ASM Hack Proposals (for modders and ASMers)

[Choto]

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

[Xifanie]

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.

[3lric]

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

[Xifanie]

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.

[3lric]

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

[Celdia]

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.

[Vanya]

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.

[Timbo]

I'm not an ASM hacker but I'd like to see a hack to turn the lights on in the deep dungeon.

[Angel]

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.

[Choto]

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?

[Vaan]

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?

[Pride]

Crystallize basically is a reset for anyone playing the game. Doesn't matter if its Ramza or not. I love the idea Chotoman

[Celdia]

Another fun looking change to the normal mechanics. I like it.

[Dome]

Fun stuff
I like that, Choto (As long as you let the player know in how much time the unit will return)

[Xifanie]

I LOVE the idea Choto, it would even allow insta-crystal moves to not be that terrible.

But, big problematics:

• 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.


• 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 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.

[Angel]

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!

[Kaijyuu]

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.

[nitwit]

@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.

[Angel]

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.

[Choto]

• 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

• 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?

• 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.