• Welcome to Final Fantasy Hacktics. Please login or sign up.
 
March 28, 2024, 05:45:34 am

News:

Don't be hasty to start your own mod; all our FFT modding projects are greatly understaffed! Find out how you can help in the Recruitment section or our Discord!


(ASM) Start button skips events, effects, battle and event text, etc.

Started by Glain, January 13, 2017, 06:52:17 pm

Glain

(Updated with newest version from June 9th)

This patch requires the latest version of FFTorgASM (0.492), available in the FFTPatcher suite here.

To use it, download the attached file and unzip it into the XmlPatches directory within the FFTorgASM base directory and apply the patch. 

This ASM patch allows you to press the Start button to skip:

    Events
        When skipping an event, the code will determine what kind of event is being skipped, and depending on a few factors, one of two "skip types" will be picked.
            1.  "Normal skipping" or fast-forwarding: Mostly for pre-battle events.  There are a bunch of event instructions in pre-battle events that can't be skipped because they'd mess up the ensuing battle,
                so those instructions are still run, but very quickly.  As a result, the event looks like it's being fast-forwarded.  (Note: This can sometimes look rather hilarious.)
            2. "Total skipping" or true skipping: Skips nearly everything in the event, running only what's required to get out of the event smoothly and update required variables. 
                Used for out-of-battle cutscenes and the like where very little actually has to be run since a battle isn't being set up.  In this mode, it basically just looks like the entire event was skipped.
           
    Effects
        You may not see damage and healing numbers, etc. if you skip a mid-battle effect.  Can also skip an event in the middle of an effect playing. 
        There are a few rare cases where you won't be allowed to skip an effect (e.g. Bethla sluice) once it starts playing because it wouldn't be safe to skip.
   
    Battle and Event Text
        The Start button can be used to skip dialog text (as well as the text crawl in cutscenes, even "l i t t l e   m o n e y" mid-sequence).  If in an event,
        it will skip the entire remaining part of the event.  Otherwise, Start should just advance the text.
       
    Map Titles
        Applies to both the ones you see pre-battle and in cutscenes (although if in a cutscene, Start will skip the entire thing and not just the map title).
       
    Unit movement
        If skipped, the unit will suddenly appear at the destination.  Works mid-battle when units move during their turns.
       
    Chapter title and end graphics
        Since these show up in events, pressing Start will break out of the graphic and skip the entire rest of the event.  If something is loading in the background, there may be some wait time.
   
    Gameover screen
        There may still be a bit of wait time until the titlescreen comes up, probably because something is being loaded.
   
    Ending credits
        Again, there can be a bit of wait time before the titlescreen comes back up.

       
As always, use at your own risk.  I don't know of any remaining bugs (a few fast-forwarded scenes looking rather silly aside), but I may have missed something!
Let me know what you think if you use this and/or if you find anything obviously wrong!
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Valkirst

  • Modding version: PSX
Completed Sprites
  • Discord username: Valkirst

johnmyster

Skipping when an enemy is moving can make the game act extremely weird and impossible to continue. The enemy can get locked into the animation and never take their turn, or even go off of the screen. This is on epsxe though, which I know is highly discouraged. Don't know about other emulators.

That aside, amazing work that makes the game 3x as enjoyable for all those who've seen the great story many times already.

  • Modding version: PSX
FFT Proper v1.10 released 10/28/17!
Proper Rebalances, ramps up difficulty, and adds variety to battles.

Kurosabes

Thanks for the hack, I have used it a lot, and recently have been doing a playthrough with it. Here are some bugs I've found.

- Fort Zeakden: One of the enemy Wizards will start at the wrong coordinate if pre-battle events are skipped.

- Riovanes Castle (inside): If pre-Velius event (transformation, allies coming to help..) is skipped, some of your allies won't show up but the game still thinks they are there, causing the game to infinite loop turns when it attempts to give them their turn. Here is a video of the bug.

- Riovanes Castle (rooftop post-battle cutscene): Pressing Start attempts to skip, but doesn't progress and the game must be reset.

Fort Zeakden bug happens on multiple emulators. For the rest, I have used ePSXe 2.02. A few other hacks were used, but nothing that should cause any conflict with this one. Might go through chapter 4 some other time.
  • Modding version: PSX
  • Discord username: Kurosabes#0312

Glain

I'm releasing a new version of this patch to fix the reported issues and more!  I've updated the attachment on the original post to the new version.  Thanks to johnmyster and White Knight Wiegraf for reporting the issues they found.  To use the new version, download the attached file and unzip it into the XmlPatches directory within the FFTorgASM base directory and apply the patch.

Unit movement:

* Fixed issues with skipping unit movement where the code would (sometimes repeatedly) move a unit inappropriately, even when it calculated that there were no more tiles to move.  This could cause units to go off the map, into other units, etc., and cause all sorts of weird behavior/crashes. (I had a hard time reproducing this one until I realized it happened a lot when moving into the water!  It could also move you one tile too far if you pressed the button on the perfect frame.)
* Fixed an issue where skipping unit movement didn't take jumping over gaps into account and could move a unit to the wrong location.

Pre-battle events:

* Fixed various concurrency issues by giving control to other threads more often.  This fixes the Fort Zeakden enemy formation and pre-Velius event where your party wasn't showing up.
* Fixed an issue where the WaitValue command could get stuck waiting on text characters to show up that had already been skipped (Riovanes Castle rooftop post-battle).
* Fixed an issue where the camera would be incorrect that could occur after making a dialog choice, causing weird rotations to happen in battle.  Notably happened in Araguay Woods.
* Units should no longer weirdly slow down during the dark screen before battle start (Now running the EventSpeed instruction).
* Skipping an event while the camera is moving should cause the camera to quickly snap to its destination.
* In general, events should look mostly natural (albeit fast-forwarded) even when skipped, as more relevant commands are run (including EVTCHR animations).
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Adhelbert

Hello Glain, everyone.

I have started a new story mod and i have been working  on events for little while now, i gotta tell you, i didn't realize that event testing would be painful and time consuming like this. But truth is, you kind of forget about all that when you get that event to work the way you want.

I saw your hack that which allow you to skip events and really got excited about it.

Problem is, i have no clue about how to apply it, i know it's written in another format, so, it would be really helpful if you can tell me how i can apply it.


Thanks in advance.

Edit 1:

It was my bad, after I read the post one more time, I figured where the problem was.
I forgot about the attached file along with the asm file.



Thanks again Glain, this hack is gonna save me a great amount of time. :D :mrgreen:   
  • Modding version: PSX

3lric

Hi Mike. Are you savestate eventing? That, in conjunction with jumping straight to the event you are editing by changing the attack.out (gui) settings will save you a ton of time.
  • Modding version: PSX

Adhelbert

Ohh now i feel like a dumbass, i should've gone through each and every post in Eventing section. I'll make sure i'm gonna do that tomorrow. Definitely gonna try it out.

Thank you Elric, big time, for telling me that, and thank you Xifanie for such a discovery.  ;)
  • Modding version: PSX

3lric

Quote from: Mike on November 03, 2018, 08:20:47 pm
Ohh now i feel like a dumbass, i should've gone through each and every post in Eventing section. I'll make sure i'm gonna do that tomorrow. Definitely gonna try it out.

Thank you Elric, big time, for telling me that, and thank you Xifanie for such a discovery.  ;)


It happens. If you need any help, don't hesitate to post questions or inquiries in the eventing section. That's what its there for.
  • Modding version: PSX

Nyzer

But, if you do a thing where we try to advise you to use the most current tools and you refuse for eight topics in a row, we will be very cross with you:(
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Adhelbert

Quote from: Nyzer on November 03, 2018, 09:48:53 pm
But, if you do a thing where we try to advise you to use the most current tools and you refuse for eight topics in a row, we will be very cross with you:(



Owh.. hum. Okay. I guess i'm gonna drill that inside my head. :shock: :shock:


Thanks.
  • Modding version: PSX

Nyzer

Heh, it was a thing with someone before. When they continued using the old tools, we pointed out (more than once) that the older event format was making it harder for us to tell at a glance what was wrong, and that the newer tool has better error checking that would have identified what wasn't working this time.

After having made multiple events the hard way, with us otherwise encouraging this development, the guy just up and vanished rather than switch to the tool and take the brief amount of time to relearn some of the formats. (And I know it's brief. I went through the same thing.)

It was teh disappoint.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown

Adhelbert

Quote from: Nyzer on November 04, 2018, 12:33:11 pm
Heh, it was a thing with someone before. When they continued using the old tools, we pointed out (more than once) that the older event format was making it harder for us to tell at a glance what was wrong, and that the newer tool has better error checking that would have identified what wasn't working this time.

After having made multiple events the hard way, with us otherwise encouraging this development, the guy just up and vanished rather than switch to the tool and take the brief amount of time to relearn some of the formats. (And I know it's brief. I went through the same thing.)

It was teh disappoint.



I understand where that coming from and I have no intention to talk on behalf that person/persons but I gotta say, I intend to put something together because I chose to be around in the first place. :) :) ;)
  • Modding version: PSX