a few questions about altering ability's and formulas.

[Yuri Otani]

I've been poking around in FFTpatcher looking at various things and there are a few things that I would like to be able to do that I can't. I'll describe the effect I'm looking for, the method I tried and the result I got. if anyone can give me some pointers I'd be most gracious.

I want to have an ability that can inflict crystal status on multiple targets at once. in FFTpatcher I made an ability that inflicts crystal status that works fine, but whenever I make it area of effect it crashes when I use it.

I also would like to have a malboro spore/mold ball virus spell that effects multiple targets. I used FFTpatcher for this, but even in the formula it says that it only effects one target and when I made it AoE just to try anyway it only effected the target nearest the caster.

I would also like a malboro spore / mold ball virus that effects unique units. this I have no idea how to go about doing, so I haven't tried anything yet.

I would also like to have an ability that effects multiple targets and activates the poach/secret hunt support skill. I've tried all kinds of combinations of the various ability flags in FFTpatcher, and tried modifying weapons too, but I can't find a combination that works.

and finally a way to modify the malboro spore ability so that it transforms the target into something else instead of a malboro, for example a zodiac monster, or a generic human, or even a unique human. this is another one that is too deep in th code for me to know how to do so I haven't tried anything yet.

I know these are silly and over powered abilitys that take the fun out of the game if a person is doing a serious play through, but I want them just for the sake of screwing around and because if I learn how to do that it will open the door to learning how to do other edits later.

[Kaijyuu]

I can't comment on most, but for the malboro one, you need a malboro on the map for the sprite to look right when changed. Otherwise you'll get a garbled mess since the game doesn't have the malboro sprite loaded.

[Yuri Otani]

yeah I know that one, I've fooled around with that ability a lot. incidently some similar monsters will also get filled in if they're on screen and a malboro isn't. I've had a target turn into a dragon cuz one was on screen (graphics only, it still was a malboro in all other ways) you can use it on one of your units and then finish the battle fast to avoid glitching and it'll be a proper malboro in your team formation for later battles.

I just like to turn opponents into malboros and then poach them, just cuz it ammuses me. I'm trying to find a way to accellerate the process. you can even poach cellia and lete that way, once you beat their assassin form they become an ultima demon which you can malboro spore. you can then either poach or invite them onto your team. such things make me laugh.

[philsov]

make sure their class isn't immune to molboro and that they aren't immortal flagged in the ENTD.

but whenever I make it area of effect it crashes when I use it.

Might be from the effect portion of the ability, or if you established the ability after parasite (where it LOOKS blank) -- because invoking those will almost certainly cause the game to crash.

[Yuri Otani]

thanks for the info, I already knew all those details though. my malboro spore works just fine in conditions where it's supposed to, I want to change the conditions it's supposed to work in. I know the formula for malboro spore says generics only and 1 target only, so I was hoping there was a way to edit the formula, since I think that's the only way to solve those two problems.

as for crystal status area of effect I've tried it as modified throw stone, but when I started getting enemies crystalizing me I modified omnislash instead. I've tried with default graphic effect for both abilities and a few other ones, usually crush punch or stasis sword visual effect is my favorite for that ability. works fine when single target, crashes when multi target. and it's not the AoE in and of itself, cuz when I used it with area 2 but only had one enemy in the attack area it still worked, just when it's hitting more than one enemy at once I experienced crashes. mind you I haven't tested this since I've been working with a PSX ISO so this may be a War of the Lions problem only, I'll check that out later today.

[Krakistophales]

The problem might be because the game never makes more than one crystal at a time, graphically. Every crystal has a clock on it, and everytime the clock runs out, the crystal comes. The thing is, no 2 enemies at once will ever have the exact same clock, and therefore no 2 enemies will ever have their crystals formed at the same time. I might be wrong, or haven't played the game in a long enough while to notice, but I think that's the case.

[Tea]

people turning crystal are the same as people getting their turn, even if it is exactly at the same time, there is still an order they take, which makes that there are never two actions at once going on.

[Vanya]

Most of the rest of the changes you mentioned would require some sort of ASM or formula hacking.