FFTA Abilities Spreadsheet

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

All updates to the spreadsheet will appear in this topic.

Last updated on Saturday, March 10th, 2012.
*Added link to Terrence Fergussen's Battle Mechanics Guide, at GameFAQs, as well as what to search for to reach the relevent part of the guide.
*Exposed the Workspace sheet, where all the concatenation goes on.
*Updated key with Height Factor, Ability Animation, and Ability Effects 1 through 4.
*Changed the compressed archive to a *.ZIP file, so even less technical savvy is required to use the spreadsheet.

Updated on Friday, December 30th, 2011.
*Should now work with Excel.
*Includes a readme.txt with instructions on using the spreadsheet and pasting data into a ROM via hex editor.


Things to do:
*Need more info on what the various bytes do.  I know someone out there knows what they do, so please post in this topic if you do.
*Some of the explanations may need clarification.  Again, I await feedback.
*Need lists of bytes, explanations, and descriptions for Ability Effects and Ability Animations.  For Ability Effects, this means attaching a byte to Terrence Fergussen's explanations and descriptions.  For Ability Animations, this means attaching the name of an ability - or a description of the animation - to the data found in that column.

[pokeytax]

This isn't working in Excel because you used the function CONCATENATE(A1:A100). Excel cannot handle ranges, you have to individually concatenate the cells. (Yes, this is terrible, probably the worst thing about Excel.) If you do want to fix this, the easiest way is to code a custom function (e.g. http://www.vbaexpress.com/kb/getarticle.php?kb_id=817) that accepts ranges to replace the horrible default Excel function.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Bump for update.

[Eternal]

Darth and I are resuming work on FFTA stuff some time in January.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Note to self:

0x0C, 0x0D, 0x0E, and 0x0F in your spreadsheet seem to be the four effects attacks can have. I'll try and decode them from there.

[Naoto]

I don't really know what I'm doing wrong, but I copied the data from the data block and try to insert that data into the address as a hex string using the clipboard... in xvi32, but xvi32 keeps reporting that there is no hex string...  What did I do wrong?

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

What Operating System do you use?  What version of XVI32 do you use?  What spreadsheet editor do you use?

Make sure you don't click into the data cell when you copy it.  Just click on the cell, or, better yet, use the arrow keys to navigate to it, and then copy the data with a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl + c).

Until I know more, that's the only explanation I can think of.

[Naoto]

I've been trying over and over again... and I just can't get this to work.

I am using Windows 7, the 2.53 version of XVI32, and excel

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

I've been trying over and over again... and I just can't get this to work.

I am using Windows 7, the 2.53 version of XVI32, and excel

I'm including a *.ZIP which contains screencaps that tell you exactly what to do.  I don't think you're doing anything wrong, but other people will want it, I'm sure, and it won't hurt to look at it.

So you're using Windows 7 and Excel, but you can't get it to work.  Can you tell me what Cell D2 of the Copy worksheet contains?  Specifically, if it contains numbers and hex letters, or if it contains weird symbols, especially the number symbol (#####)?

If it does contain the number symbol, then you're missing something for Excel which allows you to use hex2dec and dec2hex functions.  I think it's called the Excel analysis toolpack.

If it doesn't contain the number symbol, then try using the other spreadsheets on this site which are for Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1, and then tell me if they work or not.  This will tell me if it's something wrong on your end, or if it's something wrong with my spreadsheet.

[Naoto]

Whenever I click the cell containing the modified data, I see =Workspace!D2.  The number inside it seems to be a hex number.  I'm not sure if this is correct, but I notice that hex strings are inputted in 2-digit pairs (I saw this when I was using XVI32), but this number string is not split up in 2-digit pairs, it's just a single numerical string.

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

Can you screencap it as you copy?  I want to see what you see, and what you copy.

You could be copying the formula =Workspace!D.  Make sure that you click on the cell, but don't click into it.  You want to copy the string, not the formula that generates the string.

It doesn't matter if they're 2 digit pairs (which are called a byte).  It's meant to be a single - very large - string of numbers and the occasional A, B, C, D, or F.

The attachment is what I get when I copy the first data block.  Copy the first data block for yourself, paste it right after the block I pasted, and attach the file to your reply.  Make sure you use Notepad - not Wordpad or Microsoft Word - to edit the attachment to my previous post.  Make sure you have word wrap or text wrap turned off in Notepad, too.

[Naoto]

I tried again and it still doesnt work...

What do you mean by make sure you use Notepad and disallow word wrap?

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

I updated my previous post to clarify what I meant RE notepad and word/text wrap.  But I don't really need that, because I can see that it copied correctly, in your clipboard, so it must not be pasting correctly.  This is either an error in Windows 7, or an error in XVI32.

I recommend you try another hex editor, and then tell me the results.  Hexecute comes to mind, but there are a ton just a google search away, so it shouldn't be hard to find three or four and test them.  Do you want me to find them for you?

If it works with another hex editor, then I have a bug report for the guy who wrote XVI32.  If it doesn't work with another hex editor, then I have to find a Windows 7 help forum.

[Naoto]

Do you have any recommendations for which hex editor to use?

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/206/
^Hexecute.

http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/574/
http://www.softcircuits.com/cygnus/fe/
^Cygnus.  I'm not sure if it can paste gigantic strings.  There might be a newer version at the Cygnus site.  It's probably not free.

http://www.romhacking.net/utilities/291/
^WindHex32

http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/
^HxD

http://www.hhdsoftware.com/free-hex-editor
^Neo

http://frhed.sourceforge.net/en/
^Frhed.  You want either the zip file, which you can unzip where you like and use it from there, or the install executable, which will install it on your computer, so you can access it from the programs menu.

[Naoto]

So... after a bit of time, I decided to instead use my main computer instead of my mobile laptop.  Still using Windows 7 and Microsoft Excel, everything works with HxD!   Thanks for helping.  In any case, I'll leave here with one piece of information I found that I didn't see so far, I think that 0x14 is the graphical effect for each skill.  For example, 0x49 maps to Madeen's graphics that occur when Madeen is used.  Hope this is helpful!

[Pickle Girl Fanboy]

So... after a bit of time, I decided to instead use my main computer instead of my mobile laptop.  Still using Windows 7 and Microsoft Excel, everything works with HxD!

So it was something wrong with your laptop?

Could you try it on your main computer, using XVI32, and tell me if it works?  And could you also try it on your laptop, using HxD, and tell me if that works, too?

I want to know if I should recommend HxD for Windows 7 users, and if the problem was with XVI32 or not.

Thanks for helping.

No problem.  That's why the spreadsheet exists.  I couldn't claim to be helping people if I made the spreadsheet, and then didn't help people use it, could I?

In any case, I'll leave here with one piece of information I found that I didn't see so far, I think that 0x14 is the graphical effect for each skill.  For example, 0x49 maps to Madeen's graphics that occur when Madeen is used.  Hope this is helpful!

And thank you for the feedback!

[Ethereal Embrace]

Looking at the data in http://datacrystal.romhacking.net/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Tactics_Advance:Abilities, I found out that the unknown between aura/area and power should be the height factor.

[Ethereal Embrace]

So it is unclear as to what determine an ability's affect (healing, damage, magic damage, status)?  That to me seems to be the most important bit of info we need to get to truly change this game.

[Eternal]

Power is Column M on the spreadsheet. Status is determined by a property. Each ability has one or more properties, such as Inflict Poison, Steal Gil, Heal HP, etc. Darth has a list of those somewhere.