilities by Xifanie



Description:
Treasure Hunter: Any target the unit kills is doomed to become a treasure box
Jewel Hunter: Any target the unit kills is doomed to become a crystal



August 16, 2014
Roster Reorganization by Xifanie



Description:
This hack would allow the player to create a custom order of units to view in the formation screen, and potentially also the order of selectable units in a squad for battle.

Discussion:
How do we do it? We cannot simply copy/paste the data inside the formation because it causes many glitches. I suggest either creating a new "Order Unit" list, or use "Number" or something else to make the game order the units as we want.
I was thinking the units could be moved around with a controller button combination as thus increasing/decreasing the list position, but all buttons have a function by default.



August 14, 2014
Excessive passive recovery is not displayed by Xifanie
COMPLETED by Glain (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10535.msg203041#msg203041)



Description:
This hack would make it prevent displaying HP/MP regeneration if you are already at full HP/MP with: Regen, Move-HP Up, Move-MP Up. I'm no good with formula stuff that isn't documented, so I'd rather leave this to someone else.

Discussion:
If a unit has 765/800 max HP, while regen heals for 1/8th max HP, should it display a regeneration of 35HP or 100HP?



March 11, 2014
Charge and Delay by Xifanie



Original topic: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10330

Description:
All abilities would have a charge time, from 0 to very long, and would delay the user by a certain amount of CT after the skill revolves.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Kaijyuu on August 16, 2014, 12:44:04 pm
Quote from: Xifanie on August 14, 2014, 05:30:56 pmQuestionement:
If a unit has 765/800 max HP, while regen heals for 1/8th max HP, should it display a regeneration of 35HP or 100HP?

100 HP. If I'm not certain what an ability does, I don't like ambiguity when attempting to reason it out.

The tiny bit of tidiness added by displaying the actual healed HP isn't worth the loss of information.

We could just as well be talking about damage or direct healing, and you would probably rather see your fighter do 300 damage to a near dead opponent than 2 (and similarly your healer do a big number rather than a small one). Information is less of an issue here since FFT has the predicted damage/healing window, but it still "feels" nicer to see the full number.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vanya on August 16, 2014, 04:25:54 pm
I am of the opposing thought. I'd rather have the tidiness of displaying actual values healed/damage done.
And to the point of having more information, by having accurate numbers could help the player puzzle out the HP ranges of enemies that have their stats obscured.
Besides, when you go to learn a given skill it should simply say what that skill does in it's description.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on August 16, 2014, 07:50:11 pm
Quote from: Xifanie on August 14, 2014, 05:30:56 pmThis hack would make it prevent displaying HP/MP regeneration if you are already at full HP/MP with: Regen, Move-HP Up, Move-MP Up. I'm no good with formula stuff that isn't documented, so I'd rather leave this to someone else.

If a unit has 765/800 max HP, while regen heals for 1/8th max HP, should it display a regeneration of 35HP or 100HP?


Does the reaction ability Distribute work with passive healing?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on August 31, 2014, 01:17:40 am
(No, Distribute doesn't work with passive healing IIRC.)

I can see where Kaijyuu is coming from, but I ultimately agree with Vanya, if primarily because of one hack that I've been wanting to see that no one's done and I could never bring to bother anyone for: Making it so that Absorption techniques and weapons don't give you overflow HP (or MP) when you empty someone's HP (or MP) with them for an excess amount.

I'm generally fine with overflow damage and healing otherwise since it doesn't affect anything else obviously, but this particular aspect of absorption techniques in FFT has always...bugged me rather greatly for some reason. I think this is partly because of the fights against Gafgarion in vanilla post-Zirekile were some of the few actually difficult fights in the game even before stuff overflow Night Sword on a just PD'd unit healed him for +100 HP. The same goes for Elmdor(e) and his accursed Blood Suck.

I've just never brought it up because a) it's a relatively minor issue even with that, b) it's difficult to tell just how much you'd have to change given how...challenged Square apparently is at coding as I've been told by Raven and others and c) I admittedly rather like Gafgarion, so him getting to keep a bit of nonsensical buff is kinda fine with me. So, if anything, I'm just more surprised that no one seems to have bothered looking into it or, at least, no one has said anything about it publicly. Just like I'm surprised that no one seems to have looked into why Mime doesn't Mimic valid all the time or how to make use of Math Skill's usually defunct parameters for...other purposes.

Speaking of those last two things, there are four more proposals I have presently. I'll put them in descending order of importance. I'll also try to limit it to these for now since I just want to get them down before I forget (again):


1. Switching the CT clock of a status, let's say Reflect, with a status that doesn't naturally have one, like say Berserk (hint hint): Yes, I'm asking this partly for the sake of ARENA even though FFMaster is still gone. I've already been told a couple of years ago that there's unfortunately limited space with respect to statuses having CTs. I also vaguely recall being told that it's rather complicated or at least space-consuming to try to make new "clocks" for statuses, if it can even be done at all (presently). So, I figure that this is basically the easiest stopgap, especially since Reflect easily has the most expendable "clock" of any status with them are present anyway. (Wait, does Wall status have a clock? I forget.)

2. Making Mime able to mimic valid actions 100% of the time since it currently isn't doing that for...some reason. Alternately, making it possible to replace Mime without the game bugging out over its replacement: I'll be blunt. Mime is currently dead to me more or less because it can't do the one job that's it supposed to be doing and the only thing it can do with certainty. Even more vexing is that it's been doing this since vanilla and, yet, for all the years that FFH has been around already, no one has looked into it. I'm not going to say that I'm blameless in this weird lack of exploration, but I still can't code for crap, so there's that unfortunately. So, yeah, I figure that it would be best to try to see if there's a way to fix Mime's glitching at times, since that's basically what its failure to Mimic is. Either that or see if there's at least way to easily replace Mime on (the job wheel) without its replacement acting weird since I don't think that's still possible. Both would be nice, but I'm try not to push my luck.

3. Innate Move-MP Up for all: Rather self explanatory. The idea came to me given that the link at the top of this thread actually given that Toshiko commented on how MP would be fine (only) if there was MP regeneration that wasn't as paltry as the fixed 5 MP per turn in FFT:A. As someone who is still (vaguely) planning to make an FFT:A inspired patch and also as someone who indeed feels like MP rather handicaps already often handicapped mages, this seems like the easiest fix. Granted, the percentage would probably have to be dropped from 1/8 to 1/10 or perhaps even less, but that still seems both better and easier than trying to code in a universal fixed number regeneration like the above 5 MP.

4. Allowing Math Skill Parameters to affect formulas...somehow: Read: I just want formulas with Level (X) (MA+Y)% already is so possible. Pretty please? Much like straight out grafting Math Skill onto things, I highly doubt that you'd be able to (easily) just plug in a variable for that formula rather than needing a fixed digit from the go like 2 or 5, but I figured I might as well push the thought. As already mentioned, this is something I'm still surprised it seems like no one has looked into, especially given how common Level [Whatever] abilities are in Final Fantasy games.


Like I just said, I can't code for crap unfortunately, so I won't really be any help here (as per usual).
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Pride on August 31, 2014, 02:13:06 am
3. Not Innate MP Move-Up but I made this a while ago.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
  <Patch name="Restore 10% of Max MP on turn start">
    <Description>MP Restores by 10% on turn</Description>
    <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="F6EBC">
      CCCC033C
      2E000296
      CDCC6334
      19004300
      10180000
      C2180300
      960103A6
      24000292
      10000334
      B10103A2
      0800E003
      00000000
    </Location>
    <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11C280">
      AF77050C
      00000000
    </Location>
  </Patch>
</Patches>
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on August 31, 2014, 05:33:24 am
(Oh? Just as good.)

Actually it's quite a deal better, Pride, given that it means that one can still use Move-MP Up in-game as well as the fact that it's at the beginning of the turn rather than at the end or after a Move. The latter would still have been potentially problematic given how the A.I....acts at times and your hack makes it so that that there's no way even the A.I. can mess up it.

Much thanks. I knew there was a reason you were my favorite deadly sin (...after Wrath), Pride.

P.S. I misspoke slightly above anyway. Move-MP Up and Move-HP Up already "only" restores 1/10 of MP and HP per move respectively; I got confused with Regen's (and, I guess, "Mist"'s) rate of 1/8 for some reason. Still, that's one request down already.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on August 31, 2014, 11:55:24 am
Alrighty TheDamned. In regards to 1., I present the following from RFH's hacks:

<Patch name="XX status use Wall CT">
<Description>Wall CT is always 0. The CT of the new status is adjustable in Wall CT in FFTPatcher

Status number:

00 Blank Status
01 Crystal
02 Dead
03 Undead
04 Charging
05 Jump
06 Defending
07 Performing
08 Petrify
09 Invite
0A Darkness
0B Confusion
0C Silence
0D Blood Suck
0E Dark / Evil Loocking
0F Treasure

</Description>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="12693c">
BC770508
00000000
00000000
00000000


</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="f6ef0">
07000234
07004410
21100000
02008104
21108000
07008224
C3100200
53360608
00000000
XX000534
01000834
1980073C
982DE78C
0700A330
2128E800
BB01A290
07306900
5A360608
00000000


</Location>
</Patch>


This could (should) probably be expanded to map X status onto Y status CT slot in SA's status coloring workbook.

QuoteEven more vexing is that it's been doing this since vanilla and, yet, for all the years that FFH has been around already, no one has looked into it.


In regards to this, I present the following:

<Patch name ="Mime functions as normal Job (v2)">
<Description>
Mime still can't learn abilities, but otherwise, they should be perfectly normal. If you want mimes to still mimic, delete the last line (11BF44).
</Description>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00005014">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00005040">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000150C0">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00029110">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="0002913C">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00029290">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000292BC">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="0002CB00">
5d000334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="0002CB2C"><!--Some portrait nonsense-->
5d000334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00040E80">
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00042818">
5d000234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00044834">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000448D0">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00044B00">
5d000234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00045470">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000455B0">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="00116BD8"><!--Mimic functionality-->
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="113980"><!--Item Throw range-->
     ffff0334
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="116b50"><!-- MP Usage-->
     00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="127f4c"><!--Ability data setting-->
     00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11bf64"><!--Mimic Ability storing-->
     06004014
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="DA84c"><!--Spell Quote-->
     00000000
</Location>
</Patch>


I also present the following:

<Patch name="Calculator/Math skill normalization">
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="125ff4"><!--Spells get reflected-->
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="DA844"><!--Spell Quote-->
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="115F74"><!--Removed forced slowdown-->
00000000
</Location>
</Patch>


Now these don't cover ALL the bases, but whatever else is missing from these normalizations can be found and fixed

The formula thing is doable, somebody would just need to do it.

In regards to Xif's proposals,

1. I think the roster reorganization would be a cool thing to have but seems like alot of effort for little reward. Maybe it could be done more simply than I think, but controller input always scares me :(

2. Excessive passive recovery could probably be done simply.. youd' just have to find the right place to do it. I'll put this on my radar and if I can get to it i'll do it. No guarantees though

3. The Charge Delay thing is still an interesting idea. After playing Divinity: Original Sin it got me thinking about the format more. They use Action Points which are recovered by a certain amount after each turn round and AP costs for abilities. This also seems like it would be alot of work but I'm thinking about doing another hack that turns Speed into a stat like MA and PA, and links the amount of CT a unit gains each clocktick to their job. Since there would be crossover between that hack and this I'll keep it in mind if I get to doing the hack I'm thinking of.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: IcePenguin on August 31, 2014, 04:57:05 pm
This may have already been created but, how about optional random battles?  If you want to fight on a map, select a "Enter Map" option from the main menu, or by pushing a button, or something... ?

OR, how about a "Flee" ability that you can use to escape from random battles?   :o
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on August 31, 2014, 05:49:21 pm
Quote from: IcePenguin on August 31, 2014, 04:57:05 pm
This may have already been created but, how about optional random battles?  If you want to fight on a map, select a "Enter Map" option from the main menu, or by pushing a button, or something... ?

http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=953.msg189610#msg189610
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 01, 2014, 06:40:44 pm
(Oh, hey. That optional random encounter thing also looks quite useful. Hmmm....)

Ah, much thanks, Choto.

Unfortunately I have quite a few questions to ask for the sake of clarification, so get prepared for me to over-use the word "correct" a lot in this post.

Quote from: Choto on August 31, 2014, 11:55:24 am
Alrighty TheDamned. In regards to 1., I present the following from RFH's hacks:

<Patch name="XX status use Wall CT">
<Description>Wall CT is always 0. The CT of the new status is adjustable in Wall CT in FFTPatcher

Status number:

00 Blank Status
01 Crystal
02 Dead
03 Undead
04 Charging
05 Jump
06 Defending
07 Performing
08 Petrify
09 Invite
0A Darkness
0B Confusion
0C Silence
0D Blood Suck
0E Dark / Evil Loocking
0F Treasure

</Description>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="12693c">
BC770508
00000000
00000000
00000000


</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="f6ef0">
07000234
07004410
21100000
02008104
21108000
07008224
C3100200
53360608
00000000
XX000534
01000834
1980073C
982DE78C
0700A330
2128E800
BB01A290
07306900
5A360608
00000000


</Location>
</Patch>


This could (should) probably be expanded to map X status onto Y status CT slot in SA's status coloring workbook.


I see. Interesting. I had forgotten about this mostly because, like when I ask about if people have tested Xifanie's stat reduction & boost hard-limits, no one answers.

For the sake of clarification with regards to this, are the statuses that have CTs that can be switched with Wall only the ones that are listed? Or can we also switch any status space that exists--save for Wall itself obviously--so long as we have the appropriate hex designation for it?

For instance, Berserk is what I'm most interested in at present and that's 14 in hex given its five spaces after Treasure. If I input 14 as the status number, will Berserk actually be affected and take Wall's CT clock? Or will it just not work because this particular hack "bottoms out" at Treasure?

Also, this switches only the CT clock, correct? It doesn't switch the status Order or anything else like that, correct?

Regardless, even if it does bottom out at Treasure, I suppose this would still be useful for making either Darkness/Blind or Silence or even Confusion finite in duration.


Quote from: Choto on August 31, 2014, 11:55:24 am
In regards to this, I present the following:

<Patch name ="Mime functions as normal Job (v2)">
<Description>
Mime still can't learn abilities, but otherwise, they should be perfectly normal. If you want mimes to still mimic, delete the last line (11BF44).
</Description>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00005014">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00005040">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000150C0">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00029110">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="0002913C">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00029290">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000292BC">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="0002CB00">
5d000334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="0002CB2C"><!--Some portrait nonsense-->
5d000334
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00040E80">
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00042818">
5d000234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00044834">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000448D0">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00044B00">
5d000234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="00045470">
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="WORLD_WORLD_BIN" offset="000455B0">
FFFF0334
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="00116BD8"><!--Mimic functionality-->
FFFF0234
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="113980"><!--Item Throw range-->
     ffff0334
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="116b50"><!-- MP Usage-->
     00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="127f4c"><!--Ability data setting-->
     00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="11bf64"><!--Mimic Ability storing-->
     06004014
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="DA84c"><!--Spell Quote-->
     00000000
</Location>
</Patch>


Interesting. Even at a glance with my code-inept self, this looks pretty much like what FFMaster said he was working on with regards to Mime for 1.39 ARENA before he disappeared in the Australian aether. Did he work on this with you or vice versa? Or was this just something you looked into independently in the past year?

Regardless, I can see how this is would be useful, though I'd personally rather replace Mime myself if so possible, at least at this point. The lack of 100% Mimic really bugs me and this looks doesn't make so you can give Mime's space a Primary with actual abilities in it.

(Hmm...I wonder if you could get passed that with Blue Magic triggers....)

As far as clarification with the actual code goes, I'm guessing that this means that Mimes can equip Secondaries that they won't themselves Mimic if they're using that Secondary, correct? Also, by "perfectly normal", I'm guessing this means that they could now use any equipment you designate for them to use in FFTPatcher, correct? At the very least, a glance, this seems like it probably solves the portrait issue that FFMaster was having with making Goblin portraits come up...correct?


Quote from: Choto on August 31, 2014, 11:55:24 am
I also present the following:

<Patch name="Calculator/Math skill normalization">
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="125ff4"><!--Spells get reflected-->
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="DA844"><!--Spell Quote-->
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="115F74"><!--Removed forced slowdown-->
00000000
</Location>
</Patch>


Now these don't cover ALL the bases, but whatever else is missing from these normalizations can be found and fixed

The formula thing is doable, somebody would just need to do it.


I see. I suspected as much about the formula thing, but it's good to have clarification.

Speaking of which, I'm...not sure this does what I think it does even though it's the shortest code of the three. I mean, at a glance, by "normalization", it looks like it gets rid of both the ignore Reflect hard-coding and the forced slowdown issue of Math Skill as well adding Spell Quotes back in. However, is that...it? I don't mean to sound ungrateful; I just want to be sure.

At present, this would indeed be useful, if only for making it easier to balance broken-ass Math Skill without having to get rid of it for those who want to. It's just...one would still have to make sure the unit had already learned at least Math Skill-compatible spell to use it with a set of parameters, correct? It would seem that the independent skill thing I was getting at, mostly for the sake of Blue Magic, would make just have to take a customized formula then. I'm assuming that even with this normalization you would still have to have a) the Action Menu for whatever set uses this switched to Arithmeticks and b) the skills in question available across all parameters in question.

With regards clarifying to that second bit, what I mean is that if I have all the normal parameters still around, then I couldn't keep the spell Death confined to Level and 5, correct? If kept all parameters, then even with this normalization, Death would still be available to other parameters, such as CT and 4, correct?


Regardless, I preemptively apologize for making you regret helping by typing all of this nagging.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 05, 2014, 10:40:59 pm
Added 3 of my own proposals, again :v (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10535.msg199828#msg199828)


I guess all of The Dammit's suggestions are already covered?
Title: RE: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 06, 2014, 06:06:22 pm
(Yes, for the most part, it seems like all of my proposals are done for now even though Choto doesn't appear to have time to clarify things unfortunately.)

Even so, it would still be nice to have someone eventually look into Mime and just why it's screwing up like that besides it obviously being a fault in Square's coding. I'm not going to "force" or nag anyone to do it, though, especially since I'd be looking into it myself if I wasn't so utterly inept at coding and technology in general.

Similarly, I'm not going to ask anyone to make Math Skill-esque formulas since those are basically a patch-by-patch thing and I don't really have room to use them in any of the three patches I'm working on, at least presently. It might be useful for two more I've yet to start, but meh.

That said, if you want clarify the stat thing when you have the time, Xifanie, I would appreciate that.

Someone else might also want a flat, static recovery of MP like in FFT:A. That's not something I'm personally going to suggest or ask, however, as I've already said that I agreed with Toshiko along those lines. Thanks again for that particular hack, Pride.

****

With regards to your proposals, Xifanie, the Soldier Office one sounds the most promising in my opinion, especially with regards to monsters. I must admit my surprise that the Gil limit caps out at 9999, especially given how bloody expensive Square made bags, but I'm guessing Square never thought about having the units potentially wear anything but the weakest stuff. Given that the costs of the starter stuff is pretty paltry, it's not that surprising really. I do have to wonder how problematic it would be to fix the visuals of it to reflect anything that broke that Gil cap though. It might be more trouble than it's worth, at least in that regard.

The Treasure Box Upgrade also sounds interesting and potentially quite a bit fairer to monsters than Secret Hunt currently is, especially if anyone wanted to get rid of Secret Hunt. It would be somewhat tempting to bring back Treasure status if that worked out, especially since the percentage approach based on level seems the best way to do it.

I will admit, however, that when I initially read the opening lines of that proposal, I thought you were proposing a hack where you were able to select what equipment you wanted from humans rather than getting a random one. That too could be interesting, but who knows if they'd be compatible.

I will also admit that I'm not really feeling the Treasure Hunter and Crystal Hunter proposals. I can understand the niche and I could see how people might want them, but it just seems like it might be such a pain in the ass to flag the enemy to make sure it gets "doomed" to that status. Maybe it could be done ala Invite's flag or something that lasts invisibly for the rest of the match after it works. Still, that seems like it would a lot more hassle than it may be worth, especially when you consider the possibility of a unit getting killed by another unit with Treasure Hunter, getting revived, and then getting killed by a different unit with Crystal Hunter or vice versa.

Then again, I'm (still) not a coder, so what do I know. Shrug.

****

Speaking of coding ineptitude, I do have three more ASM hack proposals now that all four of those have already been answered--so quickly, at that--and that my terrible memory has been jogged a bit:

1. Monster-Gendered/Sexed Unit's Normal Attacks Can Add Status: For at least a few years, ever since starting (sluggish) work on Embargo, I've wondered something: Would it be possible to so that monsters--as in units with the Monster gender--can add (or cancel, I suppose) a status or statuses with their base attack without having to use up an active ability space? For example, making it possible so that Queklain/Cuchuulain (always) inflicted Poison with his physical attack or so that Altima/Ultima, as payback for Square's oversight in vanilla, had a chance of inflicting Don't Act/Disable when attacking.

I figure it can maybe work so long as a) said statuses corresponded with an existent Inflict Status space, especially since there are a bunch of those left over after consolidation, and b) statuses triggered on attack were tied both to the Monster "gender" & the specific class rather than the type of monster. I think it would also be better if, provided its workable at all, the Inflict Status chance is 100% unless Separate is used since Separate rather decreases chances too much otherwise since it quarters chances. (Though that could maybe a changed with a separate hack....) [Exercising EDIT: On second thought, perhaps it would be best if it was just the "normal" hit rate for status as they are on weapon strikes, which is 20%. Shrug. I just figured it would be better to be able to work downwards, especially if someone did want a monster or two to have 100% status.]

If it can work, then it would be a lot more ideal than having monsters either have no status on their regular attack--not that they have to even with this--or being forced to use valuable active ability space just for a pseudo-normal attack. Granted, this likely wouldn't be compatible with anyone who wanted to keep generic monsters on their own separate "three ability + Monster Skill" table, but beyond that this would greatly being able to vary them without "wasting" space. I also doubt that I'm the only one who wants this particular hack unlike a lot of things I could suggest otherwise, which is why I'm suggesting this now.


2. Broadening Finger Guard: This request, however, is a lot more self-serving given it's what I "want" to do with Finger Guard in at least Embargo, at least theoretically. While not quite as useless as Gilgame Heart, we'd all be lying if we said we thought Finger Guard was all that useful as it is now. Given that Arrow Guard has long since been modified to be able to block bullets and Blade Grasp has long since modified to be able to block less than it did, among other things, I've wondered for a couple of years: Would making Finger Guard react more to formulas really be that difficult? Or have people just tended to ignore improving Finger Guard because it's formula related and those can vary so much from patch to patch?

Making it so that Finger Guard reacted to more than just the formula Talk Skill uses seems like it would be useful, but maybe that's just me. Speaking of alternatives, perhaps it would best to just see if you could fold Finger Guard into Maintenance (or vice versa) since Finger Guard's basically a Support anyway sort of like Projectile Guard and Abandon. Shrug.


3. Making it possible for so that the Undead can dodge negative healing OR so that elemental absorption can't be dodged: Rather self-explanatory since I can't think of a more concise, "catchier" title. It's always kind of nagged me that the Undead don't have any chance of dodging healing even if Undead status is supposed to be a negative status; then again, so is Berserk with the way the A.I. treats.... I guess it just seemed extra obnoxious due to Item being Item & already unavoidable even on offense--another hack proposal itself--and the aforementioned elemental absorption being an instance of dodging something that would heal you just because it would normally damage you. I vaguely know that part of the "weirdness" for not being able to dodge healing is built into formula 7, though I suppose that's also its own request....

Regardless, I put these as an "or" proposal because they unfortunately seem mutually exclusive and this is probably tough as it is. I suppose you could try to have the fix for the former lie solely within anything that causes Undead Reversal, but that itself seems to vary from formula-to-formula. Shrug again.


(P.S. Apologies, as I haven't proofread this since I'm in a bit of hurry, but I'll proofread it when I'm back from my walk.)

Exercising EDIT: Okay, I'm back and I think I've fixed all typos, though now I'm wondering if I should format these like Xifanie has. Too lazy to do that right now, unfortunately.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 06, 2014, 11:16:53 pm
I want to point out that this topic is not meant for personal ASM requests. It's made for proposals: Hacks that could be implemented in most, if not all mods.

Also, think of the effort vs benefit of creating those hacks. I don't see those as worth the trouble for the little customization/modification earned.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 06, 2014, 11:27:49 pm
TheDamned, your posts make my eyes bleed. SO MUCH TEXT

QuoteFor the sake of clarification with regards to this, are the statuses that have CTs that can be switched with Wall only the ones that are listed? Or can we also switch any status space that exists--save for Wall itself obviously--so long as we have the appropriate hex designation for it?


Idk, this is RFH's hack. I'd have to take a deeper look into it to see. For now it is what it is but like i said it really should be expanded on and included in the workbook.

It only affects the CT, not the order or anything else as far as I know. Then again it's probably never been tested.

QuoteOr was this just something you looked into independently in the past year?


Somebody else made the vast majority of it.. I think FDC. I added other things that I ran into while hacking for JoT5 and independently.

In regards to Math skill, yes it only does those 3 things. It is meant to be used with the Generic Skillset Fix to make Math skill function like a normal skillset (like punch art or black magic).


Now Xifanie's proposals:
Soldier Office Upgrade - I'm all for this. I think I know the routine to modify.
Treasure Box Upgrade - probably could be done if the right routine was found
Treasure Hunter and Jewel Hunter support abilities - These could be done pretty simply. A table of bytes for each unit could set wether they were killed by any units with those abilities. Then setting those bytes could probably be done in the pre-formula routine.

Then back to TheDamned

Monster-Gendered/Sexed Unit's Normal Attacks Can Add Status: probably doable. If you give a monster job a normal skillset, they will gain an automatic "Attack" ability. So you could then make a hack that looked at what kind of monster is using the Attack ability and modify the inflict status.

Broadening Finger Guard:
<Patch name="Finger Guard blocks XX Formulas">
<Description>
Can block up to 4 formulas. If using less, set unused slots as copies of one that it does block. So to block only formula 2a, set them to 2a, 2a, 2a, 2a.
</Description>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="121334">
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="121344">
25100000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="124940">
C4470508
00000000
</Location>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAf10">
E8FFBD27
1400BFAF
1980013C
E5382390
<Variable name="Formula 1" file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAF20" default = "26"/>
<Variable name="Formula 2" file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAF21" default = "27"/>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAF22">
013C
</Location>
<Variable name="Formula 3" file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAF24" default = "28"/>
<Variable name="Formula 4" file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAF25" default = "29"/>
<Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="EAF26">
2134
FF002230
08006210
020A0100
FCFF2014
00000000
2A000134
03006110
00000000
D6470508
00000000
BE20060C
00000000
1400BF8F
1800BD27
1980023C
522E0608
902D428C
</Location>
</Location>
</Patch>


also for undead units, this hack comes with FFTPatcher these days:
Undead units receive 0 damage from all healing ability
BATTLE.BIN
0x120378 change 00000000 to 040060A4


Finally, what Xif says is right. ALL proposals and hacks are subject to not only effort vs reward, but effort vs. priority.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 07, 2014, 03:15:38 am
(My apologies for both vomiting all that text & hurting your eyes, Choto, and possibly somehow giving the impression that I wasn't already aware this was meant to be solely for universal hacks, Xifanie.)

I mean, the latter is the chief reason beyond politeness why I haven't been asking for any formulas since, as I said above, formulas tend to vary greatly from patch to patch. As it was, I was rather hesitant to ask for the Finger Guard "fix" due to it obviously involving formulas. At the same time, I wasn't going to pretend that my reason for asking wasn't primarily motivated by selfishness even though as I pointed out it's not like anyone thinks the current, still-vanilla version of Finger Guard is actually worthwhile.

Speaking of which, thank you for such a broad hack related to that, Choto. That's far more than I was expecting, especially so soon (after making your eyes bleed).

At present, I can't think of anything else that might actually be worthwhile on a (nigh) universal level beyond the "obvious" usual suspects like attempting to make Item universal and possibly finite in capacity or making stuff like Throw and Jump able to function as abilities within skill sets not solely dedicated to them. So you're spared more essays masquerading as posts, at least related to that.

I'm glad to hear/see that I was wrong about the Treasure Hunter and Crystal Hunter Supports potentially being quite tedious even if I'm unlikely to personally use them regardless. I'm sure other people would be excited about them. It's also good to hear/see that the Monster Status Normal Attack hack might actually be possible for pretty much the reasons I thought would; I was aware of the regular Jobs giving even generic monsters normal attacks, though I figure you're just generally explaining that for the benefit of others, Choto.

I'm admittedly not sure if I'll use the particular Undead hack since I do want Undead unit to take some damage from healing--I just want them to have the chance to dodge it. Still, it's far more of a start than I previously had. The same goes for basically just having to test out Rfh's Wall CT with respect to Berserk, though that's fine. As for the other information, thanks for the clarification.

My thanks to you both as well as Pride.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 07, 2014, 07:13:16 am
So, I've been messing around with it, and turns out increasing the number of digits in a graphic isn't that hard.
Increased the Soldier Office Price from 4 to 8 digits, and War Funds from 8 to 9 digits... on top of moving the graphics around.

What I was thinking for the price, would be:

Each job and monster has a different starting price, for example:


You can choose the price you want to pay beforehand, and once you select the option, it will generate a unit with better level/stats/brave/faith/JP the more you are willing to spend. You would simply adjust the price using L2 to decrease and R2 to increase.

Different Towns could have different job/monsters available
Gariland Magic City: Priest, Wizard, Time Mage, Oracle
Igros Castle: Knight, Lancer
Dorter Trade City: Squire, Chemist, Thief, Archer
Warjilis Trade City: Cockatrices, Squids


I'd really like some input on this.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on September 07, 2014, 08:03:02 am
I think that idea is awesome and I want to use it :D
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 07, 2014, 11:51:08 am
Just had a brainpop when I realized that's similar to how Disgaea works, re: monetary cost being proportional to stats. I'd have never considered it reasonable to implement, so I am impressed. My impressive sweetheart ♥
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 07, 2014, 01:47:42 pm
(Indeed, quite impressive once again, Xifanie.)

It's rather difficult to find any downside as far as feedback goes. The only questions I can think of related to this would be these:


1. Is there a way to make an inherent cap to the stats you can buy in the Soldier Office? Or could you theoretically buy a max level regardless of your own level to as long as you've got the Gil to spend?

2. Do the price for classes have to be set to default to ones you're providing there universally? Or were you merely giving an example set of prices for classes based off vanilla usefulness for particular units? ...Actually, a better question with regards to this would be: Are those prices you listed, for the human units at least, directly costed for the amount of Job Levels needed to unlock them, i.e. the more complex the job, the more expensive it automatically is regardless of actual worth?

3. Does Zodiac sign factor into the cost? Or is that still randomly generated? I can't imagine there would be easy to price it anyway given most unit's Zodiacs are randomly generated save for special characters.

4. Finally, is there anyway to (easily) indicate what "soldiers" might be available at which Soldier Office or do we essentially have to guess and explore as with (changes to) Item Inventory? I'm perfectly fine either; just asking for the sake of clarity.


Either way, this is looks quite good. I'm glad I was also wrong about the display issue potentially being a pain in the ass. Great job.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 07, 2014, 11:34:01 pm
Quote from: The Damned on September 07, 2014, 01:47:42 pm
1. Is there a way to make an inherent cap to the stats you can buy in the Soldier Office? Or could you theoretically buy a max level regardless of your own level to as long as you've got the Gil to spend?

I was planning to just have it completely based on the money you spend.

Quote from: The Damned on September 07, 2014, 01:47:42 pm
2. Do the price for classes have to be set to default to ones you're providing there universally? Or were you merely giving an example set of prices for classes based off vanilla usefulness for particular units? ...Actually, a better question with regards to this would be: Are those prices you listed, for the human units at least, directly costed for the amount of Job Levels needed to unlock them, i.e. the more complex the job, the more expensive it automatically is regardless of actual worth?

see below

Quote from: The Damned on September 07, 2014, 01:47:42 pm
3. Does Zodiac sign factor into the cost? Or is that still randomly generated? I can't imagine there would be easy to price it anyway given most unit's Zodiacs are randomly generated save for special characters.

I was just planning to have Serpentarius unlockable if enough money is proposed.

Quote from: The Damned on September 07, 2014, 01:47:42 pm
4. Finally, is there anyway to (easily) indicate what "soldiers" might be available at which Soldier Office or do we essentially have to guess and explore as with (changes to) Item Inventory? I'm perfectly fine either; just asking for the sake of clarity.

Nope, gonna have to check wikis and stuff.
Either way, this is looks quite good. I'm glad I was also wrong about the display issue potentially being a pain in the ass. Great job.
[/quote]

More Progress, no actual code, but meh, I'm not all that worried.
Just hoping I can get feedback as to how I should change to stuff if necessary. I know there are not a lot of notes, but it's not really worth it right now.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 08, 2014, 07:24:51 am
well this turned into a monolith, glad to see it's not me turning a hack into something crazyfuckbig for once :P

I think this is the routine to edit: http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Out_of_Battle_Unit_Generation

I'm sure we could make use of this routine: : 0005d8fc - 0005da0c: Level Unit to Specific Level

I figured we'd steal the ENTD routines where if you set the units unlocked job, it will unlock give you the job levels of all the prerequisites. If we edit the Out of Battle Unit Generation, it should show what job the unit is. Could use the ??? stats flag to mask stats for randomization. I guess bonus JP would have to be added to whatever job the unit is.. i don't see how you could pick how much jp goes into which job.

Shouldn't level just be based on party level? I understand the randomization gambling, but i feel like that much should be static.

I'm not really worried about the code aside from the player input and display stuff, but you seem to be cracking that open.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: kyozo22 on September 08, 2014, 07:38:11 am
God damn, this looks amazing/ exciting! Looking forward to the soldier office and those "hunter" support abilities. :D
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vaan on September 08, 2014, 10:14:20 am
I'd like to suggest a thing that annoys me alot when happens, im just not sure if it already exists or not, if it does pardon me. Anyway, you know when you move 3 spaces but your ability only would hit if you moved 4 but you cant go back? What if it was possible to go back?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 08, 2014, 01:43:34 pm
I've been suggesting that one for years... how come I never posted it? >>
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 08, 2014, 02:32:01 pm
Added Vaan/Toshiko's proposal.

Quote from: Choto on September 08, 2014, 07:24:51 am
well this turned into a monolith, glad to see it's not me turning a hack into something crazyfuckbig for once :P

I think this is the routine to edit: http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/Out_of_Battle_Unit_Generation

I'm sure we could make use of this routine: : 0005d8fc - 0005da0c: Level Unit to Specific Level

I figured we'd steal the ENTD routines where if you set the units unlocked job, it will unlock give you the job levels of all the prerequisites. If we edit the Out of Battle Unit Generation, it should show what job the unit is. Could use the ??? stats flag to mask stats for randomization. I guess bonus JP would have to be added to whatever job the unit is.. i don't see how you could pick how much jp goes into which job.

Shouldn't level just be based on party level? I understand the randomization gambling, but i feel like that much should be static.

I'm not really worried about the code aside from the player input and display stuff, but you seem to be cracking that open.

Have you even seen the sheer size of my Event Instruction Upgrade hack? Or my Synthesis Shop for that matter? Not to mention the ARH... They aren't the smallest of hacks you know.

Thanks for the routine, I'll have to look into that.

How do you plan on using ??? stats on the world map? Was that function even coded in WORLD.BIN/WLDCORE.BIN? If it was, it wasn't just a flag that you can activate through the unit's world stats. I'm not particularly fond of this idea, and definitely wouldn't dwell into trying to implement it unless you find it yourself tbh.

Unless you can figure out another way to implement it, buying units based on party level is broken like hell. You could grind a single unit to say, level 50, then buy 4 other units for 1000-3000-5000 gil each at level 50, and just decimate your way through story battles. Very very strong cheap disposables.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 08, 2014, 10:47:00 pm
Quote from: Xifanie on September 08, 2014, 02:32:01 pm
Have you even seen the sheer size of my Event Instruction Upgrade hack? Or my Synthesis Shop for that matter? Not to mention the ARH... They aren't the smallest of hacks you know.


Points well taken, maybe i should have left off the "for once" part of my sentence. I was just thinking of how the reaction hack went from simple to complicated; I've had it in my mind to change just the level of soldier office units so in my head my statement was a compliment to how far you've taken the idea. Derp <_>

QuoteHow do you plan on using ??? stats on the world map? Was that function even coded in WORLD.BIN/WLDCORE.BIN? If it was, it wasn't just a flag that you can activate through the unit's world stats. I'm not particularly fond of this idea, and definitely wouldn't dwell into trying to implement it unless you find it yourself tbh.


80057f74 - Party Data (256 bytes each, 20 sections)
        0x04 - Gender Byte
      0x80 - Male
      0x40 - Female
      0x20 - Monster
      0x10 - Join after event
      0x08 - Load Formation
      0x04 - ??? Stats
      0x02 -
      0x01 - Save Formation

The ??? byte apparently prevents a unit from appearing in the formation screen. I'll keep testing when i get a chance. My thought was to have their tag appear with ??? stats when picking a soldier, so you can't see what the brave and faith wind up as. That way you can't just refresh until you get super-stats.

Quote
Unless you can figure out another way to implement it, buying units based on party level is broken like hell. You could grind a single unit to say, level 50, then buy 4 other units for 1000-3000-5000 gil each at level 50, and just decimate your way through story battles. Very very strong cheap disposables.


And here I meant let the gold scale with level, but don't have a large variance on level. Just a personal preference though.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 08, 2014, 11:07:29 pm
I think you heavily misunderstand how I plan to make the hack work: You'll get what you pay for.


As you can see, a unit with a lower level will be better in the long run, but you can bet that you'll have soon enough earned the money to afford a unit with the extra stats and such. It really depends on how you want to go at it.

Points will be generated from the amount you pay, and will all be used; there won't be a significant loss.
Pay the base price, and you'll get a lvl 1 unit, with 0 extra JP, lvl 1 job, 40-70 brave/faith range, etc.
Pay a lot, and you'll see significant boosts across the board. What is more worth it and what is less depends on what you're looking for.

The major things that will still be more-or-less random will be raw stats and brave/faith, which can be "derandomized" based on how much you pay.
For example, let's say a Monster is generated with 35.2 HP (random range from 35 to 38) if you pay enough to get 25000 points, while full derandomization costs 50000, you'll wind up with 38-35.2 * 25000/50000 + 35.2 =  36.6 HP.
Basically, the more you pay, the less random your stats will be. That's only if you enable the feature for that particular unit.

Also, it looks like someone stupidly just copy/pasted the Battle Stats over World stats. Not only is there no load/save formation in the world map, but activating ??? stats in the soldier office pretty much resulted in nothing different. So yeah. Good luck with that. :x
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on September 09, 2014, 12:59:24 am
Quote from: Xifanie on September 08, 2014, 02:32:01 pm
You could grind a single unit to say, level 50, then buy 4 other units for 1000-3000-5000 gil each at level 50, and just decimate your way through story battles. Very very strong cheap disposables.


Just a passing thought as I'm reading this but...well, what's wrong with that? I mean, if someone really wants to go ahead and play the game that way, why not let them? It's not like how they decide to use your hack is going to spoil your enjoyment of the game. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't try to build for a happy balance all around but the tone of that statement - to me anyways - just seems almost derrogatory and I can't understand why. In the end, people are going to play with this stuff how they like.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 09, 2014, 06:00:08 pm
Progress!

I haven't changed the text yet, but basically the options are:

Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 09, 2014, 11:25:41 pm
Those screenshots are amazing! XD
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 10, 2014, 02:40:40 am
Alright, I could really use some input right now.

So here's how things are set up right now (fully coded and working):
R1: Price = Price x 10
L1: Price = Price / 10
R2: Price = Price + 1 second digit *
L2: Price = Price - 1 second digit *

*For example the second digit in 67,000 are the thousands, so:
67,000 + 1,000 = 68,000
67,000 - 1,000 = 66,000
Likewise, in 1,000,000 the second digit are the hundred of thousands, so:
1,000,000 + 100,000 = 1,100,000
But to go up the same way as we go down, it will be considered a number with one less digit for subtracting (only for numbers starting with 1 followed by zeros)
1,000,000 - 10,000 = 990,000.

Of course you can hold the button and it will spam one way or the other... there is also a pause before it starts doing so, so that you can perform single button push without increasing/decreasing more than 1 unit at a time.

Male, Female, Monster all have their respective Price counters.
They will all cap at 500,000 because I decided that would be the max.
Male/Female will not go below 1000 because Squire/Chemist are the cheapest at 1000 gil.
Monster will not go below 3000 because Squire/Chemist are the cheapest at 3000 gil.

So
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 10, 2014, 01:33:06 pm
If I were deciding the layout, I would reverse L1 & L2, and R1 & R2, because it seems that 2 should be a bigger increase than 1, imo. Otherwise, it's all lovely. :o
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Jumza on September 10, 2014, 05:11:10 pm
Quote from: Toshiko on September 10, 2014, 01:33:06 pm
If I were deciding the layout, I would reverse L1 & L2, and R1 & R2


I agree, looks so awesome Xifanie!
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 10, 2014, 06:38:57 pm
(Excellent work, Xifanie.)

As to answering your questions, I'll try to answer them in order, partly because question 1 and question 2 are directly related to each other if I'm understanding them correctly:


1. I think that having more than one counter is better than having only one counter, especially if it's already separate. As long as it doesn't seem like it will cause you considerable issues down the line should you need to change anything, I don't see the point in consolidating all three genders.

2. Related to the above, I'd be fine whether Male and Female are separated from each other or combined together. What's most important to me is that they're kept separate from Monster "gender"/sex, really. That said, I have to wonder: Does anything "wonky" happen with regards to sex-exclusive classes like Bard or Dancer if Male & Female are combined into one counter?

3. I'm echoing Toshiko's reason for reversing L1 & L2 and R1 & R2. There's not much else to say with regards to this question really.


Good luck with this and thanks for (really fast) work on it.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 11, 2014, 05:42:51 am
Got the main routine working, just showing off some monsters. Humans work too right now, with all equipment removed (if you want equipment, go buy it yourself).
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 11, 2014, 08:10:30 am
Woo, Ultima Demon! \o/
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 11, 2014, 11:02:38 pm
Yay! Super customizable spreadsheet that will scare everyone away with a built-in simulator!

Thanks to it, I found out I really need to code some square root function or something for the bonus stats, otherwise you can get HUGE bonuses when you put in enough money... then again it could be fixed by limiting the max price enough.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Jumza on September 11, 2014, 11:21:56 pm
Wow :o the more customizable the better!
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Pride on September 12, 2014, 02:45:38 am
Didn't FDC or SA find a square root function in the coding somewhere... Hm
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on September 12, 2014, 08:43:53 am
Sexy ASM is Sexy
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Timbo on September 12, 2014, 10:34:16 am
I think he found a slide rule.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 13, 2014, 10:29:25 pm
Coded:
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Zero Dozer on September 14, 2014, 01:55:09 am
I was just wondering why can't the Mimic imitate abilities from unique classes, like Agrias and Mustadio.

As for the Trasure/Jewel Hunter, I have some opinions:
1. I know ASM on the PSP is still an uncharted territory, but if it is done someday, it would be a good idea to rename the abilities Treasure/Jewel Extractor for the PSP version, as Move - Find Item was renamed to Treasure Hunter.
2. I can imagine a way which this ability would work. It would turn a target immediately into a chest/crystal without having to get past the countdown. Thing is, for the ability to work, a killing blow would be demanded. This is good when you want to farm crystals in order to learn abilities, or when you just want to loot things from your enemies. This could even be combined with Xif's Smart Treasure idea in order to increase its usefulness.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 14, 2014, 05:12:02 am
Quote from: Zero Dozer on September 14, 2014, 01:55:09 am
I was just wondering why can't the Mimic imitate abilities from unique classes, like Agrias and Mustadio.

Because you didn't check mimic for those abilities.

Quote from: Zero Dozer on September 14, 2014, 01:55:09 am
As for the Trasure/Jewel Hunter, I have some opinions:
1. I know ASM on the PSP is still an uncharted territory, but if it is done someday, it would be a good idea to rename the abilities Treasure/Jewel Extractor for the PSP version, as Move - Find Item was renamed to Treasure Hunter.
2. I can imagine a way which this ability would work. It would turn a target immediately into a chest/crystal without having to get past the countdown. Thing is, for the ability to work, a killing blow would be demanded. This is good when you want to farm crystals in order to learn abilities, or when you just want to loot things from your enemies. This could even be combined with Xif's Smart Treasure idea in order to increase its usefulness.

Look, first: Treasure/Jewel Extractor? Holy mother of Ajora D:
You go ahead an go think about renaming stuff when you manage to convert hacks to WotL, and everything is personal! It's not like I'd force anyone to use some names. I am forced for the Synthesis Shop and Soldier Office Upgrade hacks because the main menus aren't listed as editable fields by Tactext.
Instant crystal/treasure abilities work, yes. But that's broken as shit. Unless you don't give the slightest fuck about balance, stay away from that option.

You should do some more research before suggesting things and understand there's a reason I proposed/coded some things. I've made some of the biggest hacks on FFH and it's something I've been doing for over 7 years now.

Until you convert a hack for WotL use, I want you to stay clear of this topic and avoid any mention of WotL. Those questions are pointless to answer right now, as they will likely be forever. Your suggestions are honestly a thorn to me right now. Not only are they nothing anybody would care about, but makes me feel like I'm wasting my time. Like ok, I already get little to none feedback on proposed hacks for the PSX version, and then you come and talk about plans for PSP? Fuck off. Either try some useful discussion or don't post in this topic.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: TristanBeoulve on September 14, 2014, 09:25:21 am
What about reinforcements? I know it would sort of break the game, but I suppose there could also be a rule based on level. Say, I have a party of level forty characters, and my enemies are level sixty. All of my characters, save one, die. My reinforcements arrive based on the level of the enemy, so let's say 4 of my soldiers come in, (one for every five levels). This is very similar to the reinforcements in Jeanne d'Arc. Is this possible?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 14, 2014, 09:33:28 am
Both because of spritesheet limitations and the position of units on the map: No, not nearly possible.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: TristanBeoulve on September 14, 2014, 09:48:11 am
Quote from: Xifanie on September 14, 2014, 09:33:28 am
Both because of spritesheet limitations and the position of units on the map: No, not nearly possible.

Awww..... thanks for quick reply, though.  :D
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Timbo on September 14, 2014, 10:53:45 am
I think the reason you aren't getting nearly as much feedback as you like is that you've trumped everyone's expectations. I think most of us are blown away by what you are offering here.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 14, 2014, 10:58:40 am
^ truths.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Jumza on September 14, 2014, 02:46:07 pm
I 100% agree with Jack, I have no idea how I could contribute at all, and I don't want to make 20 different posts saying good job in the same thread :P

But I would like to say Great job! I'm really excited to use this :) I'm glad you're making so much progress so quickly.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 14, 2014, 03:26:44 pm
Quote from: Jumza on September 14, 2014, 02:46:07 pm
I 100% agree with Jack, I have no idea how I could contribute at all, and I don't want to make 20 different posts saying good job in the same thread :P

But I would like to say Great job! I'm really excited to use this :) I'm glad you're making so much progress so quickly.


Well, guess what: You can!
People being interested in what I do is a huge motivator boost for me, even though sometimes it just becomes hopeless... but having made it that far, I'm positive I'll complete it. I also figured out exactly how to code a very efficient square root formula too.

If I've been making progress quickly, it's going to slow down quite a bit now. The only times I work on that stuff are during my insomnia hours and when Toshiko is at work. Today I can't even work on the stuff because I used my brain to the point of total exhaustion yesterday, and during the night, my subconscious was like: "Let's do more brain intensive stuff!". So yeah, I'm still going to need more rest.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 14, 2014, 03:51:33 pm
(Rest up then. No need to overwork yourself. [/obvious statements]

Now, as far as feedback goes behind just "good/great/excellent job"....)

I'm guessing that the single-sex jobs don't screw things up for humans--that's good to see.

At present, the only other things I have to ask about your current efforts are these three questions:


1. Are the limitations on what monsters would be for purchase something that you yourself are going to have hard-code into this from the get-go or are they going to be slightly somewhat flexible in workbook or whatever is produced from this?

I'm asking for a variety of reasons, though your example of three non-generic monster classes last page is what made me realize neither I nor anyone else had asked it yet. Another reason I'm asking is because I was starting to wonder if making monsters--or classes in general--available in the Soldier Office based on encountering them would be possible, but it seems like it would be overly complicated & probably quite tedious for relatively little gain.


2. How has the "make specific classes only show up in specific cities/locations" part of this been working out so far (if you've gotten around to it)?


3. Finally, may I ask what it is about equipment on humans that's currently screwing things up?

I'm totally fine with humans being "naked" since, among other things, I imagine it makes things easier for you and I was wary of randomly generated equipment anyway even after you showed the gil display was easily changed. I'm mostly just curious as to what exactly equipment on humans screws up given I figured it would have issues when you first brought up this hack. Is it the pricing? Or...?


Otherwise, things look really good so far, especially the Serpentarius thing. Thanks again.

****

As far as more universal patches go, all I can think of right now are formula-related things, though I feel like I'm forgetting something now besides that.... Hmm....

Regardless, I'll ask a formula-related question since I think everyone would be able to get some use out of it: Did anyone ever make it so that all of the standard weapon formulas--1-7--save for formula 2 could take status?

I'm pretty sure various people over the years have mentioned wanting HP Absorb or Healing or just Gun weapon formulas to be able take status, but I'm not sure if anyone has done it or if it's in a workbook somewhere already.

*goes off to watch a movie and try to remember what non-formula thing he was going to suggest*
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 14, 2014, 05:39:11 pm

Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: The Damned on September 14, 2014, 07:16:48 pm
(http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/942-okay-meme.jpg)

I feel like I should PM this to you, but I'll just post it here. This will be my last post clogging up the thread regardless.

The parentheses thing is less a "tic" than it is me trying to get anything tangential out of the way, not that I imagine that makes a difference to you. Otherwise my pointlessly long posts would probably be even pointlessly longer. Regardless, I'll try to stop if it so honestly annoys you or anyone else, but I'm not psychic; you're literally the first person to say anything about it IIRC.

So my sincere apologies for that and the other assuredly noisome things. No need to be so rude about it though.

As for not using that hack, I'm assuming you're talking about the weapons I just asked about. I'd totally use that and I know at least ARENA would be able to use it, even if I can't speak directly for FFMaster or anyone else. Still, given you said not to ask for personal hacks, I'm a bit confused about why it would matter if I used it at all if other people found it useful. If they don't, then, yeah, there's no point in pursuing it at all. I figured it would be a pretty low priority anyway; I was merely asking if it already existed despite my not being able to find anything presently. As you are quite aware, I can be completely oblivious to otherwise obvious things, especially given how much textual excrement I fling at the screen; so it may well already exist.

Sigh. Despite the fact that we rarely see eye-to-eye, I thank you again for your work & your quick answers. I also respect and thank that you're using up your free time on stuff like this and the site as a whole instead of the other stuff you could doubtless be doing. I'll stay out of your way from now on, especially since I don't want to clog this or any other thread with fighting. If you want to continue this in PMs, then I'll try to keep my responses, if any, concise there.

Have a good night.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 16, 2014, 05:04:32 am
Coded:


Now, I have another question to ask:
How do you people feel I should implement the bonus JP to jobs globally? It would be excessively tedious to code all options, so I'm looking into what people would prefer.

Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 16, 2014, 03:13:06 pm
The only option I'd be against is #3, though I think I lean strongest toward #4. #4 is the most logical, but #2 feels more like what vanilla would have done if it were implemented.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: TristanBeoulve on September 16, 2014, 05:31:21 pm
I'd prefer #3, personally.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 16, 2014, 07:15:46 pm
#4 is the most logical, I like that one.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vaan on September 16, 2014, 08:23:04 pm
I'd say 4 is better as it is the most helpful one in there.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Timbo on September 16, 2014, 09:01:47 pm
4 for sure
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Jumza on September 17, 2014, 05:43:28 pm
4! This is incredible Xifanie, absolutely incredible :)
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 19, 2014, 10:52:17 am
Coded:
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: TristanBeoulve on September 19, 2014, 11:17:53 am
Good job, Xif.  :)
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Snap006 on September 19, 2014, 12:50:35 pm
I have a suggestion for monster recruitment.

You should only be able to recruit monsters in towns/cities around where those monsters usually appear.

Example: Cities/towns around Zeklaus Desert should only be able to recruit bombs/bull demons, Lake Poescas should only be able to recruit behemoths/undeads.

Also, when the deep dungeon is unlocked, then you should be able to recruit, Apandas, Ultima Demons, etc.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Snap006 on September 19, 2014, 02:23:19 pm
Don't mean to double post, but just thought of something.

How about taking one of the unused movement abilities and making an ability that when equipped lights up the deep dungeon.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: TristanBeoulve on September 19, 2014, 02:43:47 pm
Quote from: Snap006 on September 19, 2014, 02:23:19 pm
Don't mean to double post, but just thought of something.

How about taking one of the unused movement abilities and making an ability that when equipped lights up the deep dungeon.

That would be pretty cool.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 19, 2014, 03:14:50 pm
Quote from: Snap006 on September 19, 2014, 12:50:35 pm
I have a suggestion for monster recruitment.

You should only be able to recruit monsters in towns/cities around where those monsters usually appear.

Example: Cities/towns around Zeklaus Desert should only be able to recruit bombs/bull demons, Lake Poescas should only be able to recruit behemoths/undeads.

Also, when the deep dungeon is unlocked, then you should be able to recruit, Apandas, Ultima Demons, etc.

That's nice and all,  but that's your idea. It's kinda pointless to give any such suggestion here, because I'm making the tool for modders, I'm not building some unflexible crap. (You should be able to tell from my screenshots)
I also really doesn't help that story mods might use this; then down the drain goes your suggestion.


Quote from: Snap006 on September 19, 2014, 02:23:19 pm
Don't mean to double post, but just thought of something.

How about taking one of the unused movement abilities and making an ability that when equipped lights up the deep dungeon.

Actually, you did mean to double post. Otherwise you would've used the edit button.

That's the only thing this can make me think of:
(http://www.solelites.com/mcfly1.jpg)

Story mods tend to completely get rid of the deep dungeon because the map darkness is such a fucking boring feature. I'd rather just have the maps start up lit rather than using my Unit's Ki/Chi in their feet to light up the room. I can't even tell what your idea was since you didn't even give the ability a name to understand why it would be doing that.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Snap006 on September 19, 2014, 04:09:43 pm
I was thinking more of the lines of Darkvision spell from dungeons and dragons. I didn't necessarily have to be a movement ability. I just mentioned them because I knew there were a few not used. I can see where I made it sound a little confusing.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: DuxorW on September 19, 2014, 10:53:05 pm
Xifanie, this soldier office hack looks awesome and I can't wait to use it. I love how customizable it is.

As a suggestion for a potential hack, it would be nice if reflect didn't suck so much. It would be nice if it acted the way it does in other ff games, like a counter magic hamedo, where the spell is reflected back at the caster. I'm only posting it here because it seems like it would have broad appeal, so I apologize if I'm in the minority, or if it is really unfeasible...
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 20, 2014, 09:56:15 pm
I've always thought it should behave that way, honestly. Can't remember if it was looked into or not.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 20, 2014, 10:12:56 pm
I tried looking into this awhile ago and came up empty, but I've learned alot since then and I think I can make it happen. But as always, the question is when :(
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 20, 2014, 10:27:14 pm
Updated the main post with the Reflect hack idea~

And I don't think I could personally do it. I never touched reaction abilities before, know other people have, so I'd honestly rather leave that to them.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: DuxorW on September 21, 2014, 11:06:07 am
I had actually forgotten that there was a reflect reaction ability that doesn't do anything. I was just referring to the way the reflect status effect works.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vanya on September 22, 2014, 02:49:05 pm
Yeah. The "Reflect" ability should just give the user the status. Then the status would be much easier to deal with if it just hit the caster instead of calculating a new square to DEFLECT to which is what it actually does now.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 22, 2014, 03:49:35 pm
Now, I don't even see how you could easily edit the Reflect status to do that and be worthwhile.
I don't know about you guys, but I fucking love the ninja tricks the AI pulls with reflect. It's astounding.

The AI will just be like: "Well, the spell is going to bounce back on me and hurt me; guess I won't do that then!" Unless you code the AI to be stupid about it, which sounds like a lot of work.

And the reaction just adding the reflect status? My gosh that's boring.

Then again I don't mess with formulas/reactions and I'm sure someone like Choto could enlighten us more on the subject.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: DuxorW on September 22, 2014, 04:21:24 pm
Even though I was only referring to the status, I do like Xifs idea about the reaction ability. Of course, the AI doesn't pay attention to reaction abilities so it would be imbalanced towards the player. However, if the reaction is like a magical hamedo but requires reflect status in order to be activated at Br% chance, then that balances it better. Except the AI is often reluctant to cast reflect to start with.

Maybe the reflect status could be left alone and the reflect reaction could act like a magical hamedo and directly target the caster?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 22, 2014, 10:23:21 pm
QuoteI don't know about you guys, but I fucking love the ninja tricks the AI pulls with reflect. It's astounding.


First of all, this. The AI doesn't do alot of things well, so we shouldn't take away from what they already can do well.

Also the reaction adding reflect status... sorry but it does seem boring. However, we could make the reaction reflect a spell back at the caster based on some other amount... like W-Ev*Constant for a spellblade ability... or S-Ev for a magic knight type ability. The only tricky part would be if the game already uses the reflect R/S/M's slot for the reflect status proc, which FDC has shown me is so. Should be doable down the road.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 23, 2014, 07:12:18 am
All done coding.
Now, I'll be taking feedback one last time before testing on console and releasing help notes.

Here are the potentially final editable spreadsheets. Just to give you an overall idea:

Legend
Disabled: The function will not be used. If you cannot disable it on the config sheet, that means you can just manually disable it for all units anyway.
Passive: Does not consume points that could otherwise be used by other Active attributes. Ex: Let's say Brave Derandomization is Passive; a unit with Brave Derandomization will not gain more Active stat bonuses than someone else without it.
Derandomization: Helps push a stat towards its natural random limit. Ex: A unit with Faith Derandomization has a greater chance of reaching 70/70 Faith than one without.

(http://xifanie.ffhacktics.com/SOU_Units.png)


(http://xifanie.ffhacktics.com/SOU_Config1.png)

(http://xifanie.ffhacktics.com/SOU_Config2.png)


And some screenshots of Bonus stats in action:
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on September 23, 2014, 09:37:53 am
I'm so impressed that I have no idea what to say... *_*

It just goes so far above and beyond expectations. And you know how amazed I always am by your work. 8D
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on September 23, 2014, 11:11:22 am
So if I'm interpreting this correctly... units can have bonus stats if invested in which I'm guessing affect the units raw-stat values. Wouldn't that make soldier office units always superior to randomly encountered or story units? Of course I am aware that you could just turn that off if you don't want it, or use Raven's workbook to allow variances in other units as well.

Also, I see the list starting at the generic jobs... I think it may be beneficial to allow special units to pop up either regularly, by some chance, or depending on some other indication (story progression, etc.).

Otherwise, I think this is more than anybody bargained for, looks fantastic
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 23, 2014, 11:19:22 am
The idea of this new hack is to pay to have a superior warrior. Or you can just configure it to pay to have a normal warrior; but the extra gil that you pay has to be used for something. Sadly when it comes to that, I'm not really allowing just static costs for very regular lvl1/party level units without any bonus anywhere. Deal with it. With this engine I couldn't even implement that easily anyway.

Of course it depends from mod to mod, but in vanilla you can just use Invitation and call it a day; and that's free (on top of getting all their equipment too).

Special units are included, they're just below generic monsters, because I'm sure people will want to mostly allow generics. If you didn't see my previous screenshots, I included an Ultima Demon recruit, as well as Apanda and other things.

And it's currently using Store Availability. It used to be Story Progression, but it didn't fit quite as well. Since well, it is a store.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on September 23, 2014, 11:21:58 am
Quote from: Toshiko on September 23, 2014, 09:37:53 am
I'm so impressed that I have no idea what to say... *_*

It just goes so far above and beyond expectations. And you know how amazed I always am by your work. 8D


I need to save this for all the things Xif does, because I'm always in awe, but never have anything useful to provide
feedback wise since its already epic
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on September 23, 2014, 11:38:15 am
I do appreciate the comments a lot. Still, I sure hope is that my hack will be used. :p

Choto, speaking of special units, you gave me an idea. I literally have 5 bits left in unit data, and that's exactly what I need to add a generic job unlock.

For Example:
Dragoner unlocks Lancer
Berserker unlocks Monk
Holy Knight unlocks Knight
Sorcerer unlocks calculator

I'm guessing the Base job should still get the bonus for the lvl1-8 bonus though.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on September 23, 2014, 11:54:07 am
I see no reason why it shouldn't be used in Jot5. It's something that would actually make the soldier office not useless in a patch like that.
So at least you will have it in there
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on September 23, 2014, 04:04:02 pm
The sheer functionality of this hack just makes me o_o much like many of your past pieces of work which I have already made extensive use of. Looking forward to doing something with this one as well. Also to echo Elric's thought, nothing much to add because you've already created something so above and beyond any expectations I wouldn't know where to begin trying to add something else.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vanya on September 26, 2014, 11:36:48 pm
Fair enough on the Reflect ability, but I'd rather it not use Br% for the trigger.
If you guys want to make it a bit more interesting, then how about using inverse Fa% for the trigger.

As for the Reflect status, I've always hated it's behavior. AI be damned.
But I will concede that it would be a lot of work to change it.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Timbo on September 30, 2014, 08:21:17 pm
I'm not an ASM hacker but I'd like to see a hack to turn the lights on in the deep dungeon.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 01, 2014, 06:46:39 am
Hack exists and has existed for a very long time. Arena uses it. Kinda broken, though, because it only lights up the room and not the sprites. It is not known how to fix this. I'll let someone else link it, because I'm not even awake yet, and need to get ready for work.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 08, 2014, 09:45:16 pm
I'm probably going to make this hack my own way for my own purposes, but I wanted to get some feedback from people and possibly alter it for a public version.

Alternate to crystallization:

When a units death timer runs out, it's set to "knocked out" or the alternating stars over guests when they're dead. At this point the unit would not be revivable for the rest of the battle, and when the party returns to the formation screen, their character would be blacked out and set to "missing" (which would probably be changed to "injured" or something). After a some amount of days, the unit would heal and become usable again. It could be done pretty easily using the vanilla proposition data.

So this would effectively be a temporary time-out when a unit dies in battle. It would encourage building a larger party and allow you to play more loosely and let units perma-die knowing they won't be erased, just unusable for a short while.

It would be kind of a bummer to remove crystallization altogether. I'm leaning towards allowing enemy monsters and humans to crystallize/treasure. There's also a question as to wether Ramza should be able to crystallize.. I would say yes right?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vaan on October 08, 2014, 10:13:24 pm
Would be nice for noobies, but i think thats the fun in FFT, the capacity of absorbing hp/mp or skills and also the capacity of losing your best units. Also if ramza doesnt crystallize, when he dies its instant game over or still has a counter?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Pride on October 08, 2014, 11:38:34 pm
Crystallize basically is a reset for anyone playing the game. Doesn't matter if its Ramza or not. I love the idea Chotoman
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on October 09, 2014, 03:13:49 am
Another fun looking change to the normal mechanics. I like it.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Dome on October 09, 2014, 03:53:08 am
Fun stuff
I like that, Choto (As long as you let the player know in how much time the unit will return)
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 09, 2014, 08:56:06 am
I LOVE the idea Choto, it would even allow insta-crystal moves to not be that terrible.

But, big problematics:
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 09, 2014, 10:25:30 am
Point number 4 is the one that came to me first, before seeing your post. @ xifi

That aside, this could really be a game changer for the better. Great idea!
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Kaijyuu on October 09, 2014, 01:33:14 pm
I'd just like a "restart battle" button. It makes the game more tense to not allow you to let any units die.

Regardless, there's always room for multiple fixes and allowing patch makers to choose themselves. It's not like there's some "correct" fix to problems like these.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on October 09, 2014, 04:45:49 pm
@Choto: make vanilla crystalization an effect added to an attack, or something that can target KO units similar to revive.  A coup de grace.

I'd keep the timer and if someone times out they aren't crystalized but made unrevivable for the remainder of the battle and unusable for a few battles.  If someone targets them with something that crystalizes while unrevivable, then they are crystalized.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 09, 2014, 05:32:21 pm
I get the feeling that nobody understands -why- this is awesome. It means that if a unit dies, they become temporarily unavailable, which means you're forced to use other party members in that unit's place, which means it pays to keep a back up strategy, and a more well-rounded party. Crystalization makes the game -less- interesting, not more of a challenge. Being crystalized doesn't mean you've suddenly become more hardcore, it's just a reason to reset. This quells a lot of the ragequit scenarios and rewards you for actually using up all those party slots. It makes a strategy game more strategic.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 09, 2014, 08:31:36 pm
Quote from: Xifanie on October 09, 2014, 08:56:06 am

  • If you allow Ramza to crystalize, that's going to mess up with a bunch of victory events. Crystal/Treasure are normally non-reversible. And even if you made it, what would happen if someone picked Ramza's crystal? I think it would be better to leave him permanently unconscious and unreviveable for the rest of the battle.



I'd leave it as Ramza crystallizing causes game over I think otherwise unconcious and unrevivable is fine to me

Quote from: Xifanie on October 09, 2014, 08:56:06 am
  • What about the original mechanics of Crystal? AI seek crystals, but that shouldn't be too hard to fix. As far as the player is concerned: Hello free HP/MP healing from a decayed lvl1 chemist, or just from another unit when necessary, and hello mass ability crystal farming. I'd prefer Blue team units to just vanish rather than keep the current crystal mechanics activated for them.



i'm confused.. You don't have to inflict crystal to the unit to set the death counter to stars. It's a separate byte in unit data, so they only have dead status without any more countdown of the death counter. Is Blue team the players team?

Quote from: Xifanie on October 09, 2014, 08:56:06 am
  • I don't know where the proposition Missing graphic is located, but I hope you can create space for a new one.

  • I'm worried about our hacks conflicting; i.e. for TLW. I'm currently using 0xFF IIRC to set units as missing (0x00 = free, 0x01 = temp leave, 0x02 = missing), so it would be great if you used something else and didn't override the graphic for 0xFF. Thanks.

  • You'll have to hack out the routine which overwrites biographies to says the person died in battle.




Which byte are you using? 0xFF in Party Data (57f74)? The one I had in mind is "0xd0 - Proposition byte" in that data. Which hack are you doing that for too? I'm sure we can work around it. As for space for the injured letters... ehh idk, we have to find it first.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 09, 2014, 09:04:12 pm
That sounds fair enough.

Yes Blue team is player team.

Now, what I thought your hack crystallized units in battle, while disabling them for some time afterwards. I'm guessing there's just no crystallization then?

Yes, 0xFF for value 0xD0, like I described, what assigns "Temp Leaving"/"Missing"
0x03 to 0xFF will also display "Missing" so for your purposes I'm guessing you're planning to take one of those bytes. I'm reserving 0xFF for TLW NG+; If you didn't know, units in NG+ will be "missing" until you recruit them again.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 09, 2014, 09:32:26 pm
ahhh right, I forgot about that. Ok, I can use a different value for it I think.

Yep so the idea is instead of inflicting crystal when they die, just set them to knocked out and unrevivable via code. The enemy team is where I was thinking of allowing crystallization, but I almost like it better as a different niche implementation. Like crystallizing attacks like you mentioned or other creative ways to introduce them and treasure boxes.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 13, 2014, 07:56:07 am
Ok, I've slapped together an "injured" word in the font of the status text. I know the palette is 0x20 long and where it is located in Frame.bin. I know where there is free space in Unit.Bin to put it. My question is: Does anybody know how to properly insert this into the free space in Unit.Bin to preserve its palette and all?

In order to actually display it I'll have to find the code that decides the load locations of LeavingTemp and Missing, but right now I just want to get it inserted correctly.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on October 14, 2014, 05:15:01 am
Interesting lowercase J. Could just do what I did and place it into UNIT.BIN manually with tilemolester. Hell, I'll do it for you if you show me where the free space you want it in is at. Tried to just replace Injured with it to get a look at it in-game but I have no idea where it thinks it's loading the word-image from. I'll attach my modified UNIT.BIN if you want to take a look at what I put in there [a few of the letters I changed what it looked like your shading was to match already existing letters] but when I tried to test it, it only showed the original Missing text. I just spent like 30 minutes fucking around with CDMage, pSXfin and TM [including learning how to actually use the debugger to set a unit to Missing status] trying to get it to work and I don't know what the problem is. Maybe you'll have better luck than me.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 14, 2014, 08:07:34 pm
Thanks mucho Celdia. Turns out that there are duplicates of the text in World.Bin. They even left me a bit of space for my injured word. Tilemolester editing worked like a charm.

This presents an interesting possibility - if the text in Unit.Bin is unused, we can use it for additional formation sprites. It would only be 2 large monsters or 4 small monsters/humans. We'll see what comes of it down the road but it's interesting to see so much stuff in these other files being duplicated in the main files.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 14, 2014, 08:55:55 pm
You might want to make sure they're not used in stuff like shops, we never know.
i.e. When checking if items are equippable in regular shops/fitting room/soldier office rename...
They likely all use the same, but better safe than sorry.

Also, I know I'm being a bitch, but that "Injured" isn't properly aligned.

I think the extra space would be best used for monsters; we have quite a bit of unused human sprites, but only Ultima Demon and Elidibs I'm pretty sure when it comes to monsters.

I definitely want to see this hack happen. \o/
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 17, 2014, 10:10:01 pm
Update: found the code to:

-change the X/Y load location from World.bin, successfully loaded "injured" from the blank space
-change the X/Y stretch of the image.. it behaves strangely though
-change the offset of the word displayed on the formation screen (here's your alignment =)

So the formation screen is almost good to go, I set the death counters earlier so I think that works. Now I just have to set the amount of days they're out for and restore them when they're healed. We're moving along slowly but surely.

Speaking of which, a player could just bounce back and forth on two blue towns (even more easily with the smart encounters hack), so I'm trying to think of an alternate measure of time. Should they be unavailable for a certain number of battles? I think that would be more of a nuisance. (combined with the fact that while the unit is injured, you can't change their equipment ^_^)
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on October 18, 2014, 01:48:05 am
Quote from: Choto on October 17, 2014, 10:10:01 pmSpeaking of which, a player could just bounce back and forth on two blue towns (even more easily with the smart encounters hack), so I'm trying to think of an alternate measure of time. Should they be unavailable for a certain number of battles? I think that would be more of a nuisance. (combined with the fact that while the unit is injured, you can't change their equipment ^_^)

I don't understand why the equipment thing is a problem.  Other people can't use their stuff?

Why not change it to something which is already counted, like whatever is counted for the Brave Story menus.  Enemies killed?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 18, 2014, 06:27:40 pm
Well if you equip badass equipment on a unit and then it gets injured, you won't have access to those items for however long I decide to make the timeout period.

Making it count something is trivial, it's more about what makes the most sense as a penalty.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on October 19, 2014, 12:31:29 am
Quote from: Choto on October 18, 2014, 06:27:40 pm
Well if you equip badass equipment on a unit and then it gets injured, you won't have access to those items for however long I decide to make the timeout period.

Isn't the point of an injury that you can't participate in battle?  Does this mean the person also doesn't travel with the party?  Why couldn't you access their equipment from the formation menu?

Quote from: Choto on October 18, 2014, 06:27:40 pmMaking it count something is trivial, it's more about what makes the most sense as a penalty.

Since Xifanie is messing about with the Soldier Office why not add an Inn functionality to pubs or bars or whatever they're called?  Have the character recover at an Inn and pick them up after a certain number of days.  Or you could pay for nursing and care from the innkeep to heal that person.

I can do one better though.  Injured person can't participate in battle.  To remove the injury visit a Bar and pay for bed rest.  With bed rest it will take about a month (pretty long) and during that time the person is gone just like they are on a mission.  Or you can pay for bed rest and nursing and they will only be gone for about a week at the most.

It's like a reverse mission.  Lose time, money, and JP.

If this is impossible then flame me, just throwing my two cents in.

The penalty for bed rest could be that the longer a person is out of battle the more experience, available/total JP, or perhaps even levels they lose.  This is a linear function of time spent at an Inn - nursing would reduce that time and reduce the experience and levels lost.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 19, 2014, 07:02:39 am
I like the resting at an inn idea. Have them be injured until you can visit a blue dot, and then they rest there for a few days (month is excessive). I'm not a fan of stat penalties, though.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 19, 2014, 08:30:10 am
Right now you can't change weapons, job, ability settings, etc... and it's more work to change that so, I'm going to rationalize that in their fragile state of mostly-dead you can't go stripping their armor off and by happenstance, their weapons either. I like it as an added penalty.

I like the idea of the inn thing, but there are two problems. 1 - it still doesn't change the fact that I could leave a unit at an inn, then hop between two non-battle inducing places and then just go pick him up with no penalty. 2 - once again it would be alot more work as I don't know how to add commands to the bar or soldier office and make the GUI behave accordingly offhand. I could try to figure it out but my time is mad crunched.

A pipe dream of mine (as it relates to an Inn) is to have HP/MP behave like it would in a normal RPG where you keep the same values that you left battle with. Then let the player be able to cast cure or use potions and ethers to heal up out of battle if they want to.... but..... eh. Idk how good that would be to have in FFT.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 19, 2014, 08:37:56 am
You could just make it like FF1, Where you can go revive your party members for a fee at the church, so there would always be a penalty. Cost would be based on the unit's level.

At this point, adding an option to a menu would be a piece of cake for me, and I could easily teach you how. The issue is what and where. Because ideally it would be somewhere with code that you can easily alter to move to your option.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 19, 2014, 08:43:18 am
I figured the fee was implied. But I like the idea of the cost being based on level, so it will always be an appropriate penalty.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Vanya on October 19, 2014, 09:33:52 am
The FF1 style revival thing would be cool.
Also, I'm a big fan of Choto's pipe dream.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 19, 2014, 12:18:22 pm
Even Choto admitted his pipe dream is a bad idea in FFT. Because it is. (Sorry to derail...)
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on October 19, 2014, 12:40:07 pm
I'm in favor of the idea of having the revival done at a Hospital or something within certain towns at the cost of Gil.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Kaijyuu on October 19, 2014, 02:28:53 pm
Not in favor of having to pay to replenish your units after battle. The only value I can see in it is the multi-battle events, like the times you visit Orbonne Monastery, so you have to plan ahead more, and that can be accomplished by only replenishing units when you're on the world map (and hopefully for free).
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 19, 2014, 02:31:04 pm
You also have to understand that if there is a gil cost, it would be easy to make it 0 gil / 10000 gil / 1000 gil per level.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on October 19, 2014, 05:26:45 pm
Note that I said this as an alternative to crystalization and treasure boxing.  You would have lost that character anyways, only now you have a somewhat painful way to get that person back.

Quote from: choto
I like the idea of the inn thing, but there are two problems. 1 - it still doesn't change the fact that I could leave a unit at an inn, then hop between two non-battle inducing places and then just go pick him up with no penalty. 2 - once again it would be alot more work as I don't know how to add commands to the bar or soldier office and make the GUI behave accordingly offhand. I could try to figure it out but my time is mad crunched.

1. There's the fee.  There also could be a proposition associated with it as it's in a bar.  Maybe you have to leave one character to nurse the wounded person.  As for the 2 blue dots thing unless you can make it require a battle or 2 (which would also be useful for propositions) I guess you have to implement it and considering you can't retreat from battles in FFT this seems very fair to me.

2. When you said "Making it count something is trivial, it's more about what makes the most sense as a penalty" I thought you meant "throw some ideas at me".

Quote from: chotoA pipe dream of mine (as it relates to an Inn) is to have HP/MP behave like it would in a normal RPG where you keep the same values that you left battle with. Then let the player be able to cast cure or use potions and ethers to heal up out of battle if they want to.... but..... eh. Idk how good that would be to have in FFT.

Is this found in the post-battle routines?  IIRC there are formation gameshark codes for current and max hp.  Just need some menus.  And would MP regain over time, or for people who sit out on battles?

Quote from: Xifanie on October 19, 2014, 02:31:04 pm
You also have to understand that if there is a gil cost, it would be easy to make it 0 gil / 10000 gil / 1000 gil per level.

This is useful for out of battle healing I think.  Sidestep the buy potions grind.  Make gil management more important.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 19, 2014, 11:08:34 pm
Having MP regen automatically would make me hate the use of MP an awful lot less, but that's a totally different hack altogether.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on October 19, 2014, 11:54:10 pm
Quote from: Vanya on October 19, 2014, 09:33:52 am
The FF1 style revival thing would be cool.


Also, just a thought for personal use that I expect everyone else would hate/say defeats the entire purpose of this hack, but would there be space to put in an option to have an Injured unit's equipment destroyed entirely? Just 00 out all their equip data?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 20, 2014, 01:08:02 am
You're right - that would be hated. But could be accomplished.

It would equally encourage resetting if your unit had rare equipment, which also defeats the purpose and strategy of the hack. But it could be done. Just, if you use that, why even bother with the hack at all? It's nearly equal salt in the wound to lose a cultivated character as it would be to lose a Chaos Blade or so.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Kaijyuu on October 20, 2014, 02:14:58 am
I'd like to pop in and say that the cost should be weighed against the bother of resetting the game, not the original punishment (loss of a character). Even if you make the new punishment far less annoying than the old one, the player will still reset the game if they feel it's less bother.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on October 20, 2014, 03:09:59 am
When playing FFTA (for those wackado people that do so) do people reset every time a unit has to go to jail for breaking a law? I dont see it as much that much different of a concept.

However the losing of armor thing I would also be against.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Celdia on October 20, 2014, 07:38:09 am
Quote from: Toshiko on October 20, 2014, 01:08:02 am
Just, if you use that, why even bother with the hack at all? It's nearly equal salt in the wound to lose a cultivated character as it would be to lose a Chaos Blade or so.


For an idea of mine that really wouldn't have much in the way of unique equipment like Chaos Blades. I've got a difficulty hack idea brewing in the back of my head lately. Which reminds me... Elric, I need to pick your brain sometime.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: 3lric on October 20, 2014, 10:02:52 am
Quote from: Celdia on October 20, 2014, 07:38:09 am
Elric, I need to pick your brain sometime.


Anytime :)
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Kaijyuu on October 20, 2014, 03:23:19 pm
Quote from: Elric on October 20, 2014, 03:09:59 am
When playing FFTA (for those wackado people that do so) do people reset every time a unit has to go to jail for breaking a law?

Some people do.

I know in FFTA2 I sometimes reset if I really wanted the law bonus (60 ap is significant!).
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 20, 2014, 11:00:44 pm
Quote from: Celdia on October 19, 2014, 11:54:10 pm
Also, just a thought for personal use that I expect everyone else would hate/say defeats the entire purpose of this hack, but would there be space to put in an option to have an Injured unit's equipment destroyed entirely? Just 00 out all their equip data?


Yep that should be easy to do.

I'm still tossing the ideas around. I like the fact that counting by battle emphasizes unit-management whereas  healing for a gil cost emphasizes gil-management. However, adding another dimension to gil management would be cool if done in the right way. Doing it with battles would also be a super-simple hack in a location that I already have planned... so that may be v1.0 until I have more time.

In regards to where it should be done... I think restricting it to Orbonne would be a cool thing. If you are far away from it you might prioritize some battles over going all the way back to revive. FF1 Flavuh
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 20, 2014, 11:22:30 pm
So, 'fuck you' to Chapter 1, then?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 21, 2014, 11:31:43 am
Yup
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 21, 2014, 11:44:15 am
Gosh, wow. If it's going to be that way, I don't even care anymore. Scrap the hack.
I'm sure you know that the player can't remove temp leaving/missing/injured units.

And what about story hacks?
You're not really showing flexibility here. If you're just making the hack for yourself, you might as well keep it to yourself then.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 21, 2014, 12:29:15 pm
Ok, relax. I was just joking. I didn't think about chapter 1 cause I was just tossing the idea around late last night so obviously it won't work that way. And I think I am being flexible by letting discussion take place and considering the options. I even said that I may make my own version separately from a public version.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on October 21, 2014, 05:34:44 pm
Quote from: Choto on October 20, 2014, 11:00:44 pmYep that should be easy to do.

I'm still tossing the ideas around. I like the fact that counting by battle emphasizes unit-management whereas  healing for a gil cost emphasizes gil-management. However, adding another dimension to gil management would be cool if done in the right way. Doing it with battles would also be a super-simple hack in a location that I already have planned... so that may be v1.0 until I have more time.

In regards to where it should be done... I think restricting it to Orbonne would be a cool thing. If you are far away from it you might prioritize some battles over going all the way back to revive. FF1 Flavuh

Do it as a proposition-like-thingie and you can set up both gil and unit management.  Also lets people customize it.  Things to customize:

It's not that big of a table when you think about it because it's actually just one proposition available in multiple places, unless you want separate revival propositions.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: JantheX on October 21, 2014, 08:08:29 pm
First off, I love the idea of having an alternative to crystallization and I'm excited that Choto's working on something to that end.  Good idea, sir, I offer you much encouragement, and if I knew what I was doing yet I would offer you actual help with getting it done.

If I can make a suggestion, I really like the idea of Choto's hack oriented around being able to pay for a character to rest in an inn and recover.  Personally, I'd be inclined to make it about both money and number of days- you pay for each day they have to stay there (which makes intuitive sense), and the number of days that they have to be there scales off of their level.  Add a Y-value of some sort for the end modder to change how much the money cost scales with level so that flexibility is retained for different approaches to levelling and money-per-battle hacks.

Here's why I think this is a good idea:

1. Money is a more fungible commodity than per-battle scaling, and can accomplish the same goal if the scaling is high enough.

2. Money scaling allows players to make a choice between selling equipment and trying to fight using different members of the party, which at least has the potential to be interesting in multiple approaches to the game. 

3. This approach has a strongly developed explanation- you're paying for each day they have to stay.  Another reasonable explanation might be to simply say you were paying for their medical bills and buy the person back immediately, but as Choto has mentioned above, time limitations really aren't meaningful limitations at all and I don't think we should be afraid to add them to the game.

4. Using the "will someone reset" standard ultimately results in making no changes at all, since any change that is impactful enough to be interesting is also going to be challenging enough to cause at least someone to avoid it.

5. Gil-cost allows players to make decisions about gil management in advance of a character being injured, which adds another layer to game-related decisionmaking, whereas per-battle restrictions are an unavoidable penalty.  Personally, I think that more nuanced gil management would add a lot to FFT, where I often myself flooded in cash anyway due to my farming tendencies. 

6. Neither per-battle nor per-gil restrictions actually force a wider roster of characters from the player, since both can quickly be recovered from with farming, and per-gil is more nuanced.  If you really wanted to force a wider roster, you'd restrict it to storyline progression and force the player to get past story levels with what remained of their roster.  Making that conform to story hacks might be problematic, so my inclination would be to stick to per-gil restrictions.





That being said, I understand that you're doing all the work on this, Choto, I respect your right to make decisions about it, and I'll be psyched to play around with whatever you put together.

Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: nitwit on October 22, 2014, 06:18:37 am
Quote from: JantheX on October 21, 2014, 08:08:29 pm6. Neither per-battle nor per-gil restrictions actually force a wider roster of characters from the player, since both can quickly be recovered from with farming, and per-gil is more nuanced.  If you really wanted to force a wider roster, you'd restrict it to storyline progression and force the player to get past story levels with what remained of their roster.  Making that conform to story hacks might be problematic, so my inclination would be to stick to per-gil restrictions.

Story progression could work if it's limited to generics maybe?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Pride on October 23, 2014, 04:58:16 pm
Quote from: Xifanie
September 4, 2014
Treasure Box Upgrade by Xifanie

Description:
As it stands, if a unit turns into a treasure box, it will pick any of the equipped item to be chosen as the reward. If no items are equipped, a chemist item is randomly generated.
The idea would be to give monsters and generic humans new drops that would be based on their level. The higher the level, the least likely to randomly get a lower level item.

For example, these chocobos would only ever drop one of those items.:

Chocobo:
Potion (lvl 1)
Phoenix Down (lvl 13)
White Robe (lvl 26)
Feather Mantle (lvl 50)

Discussion:
I was wondering about how to have the item randomly generated; here's just and idea.
Level 1 to 12: 1/1 Potion
Level 13: 12/13 Potion, 1/13 Phoenix Down
Level 26: 12/26 Potion, 13/26 Phoenix Down, 1/26 White Robe
Level 50: 12/50 Potion, 13/26 Phoenix Down, 24/50 White Robe, 1/50 Feather Mantle


So I'm gonna do this one. Should human units still give off equipment based treasures, or treasures based off of their job? Should I do the second suggestion where the items randomize on level or go with the original idea? Or something else?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Raijinili on October 24, 2014, 12:00:04 pm
On avoiding player resets as a design principle.

Quote from: Elric on October 20, 2014, 03:09:59 am
When playing FFTA (for those wackado people that do so) do people reset every time a unit has to go to jail for breaking a law? I dont see it as much that much different of a concept.

I did, because there are permanent penalties for breaking the law, and I couldn't be arsed to keep track of which ones did what. Some penalties took away stats (which are limited), while others take away items (and I don't think it excludes unique items, let alone ones you can't just buy again).

I also reset on deaths in Rondo of Swords because it halves the stats of an injured character, and I can't recover before the next story battle, where I might need them.

Quote from: JantheX on October 21, 2014, 08:08:29 pm
4. Using the "will someone reset" standard ultimately results in making no changes at all, since any change that is impactful enough to be interesting is also going to be challenging enough to cause at least someone to avoid it.

The first example above is about permanent loss of a limited resource (collection-type player). The second is about withholding resources when I (might have) needed them to progress, or to gather more resources, or to prevent more punishment (scared player, or player that thinks they need all the options, or player that doesn't like losing control).

Basically, if you don't want to have the player reset, the time+effort lost for a single reset should be obviously of greater value what the reset will recover in terms of resources. (The "obvious" is important: Decisions are made on what is known, not what is true. It doesn't have to be true, but it does have to be "obviously true".) Meaning, instead of resetting and replaying, you can beat the battle and then spend that time+effort from not resetting to regain at least that much resource. And the value of resources scales up with difficulty.

So if you care about player resets, any punishment you give should either be small, or they should be able to recover in an obvious way that doesn't cost as much time+effort as reaching some part of the battle. For example, recovering injuries by walking back and forth, or paying gil, if gil doesn't feel (back to that "obviously true" again) like a limited resource.

Or you can just forget about caring whether players reset. But there is a way to care about it and still make changes.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Kaijyuu on October 24, 2014, 12:53:33 pm
You need a reasonable percentage of player resets to shoot for. Someone is going to reset if they don't get a critical hit right when they want. Someone is going to play as if loading a previous save is impossible.

If you don't want the player to reset and 30% of your players reset to avoid your silly punishment, then it's probably too tedious and annoying. You should probably shoot for < 5%.

If you feel resetting is perfectly fine and a large portion of your players actually do reset the game, then your punishment may as well be a game over. Why not actually make it a game over? Make resetting itself less tedious and annoying (like having a restart battle option) and have whatever the fuck absurd punishment you want.


If you want to actually make an interesting system you need to think about player resets. Making some intricate system with the expectation that most people will just avoid it means you're goddamn masturbatory in your design since no one cares about your system other than you.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 24, 2014, 01:34:51 pm
Some valid points here. Consider Disgaea 3 - the first chapter alone has such a harsh difficulty curve that it requires 10+ hours of just grinding to get through and have only one of your ten characters survive. In this instance, nobody in their right mind is going to keep resetting until everybody lives. Healing HP et al is far cheaper than reviving a dead character, with the cost increasing according to level and stat growth, and many times I was left with party members I simply couldn't revive because I didn't have the HL to do so. Resetting would have been stupid, because the results would be no different each time, unless I reset to spend another 30 hours grinding, which is dead boring.

Vanilla FFT obviously does not have this degree of difficulty, so to implement the feature in vanilla, I'd really prefer to see it paired with a hack to reduce the countdown until death from 3 to 2, or possibly 1, for it to reach that optimum point of, "man, forget playing that battle again, I'll just deal with the consequences". For a more difficult mod, the hack can stand on its own (imagine it being in 1.3, for example). I'd rather be temporarily inconvenienced and build up a swiss army knife party roster to compensate, fighting through a few battles until I have the gil to heal up the injured party member(s), because it's much less tedious than resetting until everybody survives.

tl;dr: The hack is great and will stand on its own with whatever punishment options are implemented, though it will work better with increased difficulty.

... And I can't believe I just stood up in favor of increased difficulty...
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Choto on October 25, 2014, 06:38:55 pm
@Pride: Humans dropping what they have equipped makes more logical sense to me. Also the chance to drop seems like it would be a better option.

Question: We have a hack that lets guests participate in random battles. If they are "injured" in a random battle, would they still be able to participate in story battles? Probly something that needs to be tested I guess.

also, how should undead behave? Should they have a chance to reanimate on each turn? Should they have a chance to reanimate on each turn even after being "knocked out"? Or should they RIP at that point?

also, changing the death countdown to 2 or 1 (customizable) should be doable

After thinking about it some, I think I'll be ok with an Inn/Proposition type system. I guess you could hack it by using smart encounters or moving between two blue locations, but screw it. It would be a compromise between gil management and unit management as you'd likely drop off some units, then go do some battling or story progression and return later to get the units back.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Angel on October 25, 2014, 06:44:31 pm
I would leave Guests as impossible to injure; no change from vanilla.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals
Post by: Xifanie on October 29, 2014, 08:39:19 pm
Quote from: Pride on October 23, 2014, 04:58:16 pm
So I'm gonna do this one. Should human units still give off equipment based treasures, or treasures based off of their job? Should I do the second suggestion where the items randomize on level or go with the original idea? Or something else?


I don't think humans should "generate" items, I saw this more as scavenging/poaching, so I'm not quite sure what you would get from a wizard's bones or a ninja's skin. I think a regular set for all humans if they are without equipped items would do just fine.

I'm quite sad no one looked into Pride's post. I don't personally have anything to add since I already stated my opinion in my original post... I came up with the idea and I would definitely like to see it happen. :/

Added another proposal:



Alternate Animations



Description:
Assign a different animation for abilities based on the sprite type to allow things such as flawless animations for Blue Magic (humans using monster abilities), monsters using human reactions, and others.

I would suggest a half-word for the ability ID, one byte for the sprite type (1 bit per type), and all the regular animation bytes. I've never messed with those, but I'm guessing that's all there is to it.

PS: Also added a notice in the first post for new posters
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Glain on November 19, 2014, 12:02:28 am
So I took a shot at a hack to hide excessive recovery.  As it stands, this will hide passive HP/MP recovery when the unit was already at full, but displays the full amount of recovery otherwise even if it goes over max (e.g. healing for 100 at 765/800 HP would still display 100).

At first I thought that formulas and movement actions were handled differently, but it seems the same routine is handling both, so to limit which abilities were affected, I ended up checking the byte at 0x801938e8, which seems to be 1 for active abilities and 0 for passive, but there could be some cases I missed.  Removing that check will make it work for all abilities, not just passive/movement ones.

If you want to move this hack's location in kanji space, just change the Offset in the first <Location> tag.


  <Patch name="Hide excessive HP/MP recovery">
    <Description>
      Excessive HP/MP recovery is not displayed.
    </Description>
    <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="ED9C4" mode="ASM">
        @hide_excessive_recovery:
           
                addiu   sp, sp, -24
                sw      ra, 4(sp)
                sw      s0, 8(sp)
                sw      s1, 12(sp)
                sw      s2, 16(sp)
                sw      s3, 20(sp)
               
                lui     t0, 0x8019
                lbu     t1, 0x38e8(t0)  # Active ability?
                lw      s0, 0x2d90(t0)  # Action
                lw      s1, 0x2d8c(t0)  # Return action
                lw      s2, 0x2d98(t0)  # Action target
                lw      s3, 0x2d94(t0)  # Return action target

                # Skip if not a passive ability?
                bne     t1, zero, hide_excessive_recovery_end
                move    a0, s0
               
                # Hide excessive recovery for action
                jal     @hide_excessive_recovery_single
                move    a1, s2
               
                # Hide excessive recovery for return action
                move    a0, s1
                jal     @hide_excessive_recovery_single
                move    a1, s3
           
            hide_excessive_recovery_end:
           
                lw      s3, 20(sp)
                lw      s2, 16(sp)
                lw      s1, 12(sp)
                lw      s0, 8(sp)
                lw      ra, 4(sp)
                addiu   sp, sp, 24
               
                jr      ra
                nop
           
        # a0 = Action, a1 = Target
        @hide_excessive_recovery_single:

                beq     a0, zero, hide_excessive_recovery_single_end
                nop

                lhu     t0, 0x28(a1)    # Target HP
                lhu     t1, 0x2a(a1)    # Target Max HP
                lhu     t2, 0x2c(a1)    # Target MP
                lhu     t3, 0x2e(a1)    # Target Max MP
                lbu     t4, 0x25(a0)    # Action display type
                   
                slt     t5, t0, t1      # 1 if HP not max
                sltiu   t5, t5, 1       # 1 if HP IS max (boolean not)
                sll     t5, t5, 6       # 0x40 if HP is max
                not     t5, t5          # 0x40 flag is zeroed out if HP is max (binary not)

                slt     t6, t2, t3      # 1 if MP not max
                sltiu   t6, t6, 1       # 1 if MP IS max (boolean not)
                sll     t6, t6, 4       # 0x10 if MP is max
                not     t6, t6          # 0x10 flag is zeroed out if MP is max (binary not)
               
                and     t4, t4, t5      # Action type: HP recovery flag zeroed out if HP is max
                and     t4, t4, t6      # Action type: MP recovery flag zeroed out if MP is max
           
            hide_excessive_recovery_single_end:
           
                jr      ra
                sb      t4, 0x25(a0)    # Save action display type
    </Location>
    <Location file="BATTLE_BIN" offset="18BFD0" mode="ASM" offsetMode="RAM">
                lui     s1, 0x8019
                jal     @hide_excessive_recovery
                nop
                lw      a1, 0x2d98(s1)
                lw      a0, 0x2d90(s1)
    </Location>
  </Patch>
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on November 20, 2014, 12:05:51 pm
Awesome! I have no idea what I'm looking at, but awesome \o/

Going to update the main post now.

Bump: Also added my newest proposal, New Options (http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=10535.msg199828#post_New_Options).
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: 3lric on November 20, 2014, 11:16:20 pm
That New Options idea is great Xif, I hope someone finds time to work on that.

Glain, im interested in using that hide excessive recovery hack, does it also work with things like Move-HP Up?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Glain on November 21, 2014, 11:00:09 am
Yep.  Right now it's supposed to only work on "passive" recovery, i.e. Move-HP Up, Move-MP Up, and Regen.

You can make it work for every ability by commenting out one of the lines in the patch (adding a #), like so:
# Skip if not a passive ability?
# bne     t1, zero, hide_excessive_recovery_end
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Choto on November 28, 2014, 11:06:30 am
Here is a "Lite" version of the Alternate Death Hack. This one provides the "KO" battle functionality without disabling them from use after battle. So units will still have a death countdown and become KO'd. Once KO'd they won't be revivable except optionally with undead revival.

Speaking of options, here is the main hack:

<Patch name="Alternate Death Hack Lite Version">
    <Description>
This hack will disable unit crystallization and treasuring by death counter countdown. Abilities can still be made to crystallize and treasure units. Unlike the full version, this will not make units unavailable after battle. Units are still unrevivable once KO'd.
    </Description> 
<Location offset="11C128" file="BATTLE_BIN"><!--Death Counter Manipulation -->
03000392
2C00013C
121C2134
FF002230
06006210
020A0100
FF002230
03006210
020A0100
FF002230
03006214
FF000134
AD0C0608
070001A2
07000492
FF000234
C0500508
00000000
1000A230
4F004010
0100C230
4D004010
</Location>
<Location offset="ED300" file="BATTLE_BIN"><!--Death Counter Manipulation  -->
09008210
21100000
FFFF8424
FF008330
FF000234
070003A2
03004314
25100000
5C0C0608
00000000
AD0C0608
25100000
</Location>
<Location offset="1249dc " file="BATTLE_BIN"><!--disable revival -->
40510508
1980013C
</Location>
<Location offset="ED500 " file="BATTLE_BIN"><!--disable revival -->
8C2D238C
FF000434
07006190
00000000
07008114
05000134
B60160A0
AC0160A0
8C0160A0
B10160A0
8E0161A0
900160AC
3400BF8F
792E0608
3000B28F
</Location>
</Patch>


Add these two location tags to the END of the hack for the desired functionality. The first allows Undead units to continue attempting to revive each turn when KO'd.
<Location offset="ED300 " file="BATTLE_BIN"><!--Undead Revive after KO each turn -->
07
</Location>


The second allows units to attempt to revive EACH turn when dead (but not KO'd). This was supposed to emulate the "Units rot or reanimate without skipped turns" hack but I still have no fuckin clue how that one works anyway, so I'm not sure if its the same.

<Location offset="ED318 " file="BATTLE_BIN"><!--Undead Revive EACH turn -->
01
</Location>


Choosing niether option means undead will either revive or become KO'd when death counter expires... I think.

I'm still working on the proposition end of the full hack but progress has been encouraging. It'll just take some time. In the meantime if you try this hack let me know if there are inconsistencies.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Aqueous on April 07, 2015, 03:34:28 pm
I have a proposal if others think it would be beneficial to everyone: a formula that allows for "morphing" skills. I suppose it would be a derivative of the current Morbol formula but one that allows you to switch back as well. Perfect would be allowing the X and Y variables in FFTPatcher to control the sprite and job you morph into.

I have tried knocking my head against this myself recently but mixed results. For starters, I'm not sure if it's just me, but in my game the Morbol effect changes the target to a blank sprite - this even occurs in an unmodded version sans adding Moldball Virus to a job skillset. The routine is picking up the current sprite (0x92) but for some reason it doesn't work.

Regardless, I've found where the sprite can be controlled if that is of interest to anyone. The remaining issue is stripping out the part of the routine that changes your "job" to Morbol.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on April 07, 2015, 03:44:00 pm
This isn't the first time someone had this idea. But practically, it is impossible or would require very heavy limitations, completely killing the point. There can only be 9 spritesheets loaded at a time. It will only ever properly work if the spritesheet was already loaded in the VRAM.

Let's say you have 9 spritesheets loaded, including 2 shapeshifter. One shapeshifter transforms, bam, 10 sprites. The result is a glitchy sprite.

Same scenario with 1 shapeshifter... you would need to hack the game to unload a spritesheet and load a new one mid-effect. This takes -seconds-.

I'm sorry, I wish I could say this is viable, but it is not at all. You would need to think of something new that covers those enormous limitations.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Aqueous on April 07, 2015, 06:10:35 pm
No worries Xif, thank you for the answer, at least now I know to not bother wasting any more time on it.

I'm guessing that's why I was getting a blank sprite when using Moldball Virus yet it works fine normally: Malboros use it so the Malboro sprite is already loaded.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: MJNess on October 10, 2015, 04:20:32 pm
I hope this thread still lives. 

I have a proposal but I'm not sure if it is feasible or even possible. Adding durability to equips. Where in battles the durability goes down after being hit or after you hit  (Basically just like in Diablo games). And there being a repair shop in goug/trade/fort towns (any town basically) just like the inn idea which is awesome btw.

For example an armor has let's say a 50/50 durability. During a battle when it is hit with a regular attack the durability goes down a point or two or probably depending on the power of the attack or type of the attack. And when it reaches zero then the armor breaks and it's gone forever. Rend ability chops it down by a fixed number most probably by a large value as to make it widely used by players and having safeguard only damages it at half value. And repairs of course will be charged depending on the type and durability left on the armor.

Is this possible? I'm still very new to modding and don't want to waste time doing something that's not possible.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on October 10, 2015, 05:14:27 pm
It would basically need to be restricted purely to battles (i.e auto "recover" after every battle), and could not track equip changes. It would be an insane amount of work to add very little, a feature most wouldn't even want.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Blitzball Pro on March 05, 2016, 02:34:33 am
Hi Xifanie, I am a new member here and first off I wanted to say I love the Soldier Office ASM hack. I don't have any skills yet with hex editing, eventing or spriting yet, all of which I plan on improving, but a lot of the work you've done on here just blows my mind. Also wanted to say I am extremely anxious for the alternate animations asm if that is still coming along, quite a few months since this topic was active. I have quite a bit of work done in fft patcher including a blue mage class, but I am unaware of any alternate method to avoid animation disparity between human and monster classes and it would honestly be one of the most useful hacks I could imagine. If you are still working on it I would love any additional information. Thank you.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on March 05, 2016, 03:41:03 am
Same as a few other hacks: it seems yo be working perfectly fine right now, but I will only release it after thoroughly testing it in JotF because no one ever bug reports to tell me my hacks aren't working. I haven't worked on it for months, but we're also not in testing phase either.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Blitzball Pro on March 05, 2016, 08:32:30 am
I would be more than happy to test it if it would help speed the process up. I'm not very proficient with hex, but I've played the game itself 20+ years and can probably be some help. . . It would be very useful for a patch I've been working on to practice things.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on March 05, 2016, 09:23:22 am
Well, if you are ready to report me stuff, got Windows with Microsoft Excel 2007 or higher and can use it, get on IRC and we'll discuss the details.

Also, where did you learn to time travel?
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Blitzball Pro on March 05, 2016, 10:46:07 am
Ha ha, I will attempt to get on irc soon as I can get on my pc, I'm assuming it is the pjirc tab in the top section? I do have excel and office 2007. Lol, time travel is unnecessary when you can blame it on selective memory. Should have said the better part of 20 years, appreciate the fact checking though ha ha. Oldest should be going down for his nap momentarily so will attempt some computer time then.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Angel on March 05, 2016, 10:59:22 am
Try mibbit first rather than PJIRC.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Blitzball Pro on March 05, 2016, 11:04:04 am
Thank you, as I am trying to open IRC up now and not having any luck whatsoever, though my wifi signal is not very strong in here either and my wife has paranormal people over checking the place out so not sure if some of their equipment might be interfering with wifi signal.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Guru on March 05, 2016, 04:14:34 pm
If you ever need testing just let me know! For now speedy results isn't possible but I'd still be happy to work on it as I can.

This goes for you too elric or anyone really just let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Xifanie on May 21, 2017, 10:01:40 pm
JP Sets

This hack would allow you to grant completely custom JP values (min-max) for every job given a specified "Job unlocked" job and level specified in FFTPatcher in the ENTD tab.
At the very least it should grant custom job levels for each job.

For example:
Jobs Unlocked Archer Level 255 could set Squire to lvl 5, Knight to lvl 2, Archer to lvl 7, Thief to lvl 4, Lancer to lvl 2.
Jobs Unlocked Unknown Level 0 could unlock all jobs at lvl 8

If proceeding with job levels only, the edit would be a simple override of the job levels normally copy/pasted from the SCUS.
In the case of JP, I think the job levels might have to be calculated first based on the JP range, then at the time of generating the JP amounts (Job level's JP + rand[0, 99]), override those with the new numbers.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: nitwit on June 11, 2017, 10:31:17 pm
Quote
Treasure Box Upgrade by Xifanie
In Progress? by Pride (last updated: October 23, 2014)

Description:
As it stands, if a unit turns into a treasure box, it will pick any of the equipped item to be chosen as the reward. If no items are equipped, a chemist item is randomly generated.
The idea would be to give monsters and generic humans new drops that would be based on their level. The higher the level, the least likely to randomly get a lower level item.

For example, these chocobos would only ever drop one of those items.:

Chocobo:

    Potion (lvl 1)
    Phoenix Down (lvl 13)
    White Robe (lvl 26)
    Feather Mantle (lvl 50)


Discussion:
I was wondering about how to have the item randomly generated; here's just and idea.
Level 1 to 12: 1/1 Potion
Level 13: 12/13 Potion, 1/13 Phoenix Down
Level 26: 12/26 Potion, 13/26 Phoenix Down, 1/26 White Robe
Level 50: 12/50 Potion, 13/26 Phoenix Down, 24/50 White Robe, 1/50 Feather Mantle


If you implement this, make sure you check drops from rarest to most common.  Roll the 1/50 first, and if you don't get a Feather Mantle roll 24/50, and if you don't get a White Robe roll 13/26, and if you don't get a Phoenix Down roll 12/50.
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: Raijinili on August 15, 2017, 04:30:42 pm
There's no need to roll more than once.

r = roll(1, lv)
if r < 13: return Potion
if r < 26: return Phoenix Down
if r < 50: return White Robe
return Feather Mantle

Your way won't work correctly anyway. If your first roll is 1/50, your next roll needs to be out of 49 (because it already has a 49/50x multiplier).
Title: Re: ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)
Post by: nitwit on August 16, 2017, 08:14:26 pm
My bad, that's how item drops are rolled (horribly inefficiently) in another game I play.

Here's a proposal for an ASM hack: turn unused Jump abilities into other effects that affect the Jump skill.  Effects such as increased damage, increased accuracy, normal damage boost applies to more weapon types, and change the Jump CT formula so it performs slightly faster.

Do you think it would be useful?

Xifanie already improved the Jump skillset.
http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=953.0

Quote
Incremental Jump Range

Instead of choosing the highest value of the learned jump ability for the horizontal/vertical ranges, instead they are added all together,
meaning no one skill is ever going to be useless; it will always count towards your total horizontal/vertical range.
You could have Horizontal +2, Horizontal +1, Horizontal + 1, together would be the equivalent of Horizontal +4.


My other proposal is that Charge/Aim skillset increases accuracy by Power * 2 and keeps the damage boost.  The more you charge, the more accurate and damaging it is.

They seem like good ways to improve the existing skillsets without much effort.