Final Fantasy Hacktics

Yeah, you'll have to do it via ENTD, I also did it as well actually. There's not actually a whole lot of generic job selection just randomly selected battle line-ups from the ENTD listing.

Hiya,

It's been a very long time since I worked on this so my memory is hazy. I cannot remember clearly whether RSM abilities behave differently to ones within a skillset with regards "learning them". I'd suggest just testing it out, set up an initial job to require you learn one skill before it turns into the new job, change to the new job and see if the RSM is still available.

Ok, making some progress with cleaning up some of the problems.

Mednafen was the Emu that I found issues with. One of the immediate problems I ran into was the new Job sprites not loading in the Job Wheel (grey rectangles). This little piece of code the culprit:

beq r0,r0,0x001493E4
nop
beq r0,r5,0x001493D4
sll r1,r1,0x01
addi r1,r1,0x0001
lui r2,0x8015
add r2,r2,r1
lbu r1,-0x6b40(r2)
sll r2,r1,0x01
add r1,r1,r2
sll r1,r1,0x02
lui r4,0x8019
addi r4,r4,-0x25bc
add r4,r1,r4
j 0x00125938
nop

Continuing to go through it now with a fine-tooth comb to try and find similar issues. Will keep you guys updated on progress.

Update: This hack should now be usable on the PSX and any emulator

I usually use PSX(Rel) myself, tried ePSXe as an alternate emu so ironic being one that the test is useless for!

I'll check other PSX emus and see if my game works on those. If so, then I'll try to get around to sticking it on console for a test.

Cannot remember clearly but think I've used RAD3 on console before. Will test it as soon as I can and check the code for any obvious reasons for problems (such as using registers too soon after loading etc.)

I know pokeytax updated ARH to work on consoles at a later date so perhaps he did the same with RAD3 before I began using it.

Edit: Golden with ePSXe at least. Will take a small while before I can test on console, unless anyone knows an emulator that can replicate the same issues that come up on console?

Hiya,

Have a quick request about your Artorias sprite - is it possible to make a female version? Perhaps like Ciaran?

Every time I see an awesome human spritesheet that is for only one gender I cry a little since they could all be used as potential new Jobs if there's a M and F pair.

Quote from: Jumza on March 30, 2016, 06:29:57 pm
Very cool stuff Aqueous! I just wish it weren't based on RAD because it's very unstable and doesn't play nice with a lot of stuff Have you considered trying to possibly make this separate from RAD?

The issue with trying to start from scratch is that, I'll be honest, alot of RAD's World BIN additions I probably couldn't do from scratch as the jumps are inserted into undocumented World BIN code (like alot of World BIN in general). Even if I did, I'd just be creating the same thing again essentially.

Instead, could I ask what issues RAD has caused you in the past? I could instead perhaps try to look at the RAD code and fix any errors. I've personally never had issues with it and use ALOT of hacks so it would suggest there's perhaps some specific incompatibility issues like you allude to.

Will need to step through the code in PSX then I think. The two lines I highlighted should be bringing in the correct IDs, if it was working properly. I'm hoping that'll be your best place to start.

Updated further with additional functions.

- Learned ability requirements added. Can now specify which ability slots need to have been learned for the Shared Job in order to unlock the New Job.
- Can select which existing Job to replace with New Job - allows you to set up "vertical" Job Paths now so that one Job can go through multiple "versions" or "promotions".
- Can now reset abilities when a New Job is unlocked, meaning New Jobs no longer need to become available with abilities already learned due to sharing with another Job (note this section is in the "Advanced" part as it has ramifications on the Shared Job as well).

Might be silly questions but:

How have the reaction skills in question been positioned in FFTPatcher ie. what ability IDs have they been given? Have you rejigged any of the existing IDs?
The reactions not working properly: are they using all of these abilities in one reaction or is it just random which they use?

With those questions out of the way, I'd suggest looking at the first piece of code first. Without context it's difficult to see what the first piece of code is doing exactly, which is the problem with any hack affecting undocumented code. Eyeballing the code, two lines that stick out to me that you might want to check:



That's probably the most help I can give at the moment, quite a bit of it will be checking what the code is doing in real-time with breakpoints.

Quote from: Xifanie on March 28, 2016, 06:45:59 pm
Nah, you have to use bmp. You can convert it to bmp, but remember that it's a 4bit image with 16 palettes, just like spritesheets. So, colour 0x67 becomes 0x7, colour 0x3A becomes 0xA and so on. I'm not quite sure how to convert a 8bit back to 4bit properly that way, so you might be better off editing a 4bit version that is using the palette you want (well, that the item you're editing is using).

So basically just copy across the image part of the hex and ignore the palette section, yeah? I have no desire to change the palette anyway

Need 2 things to help really.

What spells are being cast and your actual MIPS code rather than the hex.

Alright, thanks guys, I'll try to work out how on Earth to set up an XP Virtual Machine.

Am I ok in using the .gif from the wiki page? It has all the palettes included after all.

At least it's helped me narrow down the cause of the problem so you've both been very helpful.

Hi All,

I think I asked this once before in the past but don't think I got an answer. Methods on the site for editing FRAME.BIN seem to rely on a previous version of Shishi which could do it, alas it can't any more. Could anyone provide help with editing FRAME.BIN in the same vein as this topic for ITEM.BIN: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=6543.0

I've used the .gif image on the wiki: http://ffhacktics.com/wiki/EVENT/FRAME.BIN

If that's not a problem then I get the impression the main issue I'm having is correctly converting the image back into TIMs. Using the Graphic and Palette locations below I can't see any similar structure in the hex between the .BIN file and my TIMs:

    Graphic: 0x0000-0x8FFF
    Palettes: 0x9000-0x92BF

After converting to 4-bit and 8-bit .tims using TimTOOL the first lines of FRAME.BIN were clearly different in structure from the 8-bit file's 0x14 lines onward (which should be the image data if the same as ITEM.BIN) and 0x9000 onward in FRAME.BIN is completely different from my 4-bit TIM from 0x40 onward. I've even tried doing it with the ITEM.BIN.BMP that Xif attached in the linked thread and can't see a common structure between the 8-bit file and ITEM.BIN.

Back to FRAME.BIN: output file sizes are 144KB for the 4-bit and 288KB for the 8-bit.

If using the .gif on the website is fine then any help in the settings needed to create a viable TIM in TIMTool would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Hi All,

If anyone is interested in the old RAD 3 hack with some additional functionality and now usable on PSX then please find attached. All props go to pokeytax for creating the original RAD 3.

For those who don't know, RAD 3 allows you to add a slew of new Jobs for all your characters to use. You can find the original thread here: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=7031.0

It circumvents the normal Job requirements in FFT with a new requirements routine that has additional functionality and customization available, giving you access to way more Jobs. For awhile, I've been trying to take it further so I could customize my own game in a different way. Basically, I wanted to be able to "promote" my Jobs after mastering them. I believe I've succeeded so sharing the outcome with everyone else.

The limitation of the hack is that new Jobs must be "tied" to an existing Job (Shared Job) in terms of JP/ability slots learned.

The original goal of my additions was to allow Jobs to unlock on mastery of prerequisite Jobs, rather than just on Job levels.

Fixes

Now working correctly in PCSX-R and Mednafen. Pieces of code breaking the Coding Standards should now be gone.
You must still be careful if combining this hack with ALMA because some parts write to the same locations.

New Functionality

Requirements:

- Shared Job's Level.
- Shared Job's JP Spent.
- Shared Job's JP Earned.
- Shared Job's Learned Abilities.

Options:

- Replace a Job with a new Job.
- Reset Learned Abilities on unlocking new Job (split between A1-8, A9-16 and RSM1-6)

All of these add a lot more customization to the Job path in the game.

Working Example

If you want the Knight Job to change into Arc Knight and then finally Dark Knight, you can do the following:

1.
Add two new Jobs: Arc Knight and Dark Knight.
Set both to "Share with" Knight. Add their Job IDs and Skillset IDs to the relevant fields (obtainable from FFTPatcher). I've also added Knight level requirements to them:



2.
In the Arc Knight row:
Check the ability slots you want the player to learn on the Knight Job before accessing this Job.
Select the Job ID for Knight (4C) in "Replace Job" field. This will replace Job 4C with Job 08.

In the Dark Knight row:
Check the ability slots you want the player to learn on the Arc Knight Job before accessing this Job.
Select the Job ID for Arc Knight (08) in "Replace Job" for Dark Knight. This will replace Job 08 with Job 11.

If you want, select "Yes" for any of the "Reset" fields to start the new Jobs with unlearned abilities in these slots. I've chosen to so each Job feels fresh:



Kick out the XML using the button and apply the ASM hack using FFTOrgASM.

Now, when Knight learns the abilities you've selected as requirements for Arc Knight - and is at least level 4 - it'll be "promoted" to Arc Knight. The same will happen again for Arc Knight, once all required abilities are learned and it's at least level 6, it'll "promote" to Dark Knight.

This example is included in the spreadsheet download. One thing to bear in mind here is that you will lose access to the previous skillsets ie. once you're Dark Knight you'll no longer have access to the Knight or Arc Knight skillset. There are ways around this shortcoming that I'll add to this post at a later date.

I've tried to make usage as clear as possible with pop-up comments as guidance for what each field does. If anyone needs help with specific setups then please feel free to post in this thread and I can help.

Future Updates:

- Will add ability to make Jobs mutually exclusive based on spending JP in one. In other words, creating branches in your Job path based on player choice. For example, if Holy Knight and Dark Knight are mutually exclusive, both initially unlock and are available but investing in one a certain amount (can be configured) will disable the other. Fall too far to the dark side and the light is forever gone!

- If moving on to a new Job that replaces the old one, I'm looking to try to automatically change the character to that new Job rather than the player needing to select it in the Job Wheel. This one is more up in the air as to whether it's even possible, World.BIN has very little documentation compared with SCUS and Battle.BIN. If anyone knows how to do it smoothly please give me a shout.

Still under test but haven't thrown out any issues yet.

Note: You'll need to remember to enable Macros on opening the file in order for the XML Export to work.

Have fun and if there's any questions feel free to ask them here

ASM Hackers:

XML page contains both the Hex code and MIPS annotations along side it for you to peruse and (probably) critisize! If so, please be gentle, have spent what I suspect is over a hundred hours on this (largely due to World.BIN being so unknown and going down alot of blind alleys).

Every one knows women are sweetness and men are sour, of course only women can be a Holy Knight!

Anyway, until Xif releases his new mod you can use RAD3 for this - you might already be doing this.

I've also been spending some time adding to the RAD3 hack - it already has a few extra things like JP requirements for a job to become available and the option to "replace" a shared job with a new job - but I plan on adding a function that makes jobs mutually exclusive based on you making a choice which I'll personally apply to Holy and Dark Knight but should be possible to apply to anyther. Simply put, both will unlock at the same time but the second you invest JP in one the other will become unavailable.

So for example you could - instead of replacing Knight with Dark Knight entirely - make it so once you master Knight it unlocks Dark Knight in its place.

Certainly can be done although the main difficulty is that most of this will be done in World BIN which lacks documentation when compared to Battle BIN or SCUS.

Not sure the best way since there's far, far more experienced ASM hackers here than me but one way I can think of doing this is through a combination of RAD3 and a new hack (probably bolted onto RAD3). A check would need to be made on the base class, if it replaces non-Squire class then force Squire to be available and assign the base class in place of the non-Squire class. You'd have to do that by doing a check vs. static data contained within your hack. That'd also require setting it up in RAD3 to "Share with" the class you wish it to replace (otherwise its level would be linked with Squire).

Quote from: Arkatros on May 26, 2015, 11:20:24 am
Hi, i am new to the forum. This is in fact my first post ever. I started my own project, re-creating ALL jobs in the game and i have a few questions about what is possible or not to do. My question is more like: I want to do XYZ and i want to know if someone did it already, if it's possible, etc. So, here's my few ideas:

1- I have merged Squire and chemist into a single, basic job for all and i want to know how i can put the item command as an innate skill-set (with his primary skillset) to a job. That means that i want this unit to have his ''squire'' skillset as his primary skillset, to have the item command has an innate skillset AND so he can have a secondary, other skillset.

This is possible.

You have to be careful though, there is a limit to how many innate skillsets you can add but just one is absolutely fine. If you know ASM you can add it yourself in a nice succinct way, else you can use the ALMA spreadsheet hack (search for it on here) to add this.

Joisus.

Never knew this existed. Goddammit now this is ANOTHER hack I -have- to add to my game. Synthesis in FF9 is one of my favourite item-based mechanics.

Absolutely awesome Xif, thank you.

Sorry to necro but felt it's probably better to include a new post as part of this thread (for context) than just create an entirely new one.

Anyone know how to edit these files, especially Frame.BIN, now that Shishi seems to lack the functionality?

Thanks