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Can the FFTA2 Ability Editor be used to replace jobs' skills?

Started by Baron Samedi, September 27, 2017, 02:04:34 pm

Baron Samedi

So I've been lurking the forums here for a few months now, enjoying the hacks of FFTA2, one of my favorite games. I want to create my own hack purely for personal use, nothing too fancy. However, I've run into a bit of an obstacle, so I joined to ask for some help. I want to reimagine the green mage job as a unit that has an assortment of skills only monsters get, like a blue mage but more offensively focused. I noticed in the Ability Editor on the bottom of the screen you have the Race/Index list where it lists what species can learn the skill along with the data offset associated with it.

With this in mind, I figured that if I replaced the data offset of a skill with another, it would take its place in that job's/monster's skillset. I tested this by removing Protect from viera and adding viera to the Miasma monster skill, giving it the same data offset that Protect has for viera (6F). However, when I tested the game, not only was Miasma not in the green mage skillset, there was nothing replacing Protect, it was just gone.

My question then becomes, are skills hardcoded to be locked to their respective skillsets and can't be given to other jobs/creatures? If they are, is there any way to replace an attack's animations so that I can recreate the effects of the desired skill(s) and have the desired animation play? Thanks for any advice you guys have.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
Who Do You Voodoo, Bitch?

Zeke_Aileron

Quote from: Baron Samedi on September 27, 2017, 02:04:34 pm
My question then becomes, are skills hardcoded to be locked to their respective skillsets and can't be given to other jobs/creatures? If they are, is there any way to replace an attack's animations so that I can recreate the effects of the desired skill(s) and have the desired animation play? Thanks for any advice you guys have.


The skills are locked within the skill set list, but you can change the first ability and last ability to make the list of abilities for that job class to have more than 8 skills, and yes you can change an abilities attack animation for the desired ability, but to change any of these you need to do them within a Hex Editor and use the google spreadsheets for the offsets.

Also welcome to the Forums, hopefully this helps in what you're aiming for.  :)
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
  • Discord username: Zeke Aileron™#0606

Baron Samedi

Thanks a lot, that really helps!

I do have another question though; I only have limited experience using hex editors, has someone made a list of the data offset locations for the animations, or will I have to go through them manually to figure out where they are which animation is which?
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
Who Do You Voodoo, Bitch?

Zeke_Aileron

Quote from: Baron Samedi on September 30, 2017, 09:34:31 pm
Thanks a lot, that really helps!

I do have another question though; I only have limited experience using hex editors, has someone made a list of the data offset locations for the animations, or will I have to go through them manually to figure out where they are which animation is which?


You're welcome, and to answer your question for the offsets, there's this post: http://ffhacktics.com/smf/index.php?topic=9486.msg186142#msg186142 courtesy of Lennart his spreadsheets are great and very useful to use.
  • Modding version: Other/Unknown
  • Discord username: Zeke Aileron™#0606